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Today at work I completed an hour-long employee harassment training advertised as requiring 30 minutes. Now I'd like to know who to report the harassment of my harassment training to.
I work for a small company with fewer than 50 employees, but we were purchased by an aggregator a couple of years ago (based in another state) and now we're getting the treatment you expect from a large company. Our little team has some long-timers who have moved around together and reformed after the big company purchasers started imposing Big Stupid. We're highly specialized and use materials not easily relocated, which makes the breakaway possible. I suspected our small group would not bend to this nonsense -- at least we'd take our time about it, since we know each other well and are respectful without needing a periodic struggle session.
However, according to the training, these are federally protected minorities based on race, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, and "religion" -- by which they obviously mean any religion not Judaism or Christianity and their basis in reality. These laws are not meant to protect me from being bullied into using someone's "preferred pronouns" (which, btw, if you make up some snarky preferred pronouns (mine would be "the correct ones"), you're the one guilty of discrimination/harassment).
I'm reading Essays of a Catholic by Hilaire Belloc, in which his first essay is on the New Paganism. In it he expounds on doctrine being the fountainhead of politics and law. And, as it relates to Christianity, I note that the Church's right understanding of human anthropology has been overthrown by the new paganism such that a woman is what someone feels about himself/herself apart from his/her biological reality. To which I have one response -- Nuts!
Now, I'm in a position to quit this job if the harassment continues or worsens. But, I feel for young people living in such an insane world -- my kids among them. They're being bullied into lefty, post-Christian paganism -- which is much worse than the ancient variety, since we in the West know what works for human dignity and flourishing and are throwing it all away.
Discussion (51)
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Yes, that's what the Party requires,
WinstonWestern. You must pretend to believe, and you'd better be convincing.To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
My sister’s company was bought up by a larger one and is subjected to the same thing. HR feminists have ruined the work environment for most sane people. Just let us do our jobs, please. Our mothers taught us to be nice to our fellow human beings and that’s all that matters.
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The struggle sessions where I worked started a few years before I retired. When it was a large group, around 100 participants, it was fairly easy to ignore the nonsense. During Covid it was fairly easy to ignore most of the zoom meeting nonsense. But then, they began meeting in smaller groups. In circles. (Let me tell you how much I loathe circles. Never mind, take too much time.) There was more of an expectation to participate. In one, I started to get involved in the discussions, realized how pointless any opposing point of view would be, and shut down. I visited with my supervisor after that, told her that I would not be attending another session like that because I believed the New Age aspects were simply a form of paganism in which I would not participate. Some were more neutral, focused on education rather than workery (yes, really), or I happened to be sick on those days. But nearer my retirement, I was assigned to a session (in a circle!) which basically started out as a therapy session to explore our feelings about our whiteness. When it got to my turn, I said "I cannot do this" and walked out. I went to my office to catch up on my actual work, and my supervisor came up to talk with me later. I again explained that I have work to do and was not interested in a group therapy session with strangers (albeit colleagues that I knew). She did not force the issue, and I am glad I was able to retire before it got worse. There were few of my co-workers who understood what the big deal was, or why my reaction was so strong. I believe that if a few more workers would just get up and leave, some of this would cease.
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I know the labor market is not as tight as it was a couple of years ago, but I'm probably not the only older potential worker who looked at all the woke and DEI nonsense in corporate America and decided to stay out of the paid labor force (employee or consulting). So I have no sympathy for companies that complain how hard it is to find experienced workers. Companies chased us away.
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I'm so gonna get fired. I've already decided I'll quit if they insist on tagging our email signatures with our "preferred pronouns." I'd miss the people and the work, but it has me thinking about the ethics of cottage industries -- working for oneself providing goods and services people are willing to pay for.
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