At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment and Bias Complaints

Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by tdb7893 on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:34AM (#14401529)

In a workplace you are talking to a colleague that you respect. In my experience "princess" is either used to refer to a child or someone who is spoiled and weak. It's really all about context, if I call my friend a "cunt" at home when he uses a blue shell in MarioKart no one is uncomfortable but if I used it in the workplace it's a huge problem and will make people really uncomfortable.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by scott_s on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:51AM (#14401703)

"Making fun of" someone at work is harassment.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by pavel_lishin on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:51AM (#14401696)

Context matters, and we have none. It could either be an incredibly rude thing to say, or an inside joke between the two people.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by Frondo on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @12:17PM (#14402500)

And the fact that it's on that list suggests that the recipient didn't like it. Why call someone a name they don't like? Who gets anything out of that interaction?

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by arethuza on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:27AM (#14401440)

"Princess" in the UK at least would be pretty offensive in that context - I wouldn't dream of calling a colleague that.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by jk563 on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:33AM (#14401511)

Depends on the colleague, I have done that and similar many times previously and had similar back.

The comment is made, we laugh, he has his salad, I eat my burger, we moved on to something else.

(UK)

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by Chris2048 on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @11:05AM (#14401836)

No it wouldn't. Try spending some time further up north.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by arethuza on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @11:53AM (#14402247)

I'm in Scotland :-)

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by Chris2048 on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @05:15PM (#14405425)

and find that offensive?!

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by arethuza on Wednesday May 24, 2017 @05:11AM (#14408617)

No - I wouldn't find that offensive (I've been called far far worse things in a work context) - but I'd be very worried about potentially causing offense, more for the sake of politeness than the HR impact.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by camus2 on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:22AM (#14401396)

> Can you explain specifically whats wrong with the comment.

Obviously casual sexism. Friend or not that's not professional to call a colleague that way at the workplace.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by pythonaut_16 on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:35AM (#14401543)

If it's a friend there's probably some flexibility depending on the context of the friendship.

But if the "friend" feels the need to file a complaint rather than talk to the person about it then clearly the comment wasn't appropriate.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by jaclaz on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:42AM (#14401617)

... or it was simply misunderstood/taken the "wrong" way by someone particularly touchy.

I can understand most of the listed complains, but both the "princess" reference and the one about the hairdressers sending supposedly racists code messages sound more like if some problems are also somehow with the people that complained.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by DanBC on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @10:45AM (#14401656)

> by someone particularly touchy.

No. It's okay to say this to someone you know well and who you know won't mind. But the default position is "don't say this", and so the people who have a strong negative response to it are not "particularly touchy", they're normal.

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Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by jaclaz on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @12:40PM (#14402730)

I agree on the "default position", though I cannot see anything so inappropriate to justify a HR call or a complain to the (official or unofficial) company list, at the very most a comment like that could have provoked some snappy response and an immediate - on the spot - clarification between the parties, at least between "normal" (adult) people. That would be a "normal" reaction as I see it, saying nothing then writing to the list a complain seems to me like the act of someone that either has experienced much more serious "name calling" (or some other untold offence) or that is a tad bit oversensitive.

Most probably normality - like beauty - is in the eye of the beholder.

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[dead]

Re:At Google, an Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment a... by Goronmon on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @12:09PM (#14402410)

Do you walk around all day perpetually offended at everything, or are you just like this on tuesdays?

You have to see the irony in making this comment while whining about SJWs and comparing them to 'soviets'.

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