Corporations, take note: What Not to Use for your Court-ordered Sexual Harassment Awareness class

[cmk418]

So on Friday we finally were hit with the effects of my former co-worker's lawsuit:

The head of HR thought it was a good idea to share the following in her introduction. My comments are in italics:

MY M&M’s and me

I have always liked M&M’s
The most diverse multicultural integrated candy in the world.
You have your red ones, your yellow ones, your orange ones, your brown ones, and your green ones. *here she added a clunky phrase about the 'blue ones' just so they wouldn't be left out*
All in one package
All coexisting together
One color doesn’t discriminate against the other.
One color doesn’t think that it is superior to the other.
All colors are the same size, shape and weight. because they are plain and rather boring
All colors look different on the outside but have the same ingredients on the inside.
M&M’s all have the same flavor and they all taste
G-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-D she shorted this to just 3 o's, but it still was pretty goofy
Not all M&M’s are perfect though.
Some have nuts!!! inner eight-year-old boy "she said nuts"
In the real world we call them racists and bigots. WTF, lady? In the real world, they're damn delicious
Wouldn’t it be nice if like M&M’s our prejudices melted into the abyss like chocholate melts in our mouth
and all people were judged by what was inside rather than the color you see on the outside?
this is insane
If candy can be prejudice free WHY CAN’T WE? I lost the paper this was on, so I googled it, still don't have the right author credit, just know that it wasn't me or the staff HR person that did it

This stuff might have worked when I was five. And seriously, you're just going to throw out the phrase "some have nuts"? During a subject where are minds are already subconsciously tuned toward the sex that we're not supposed to be thinking about? Thank god, she wasn't going for a gym class or barnyard analogy.

And none of that really matters anyway, because those of us who saw my former co-worker get drummed out of there for making an accusation pretty much know that there's nothing that HR would do for us if we filed anything of our own.

And then the ED came up and said that we were still having budget issues and that it was 'survival of the fittest' time, but that we should still work together as a team. Utterly ridiculous, but that's the place where I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Comments

[tptigger.livejournal.com]

Grr argh. *hugs* (Time to start job hunting again?)

[cmk418]

No kidding! Updating my resume has been on my agenda for ages, seems like now is a good time to do it.

[natlet]

Omg. Total rage-face. There is NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING I hate more than the "But we're all the saaaaame!" approach to tolerance. WE'RE NOT ALL THE SAME. THAT'S WHAT'S SO AWESOME ABOUT US.

And it's not like it's hard to explain "Don't be a gigantic ass" without cutesy candy analogies. Omg. I am so sorry you have to put up with that ridiculousness.

[cmk418]

The ridiculousness has been there since day one, but sometimes the heights it gets taken surprises even me.

[levitatethis.livejournal.com]

For crying out loud. I don't even know where to start with this (love your comments btw). Way to take something serious and reduce it to a childish level that doesn't even work. Besides how condescending it is to talk to adults about something serious as if they're in kindergarten this person has completely missed the lesson we all learned as we grew up -- difference is not a bad thing. It's how we learn to see beyond ourselves, how we learn to open our minds up, how we begin to challenge the way things are for how they could be. That has nothing to do with someone being an asshole -- cause he's a peanut M&M???

[cmk418]

Peanut M&Ms are apparently the devil's candy.

How can they talk about diversity and want everyone to be the same? Maybe I should have told her that she offended the non-conformists in the room. (Sadly, our HR director seems like the type where I would have to define the term "non-conformist".)

[ellu-ellu.livejournal.com]

*goes into diabetic coma*

[cmk418]

More sickening than sweet though.

[neonsharpie.livejournal.com]

Couldn't she have said that plainly without dragging candy into the mix? I realize you're all adults at a professional workplace, but how is anyone supposed to take that sort of lecture seriously?

[cmk418]

Honestly, the way the whole case has shaken out, the HR director has treated it like a joke from the beginning, so really she could have said anything in the lecture, so long as she had us sign the forms saying that we were present at the class.