» Bullies

How to turn things to your own advantage..........
*pop*
Hope this doesn't give the game away too much, but here goes......
~~~~~~~~

I worked, for a while, in a fairly male-dominated environment. It was also a lab. As is the way in these places, there was a fairly high level of office 'banter', which sometimes got a little out of control. I was asked by my boss (a good guy), to let him know if I ever felt myself to be a victim of bullying or sexism in the workplace.

I told him then what I tell you now - the banter was harsh but friendly, others took more stick than me for less easily-labeled reasons. And I never experienced any true discrimination on the grounds of gender. (On the grounds of being an idiot, maybe, but not gender.)

Nevertheless, sometimes things got a little too one-sided, and a little grating. One particular day, things got a bit out of control. Myself and a (male)friend decided we had to act. We invented -

Sexism Tuesday.

With that one idea, we reduced sexism by 80% in the office.
The best part of this was that people started to self-censor. Angry rants would tail off into '.......oh, shit, it's not Tuesday, is it?'. And everybody was able to keep joking, but to let people know when they'd had enough. Of course, it tailed off eventually, as these things do, but never mind.....


The moral? - Sometimes, being able to turn things into a joke stops a situation getting out of hand. It remains my finest achievement over those 2 years.


Be nice, its my first time....

spoons
(Fri 15th May 2009, 10:07, More)