Harrassed on the Job
January 9, 2012
HANNON writes:
I thought I would share my experience of an online “sexual harassment training” session that my employer recently mandated. This was the first statement that hinted that my worst fears would be amply confirmed during this exercise:
“Many long established social patterns are built upon traditions emphasizing sexual inequality and an imbalance of power.”
Okay, not too horrible. The explication of what sexual harassment is and how it can be viewed is fairly good, with consideration of some interesting variables.
Then a timeline appears that purports to offer a history of how we got to where we are now with regard to this subject and the program lands on another planet. It reads like a feminist’s fantasy version of U.S. history, citing the key steps leading to universal suffrage, the founding of of the NAACP and Planned Parenthood, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in Chicago, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan and Anita Hill among other notable moments. A sample of companion text for one of these reads:
“The agency’s eventual popularization of the birth control pill revolutionizes women’s reproductive control and directly increases the number of women in the workforce.”
Only a small part of the way through this thing and my blood pressure is exploding. I did not see any place where the producers claim to be unbiased in their approach, but the unilateral feminist-liberal message is crystal clear. Did they imagine no one would be skeptical or offended at these gross assumptions? That no one would question the relevance of these diversions to “sexual harassment”? I have heard that others who have already completed this training say it is “a big improvement” over previous versions. Well, I can tell you that nothing like the propaganda I have cited above was included in those former versions.
I am tempted to protest and demand a version that does not offend my principles or religion. What do you think?
Laura writes:
What possible relevance could birth control and the work of a neurotic French feminist or a Marxist housewife have to your job? This would be funny if it were a scene in a futurist, dystopian novel, if you were but only a character in a play.
Think of the wasted time, not to mention the stunning idiocy and deviancy of this corporate material. Communism clogged up the Soviet economy with propaganda. That’s what liberalism does too.
It is best to protest of course, but you may have to pay a serious price. As it is, we don’t live under a brutal regime, but under a soft one, which is in some ways worse. You might lose your job or chances of promotion. That risk produces an immense silencing effect, and it’s understandable.
— Comments —
James P. writes:
If Hannon works for a corporation that’s anything like mine, then the HR department is a dumping ground for leftist females, often of a “diverse” variety. Protesting to them about idiotic leftist propaganda would be worse than useless.
Fortunately, most of our “training” of that sort is online. I can let the inane video run with the sound muted while I flip through a magazine and nobody will notice that I’m not paying the slightest attention.
I always get a chuckle from the company’s pronouncements of its commitment to excellence and its commitment to diversity. These commitments are so often at odds with one another.
Hannon writes:
The reaction of co-workers is depressing. This program was obviously approved by higher ups and so they are complicit in, as you say, a soft tyranny.
James P.’s comment reminds me that I must inquire to see if we are committed to diversity!
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