Apparently the tides are turning as 4 out of 5 British men say that they’ve been sexually harassed by women at work. Making matters worse, 85% of employers admit that they take complaints of sexual harassment from men less seriously than from women employees.
Great… so basically this means both men and women are being way too uptight at work now. What ever happened to just having to watch what you say around women? Hopefully this is just a British thing, though the whole political correctness movement seems to have much more momentum that I would have ever thought.
File that under mandatory sensitivity training is on the horizon.
Tags: sexual harassment
I didn’t know it was still a mystery for some, but a US court just ruled that managers asking receptionists to get coffee for them is not a discriminatory act.
I know it may be demeaning to have to grab coffee for your boss, but if you’ve signed on as a receptionist, aren’t you sort of expecting various fetch and prepare type tasks? If you don’t like it, quit and find a different job. Seems simple enough to me, though I guess these days it’s more like, quit (or get fired for refusing in this case), sue, then find a new place to work. Good to know some courts still wear their common sense hats for these cases.
File that under go fetch me a Mountain Dew!
Tags: receptionist, fetching coffee
I don’t think it helps IT stereotypes much when new information reveals that one-third of IT employees admit to secretly snooping on coworkers. What kind of info are they sneaking a peak at? Oh just minor things like salary information and personal emails. 47 percent admit to having accessed at least some sort of information that was not relevant to their role in the company.
I don’t think this new study reveals anything we didn’t already assume. 33% actually seems a bit low to me, though I guess it is a job threatening act, so 1 of 3 risking their jobs just to check out some emails does seem kind of crazy. Perhaps sending porn to your buddies via your company email isn’t such a good idea anymore?
File that under don’t piss off your IT coworkers.
Tags: snooping on coworkers, it professionals
Child pornography is a hot topic right now. I’m sure most people would agree that if an employee is found to have child porn on their work computer, they should be fired immediately. Of course, what happens when that person wasn’t the one who downloaded that porn? For Michael Fiola, the fact that a virus was the cause of the porn apparently doesn’t change things for his career as a Department of Industrial Accidents investigator.
I can kind of understand a company being quick to pull the trigger on firing the guy before figuring out how the porn got there, but now that they know, how the heck can they stand by their initial decision? I’m usually very against people suing their former employers for their termination, but in this case, the guy totally deserves getting paid. Not only was he fired, but his name was dragged through the mud as a child pornography watcher. And even after it was been proven that not only was it not him who downloaded the porn, but a virus that was let run loose by faulty security on the computer that was setup by the company!
File that under viruses are pedophiles.
Tags: computer virus
A new study has revealed that 60% of Canadian employees have used their office printer for personal use. That number may seem high initially, until you check out the top personal use - printing out maps and directions - with 59 per cent of employees admitted they do so using the office printer.
I’m wondering how that number isn’t significantly higher considering just about everybody I know has used the office printer for at least some sort of personal reason. Most of the other personal uses listed on the survey seem about right; online purchase confirmations, personal emails, and news articles each with 39-40% of employees. 20 percent apparently use the printer for color photos, something I have yet to see. And of course, 1 percent admin to using the printer for their own resumes - something that definitely takes guts.
File that under personal use is office use.
Tags: office printers
A recent study of 18-24 year olds has revealed that 39% would consider quitting their jobs if their office banned Facebook. Along with that number 21 percent say they would be annoyed by such a ban.
Hmm… using my amazing mathemathical genius, I have deduced that 60% of 18-24 year old office workers actually use Facebook, and use it enough to miss it quite a bit if they couldn’t use it in the office. I’m only a few years above that 24 year old mark and I have yet to ever use Facebook and still don’t see the value of most of the social networks out there (ok, so I used LinkedIn for a bit, but couldn’t care less about being able to access it at work).
I can understand being slightly annoyed at your favorite social network being blocked at work, but to actually consider quitting over it? Maybe they don’t really like their job in the first place or something… I just don’t get it.
File that under quitbook.
Tags: facebook, social networks
It seems that there’s a new lawsuit each week about a woman complaining about sexual harassment in the workplace, so when it’s a man behind the suit, things get interesting.
Ok, so the guy is a homosexual working at a church - something that seems a little odd right from the start. Isn’t that almost like a woman wanting to be a boyscout leader or something? I’m going to guess the guy could have found a much less hostile working environment. Of course I’m not defending the woman’s actions as it does seem like she is slightly over-obsessed with sex, but I’m not sure exactly what the man was thinking choosing to work for an organization that’s not so comfortable with his life choices.
In 2005, Maine’s nuclear safety inspector position was eliminated by the Legislature. Oddly, the funding for that position has been a little slow catching up so Patrick Dostie, the state’s current nuclear safety inspector, will continue to receive his $71,000 a year salary.
If you read the full story, you’ll see that the whole ordeal has some rather suspicious motivations by certain politicians. I’m sure all the residents of Maine would love to know that part of their taxes are going to pay for a job that hasn’t technically existed for a few years.
File that under your taxes at work.
Tags: nuclear safety inspector, Maine, taxes
If you’ve got a job where constant smiling is required, you may want to check out this story. Apparently, a German psychologist is claiming that smiling too often can cause stress, depression, and heart problems.
Ok, so you clearly need to take this story with a grain of salt, but maybe you should bookmark so that next time your boss asks you to smile more, you can tell him you’re just watching your health.
File that under frowning saves lives.
Tags: smiling, stress
Last week a study was released in the UK saying that 80% of employers believe that alcohol is the biggest threat to their staff. A substute teacher in Texas has proven that it’s also a big problem here in the United States when he showed up to teach one day but was found to be so drunk that he couldn’t complete a sobriety test.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that his license plate reads “IMBLZT”? Ok, so he claims that it’s supposed to stand for “I’m blessed” - but I’m gonna go ahead and call BS on that one.
File that under IMARSTD.
Tags: public intoxication, substitute teacher
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