News item
‘Friends’ Assistant’s Lawsuit Tests The Borders Between Creativity, Sexual Harassment
The key thing I see is that the assistant was forewarned that there would be “locker room” language.
And if that’s not allowed, then what becomes of actual locker rooms?
Will we require managers to force sanitized speech there as well?
I also wonder whether it would be a “hostle envirnment” if a religiously minded assistant were subjected to simple swearing?
I.e., would the government become involved in punishing for blasphemy?
I feel for her, but I think she should have just quit when she found out that it wasn’t going to work for her. Its not like she’s invested a whole lot of her time in her job in order to claim that she has some sort of right to it.
This is clearly not a case of sexual harrassment. A female cheerleader hanging out in the high school boy’s team locker room after the game just has to accept the coarse language and behaviour which is characteristic of that group.
AS a bright young thing of 16 I went to work in a machine shop [hey, it wa $2 more an hour than the puffy little ‘executive assistant’ position I had been in…] and as a result I can curse with the best of them. Heck, if I forget myself, I turn into that line from Long Kiss Goodnight What I’m saying is, back when we first met, you were all like “Oh phooey, I burned the darn muffins.” Now, you go into a bar, ten minutes later, sailors come runnin’ out. What up with that?
Though I will admit, most women get upset at obscene jokes and foul language, but words are just words. THey have only the power that you give them. I can give back insults if given to me. [I am overweight, and an ex coworker made a disparaging comment about fat girls and not getting dates so I pointed out how he would never know whether or not I or any other fat girl could give the worlds best blowjob because he was only looking on the outside. Turned out a few months later he started dating a fat girl, and they are now married. I guess she must give one hell of a blowjob <evil grin>] I do agree that in an office environment, foul languages and obscene jokes really don’t have a place, most women are not receptive to either of them, and you run into a higher proportion of women with no ability to let something slide with a ‘please dont use that language in front of me’ but will instead run to HR at the drop of a hat. I firmly believe in tryig to settle something personally before running to HR.
Try imagining a secretary at a porno company doing the same.
What is one of the guys on the team is not comfortable with that?
Well I’m sure that your question gigi has come up many times before. Lots of boys raised in religious homes have had to wince and bear it when it comes to locker room language. There is just no point in drawing attention to your discomfort. If you did, you would only be subjected to much more of the same.
What do you mean by simple swearing, and how does it differ from the more complex variety?
Companies should enforce their own decency standards, and deal with these kinds of issues internally. She knew what she was getting into when she took the job.