So if you're sick of working there, become an activist! Sounds awesome :)

So if you're sick of working there, become an activist! Sounds awesome :)

Well, as long as the severance money holds out, yeah.

Any behavior you reward, you will get more of; and, Prices rise over time; and, By establishing a precedent, you create rights and expectations.

These are management truisms and polite ways of saying that paying people to leave because they are engaging in behavior which disrupts the workplace and, after a warning, if continued, should result in a firing for cause, is a really bad, and singularly stupid idea. It’s encouraging every employee to have the attitude of “Nice business ya got there. Be a shame iff’n sumth’n was ta happ’n ta it.”

Wfjag, I see your point, but these people are being "rewarded" with unemployment. A few months of severance softens the blow, but it's still a bad trajectory to be on.

And ... the activists on staff who don't opt for the severance will have to a) quit the agitation and get back to work, or b) risk being fired if they keep it up. I imagine the severance offer is a one-time, short-term thing to usher a few current employees out the door. Eventually it will probably be replaced with a set policy prohibiting such activity.

I've been thinking for a while that the best ad any business -- say, an airline -- could run is one that says, "We have one mission: to fly you safely from where you are to where you want to go. No politics, no messages, no activism -- just a safe, fast flight with a professional crew." People who are tired of employees with political buttons and t-shirts, or opinions about their customers' buttons and t-shirts, would flock to any business with that approach.

No, no, no.

You don't fire them and tell them they're a bunch of social justice warriors because that's gonna bite you back when they go cry to the """journalists""" and the department of labor.

You always go for a polite, nebulous way, and save the evidence for when their neurons finally do something other than Twitter gotchas and decide to sue you. The other option is for wait until their contract expires and you decide to not renew it.

Remember: These drones not only have a hive mind, but are also part of a swarm and they're everywhere.

And if you, as a worker, are going to complain that certain co-workers get to talk loudly about sensitive political subjects while you are not allowed, then NO one should be allowed, really, unless it's work-related. What's wrong with that?

This doesn't just apply to the workplace, btw.

As MonicaP said here in 2013:

"Miss Manners is right. There's too much danger in discussing politics in social settings because people often can't be civil about it, even when they believe they ARE being civil about it. And it ends up being a game of trying to change each other's minds, which is a terrible game to play with people who don't want to play.

"Besides, we all have this fantasy that we have the most well-reasoned argument available, and if we just explained our position to the rest of the world, everyone but the most stupid and broken among us would see the truth for what it is.

"We're all morons."

(She was referring to this MM column, which I had posted):

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-01-01-9801010196-story.html

Last paragraphs:

"...Lightly held views and topics of no tremendous weight to those present may be bandied about pleasantly. People who trust one another enough to be able to discuss one of the supercharged topics peacefully (possibly because they are superpolite in spite of their differences, but more likely because they are all on the same side) may also do so without interference from etiquette, which knows enough not to disturb people who are having a good time.

"But confirmations of opinions already held and exercises in faking respect for people whose stupid or vicious opinions differ from one's own should not be confused with meaningful exchanges.

"So it isn't Miss Manners who is banning the casual airing of important topics; it is human nature."

And if you're wondering when and where one DOES get to talk about politics, religion, sex, private money matters, etc., the answers are: newspaper editorial pages, classrooms, courtrooms, debate stages, and other special meetings. As MM once said in an earlier column, "if you invite people over to play poker, they are not allowed to demand to play soccer instead." I.e., when you're the host, you get to make the rules, and when you're the guest, you can only accept or decline - and you do NOT get to assume that touchy subjects will be permissible to discuss unless the host said so in advance.

Holy cow how'd you dig up a comment from seven years ago?

NicoleK - my long-term memory is still good, even if my short-term memory is not. So all I have to do is remember the right key phrase.

(But I often wonder why googling typically works better than searching on a keyword/phrase within this blog. When googling, however, one has to add "Alkon.")

Also, from a Dec. 2017 thread, in which I quoted from a column by journalist Renée Graham - now in her mid-late 50s, I think:

12 Mar 2017

"...I once worked with a woman who was so upset about a sexist remark made by a male co-worker that she reported him to their supervisor. He was briefly suspended, and some men were resentful that this woman dared to complain at all. While discussing the issue, a male colleague said to me, 'God, remember the days when you could just say anything?'

"Without hesitation, I said, 'No.'

"I had never known a time when I could just say anything, not as a black woman in a world I saw as predominately white and male. My opinion was rarely solicited and certainly not valued, so I kept it to myself. After years of both implicit and explicit silencing, when I finally found the confidence to speak my mind, that liberation overwhelmed me. Yet initially I only understood that I had a voice; how to use it effectively came later through writing, debates, and peaceful protests..."

The bank I worked for had a "keep it professional" policy. I gave it that name, I don't remember the real name. And you unless you were really friends you kept it work related or very neutral like the weather.

speed test

speed test

speed test

speed test

speed test