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Author Topic: When Tolerance Becomes Intolerance  (Read 1658 times)

Mervap

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When Tolerance Becomes Intolerance
« on: March 24, 2013, 05:44:52 pm »



I was at work on Friday and during our 'safety breakfast', a topic came up which I feel can be addressed here...in fact, I would welcome some input.

The topic was "Workplace Harassment". Harass or harassment is defined by Webster's dictionary this way:

1 a: exhaust, fatigue b (1): to annoy persistently (2): to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
2: to worry and impede by repeated raids <harassed the enemy>

We were informed that harassment based upon, but not limited to, the following protected groups, could be grounds for dismissal: Age, Disability, Pregnancy, Race/color, Gender, National origin, Religion and Veteran status. A "zero-tolerance" stance was taken on this.

Now, I'll start by saying that I understand that there are terrible people in the workplace whose sole aim is to prey on the less 'worldly' among us...I also understand that this mechanism is put in place to protect these groups from the terrible people. It is both right and admirable that we, as a people, have done this, as it shows compassion and thoughtfulness.

What troubles me is that there are also terrible people who have begun to use this mechanism as a weapon...people who claim harassment where there was none to acheive their own ends, whether it be revenge, advancement or just meaness. Zero-tolerance means that there is no room for reason...once you start down that road, lives begin to be destroyed.

There is a truism I've heard that "Sometimes the cure is worse than the cancer"....as I sat there in the meeting, I couldn't help but wonder about that. Then they passed around a sheet of paper for us to sign saying we agreed to this policy...and that by signing, we were subject to this "Zero-tolerance" policy. I started getting angry...so, I asked, "Hypothetically, if somebody doesn't sign this, what would happen?". I was informed that not signing was not an option....I got angrier....( I should say here that I detest being put on the spot or pushed into a corner)...when I asked again, I was told that not signing was grounds for dismissal. Now, all legal proceedings aside, does this not fit the very definition of the behavior we are trying to prevent? Or is harassment ok if the company or institution in question does it?

The (happy?) ending of this story is that I asked the boss again later and explained why I was asking....I was told that this whole she-bang had something to do with the company's 'insurance liability', that if one of us engaged in the types of behavior described, the company would not be a party to any lawsuit.

We all know that in any random group of people, the definition of what is acceptable behavior differs widely. I'll give an example: I have a friend at work who is, by accepted definition, African-American...we joke around about many things, and sometimes, to get a laugh from him, I have been known to use 'street language' and to say those things in the most straight-laced way possible...i.e. "I am most certainly down with that, G." or "Now THAT is what I am talking about." He feels this is both funny and acceptable. I did this same thing to another person, again African-American, and the results were.....not so much. We talked about it and I explained what I meant, and my apology was graciously accepted....he could just as easily gone to the boss and gotten me fired. I will certainly not say anything of that sort to anybody except my buddy again.

Having said that, do we really want everyone walking around worrying about this? I come from a very different background than others, and likewise them from mine. Couldn't we just BE tolerant of others ways, and celebrate those differences? Dang...I sound like James Kirk! 

Opinions?
 



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Keri

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Re: When Tolerance Becomes Intolerance
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2013, 10:26:38 pm »

I have had a bit of experience here and what I can say (and there is much that I won't say) is that while work places claim to have zero tolerance, they actually don't. Harassment is not easy to deal with, I feel they would do better trying to write policies that were realistic.
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Greg

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Re: When Tolerance Becomes Intolerance
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2013, 04:30:55 pm »

I have found this in my experience:

All this blustery talk of an organization is rarely practiced.  Certain rules that were supposed to be in place, all of a sudden, are ignored when it suits certain people.

I think most of this stuff is based on lawsuit avoidance.  They aren't really concerned with the well-being of people.

All the abuse of this stuff. like you mentioned, ends up hurting people who really are harassed.

It's hard to stop harassment.  Some ladies at my employment made it so miserable for another lady, through subtle harassment, that she had to transfer.  Super hard to legislate people's actions.
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