Catherine wrote: > We've had this same training at work. It does open > some people's minds to the possibility that some of > what they might think is OK to joke about can be > offensive to others, and it's fine to sensitize people > to that - at the very least, they become aware that > THE world isn't necessarily THEIR world - not everyone > thinks the same way about things.
That is true. However, in the case of my particular firm, which had a large practice in civil and employment rights, and a disproportionate amount of sensitive and highly educated people, it would have been rare or impossible to find someone bigoted or prone to making stupid remarks or jokes. The sensitivity training came as a result of one woman, who had serious psychological problems, who would accuse every lawyer who gave her a bad review of sexually harassing her. She was using it as a weapon to intimidate the firm and hold on to her job. Probably not all places of employment are so vigilant, but in the case of law firms, a stained reputation can cause them to dissolve overnight. Allegations of discrimination or hostile work environment can lead to not only private complaints, but intervention by the Dept. of Labor - who can come in and literally shut down a business and seize its computers and records on a moment's notice for employment violations. Email that is deleted by an individual is never really deleted and still lives on the system. I have always felt that the firms don't care about the goofing off as much as they care about potential liability problems that can put them out of business. > Even though I understand the logic of this, one of the > things that bothers me about this is, what if someone, > out of sheer maliciousness, sent you something by > e-mail, like something really pornographic? You have > no control over this and yet you might possibly be > blamed for it. At the places I've worked they have addressed this by asking people to immediate report any such unwanted or unsolicited emails. That way, they can take steps to get it off the system quickly before it becomes buried and irretrievable. There is some kind of software now that does capture anything suspicious before it goes to the inbox, too. Back to the sensitivity training - ours was a bit over the top. For example, if I wish someone a Happy St. Patrick's Day, I could be accused of hostilely imposing my ethnic and religious beliefs on someone. Kind of ridiculous, but that's what it has come to in some cases. Kakki
