Things not to say at work....

[psuro]

so....work with an older engineer named Charlie. He is 78 years old, and has been around for a long time - a bit of a curmudgeon, and definitely not interested in keeping up with societal norms. He only works a couple of days per week, so he does not really interface much with the younger staff. He is also a bit of a rascal.

Yesterday, we had a small get together for a young lady who had announced her pregnancy. When he found out she was pregnant, Charlie, in his usual rascally self said "So, you got bit by the trouser snake, huh? Guess he hissed at you pretty good."

It got very quiet in the break room.

Charlie usually works on Fridays, but today, he is nowhere to be seen. Management said that he is taking an "extended time off" for the next couple of weeks.

Ouch.

 

[BobPSU92]

 

[TheBigUglies]

Unfiltered old guys rule!!! Not quite old enough to pull that off yet. Definitely not something to say to the oversensitive population these days.

Reminds me of a similar type story with a less oversensitive group. We were in the break room, a middle aged (always grumpy and complaining) coworker was asked about a guy she was dating and replied that she broke it off because he was only trying to get into her pants. An older coworker asked if he was wearing gloves (because she is a very cold person).

Which reminds me of another story when I was in high school. It was a catholic high school so the facilities were old and we were standing in our religion class and a guy classmate makes the statement "It's as cold as a nuns ass in here", to which, unbeknownst to us, our teacher was right behind us and he was a priest, replies "Mr Smith, you obviously don't know some of the nuns I know" (Off topic I know but felt like sharing)

 

[We Are . . .]

so....work with an older engineer named Charlie. He is 78 years old, and has been around for a long time - a bit of a curmudgeon, and definitely not interested in keeping up with societal norms. He only works a couple of days per week, so he does not really interface much with the younger staff. He is also a bit of a rascal.

Yesterday, we had a small get together for a young lady who had announced her pregnancy. When he found out she was pregnant, Charlie, in his usual rascally self said "So, you got bit by the trouser snake, huh? Guess he hissed at you pretty good."

It got very quiet in the break room.

Charlie usually works on Fridays, but today, he is nowhere to be seen. Management said that he is taking an "extended time off" for the next couple of weeks.

Ouch.

I bet an HR type or two soiled their drawers at old Charlie's comment.

 

[Obliviax]

Pretty funny...I cringe when I go to lunch with guys and they call a waitress "sweetheart."

 

[BobPSU92]

Pretty funny...I cringe when I go to lunch with guys and they call a waitress "sweetheart."

And pinch her ass.

I find that is frowned upon these days. What happened?

 

[RU31trap]

Tough call as I can see both sides. Yes, society has gotten way too overly sensitive. I remember a meeting in 1991 where my boss while smoking a pipe made his secretary cry in front of six department heads. She clearly made a big mistake, the kind of mistake that could have gotten her fired, but to dehumanize her to that degree may have been worse.

 

[Frabjous]

TP on the shoe, spinach in the teeth, farts on the elevator, punches an opposing player, it never ends well when an old guy hangs around at work too long.

 

[sluggo72]

Pretty funny...I cringe when I go to lunch with guys and they call a waitress "sweetheart."

Yes I know... so down south we just use the term 'baby girl'!!

 

[Obliviax]

Yes I know... so down south we just use the term 'baby girl'!!

well bless your heart!

 

[NittPicker]

Pretty funny...I cringe when I go to lunch with guys and they call a waitress "sweetheart."

It's anyone's guess what's acceptable nowadays. Sometimes when I go to a casual restaurant the waitress calls me "hon", "dear" or something similar. I don't take offense and I've never seen it as the waitress trying to demean me in any way. Imagine a waiter calling a female patron "hon" or "dear". Pack up your things and get out buddy because you just humiliated the poor woman. Of course that doesn't occur at high class joints, or so I've been told.

 

[Obliviax]

It's anyone's guess what's acceptable nowadays. Sometimes when I go to a casual restaurant the waitress calls me "hon", "dear" or something similar. I don't take offense and I've never seen it as the waitress trying to demean me in any way. Imagine a waiter calling a female patron "hon" or "dear". Pack up your things and get out buddy because you just humiliated the poor woman. Of course that doesn't occur at high class joints, or so I've been told.

True...but things change. I get why some women don't like this...others take it too far.

 

[step.eng69]

.work with an older engineer named Charlie. He is 78 years old, and has been around for a long time - a bit of a curmudgeon, and definitely not interested in keeping up with societal norms.

Here's an old curmudgeon investigationing the load capacity of an existing Philly building roof built around 1900's.

Here's an old curmudgeon's response to your's and other's posts.

 

[rohrmd9]

It's anyone's guess what's acceptable nowadays. Sometimes when I go to a casual restaurant the waitress calls me "hon", "dear" or something similar. I don't take offense and I've never seen it as the waitress trying to demean me in any way. Imagine a waiter calling a female patron "hon" or "dear". Pack up your things and get out buddy because you just humiliated the poor woman. Of course that doesn't occur at high class joints, or so I've been told.

I’m good until they call me “Sir”... then I’m offended. And my wife hates being called “Ma’am”. Do we look THAT old?!?!

 

[fairgambit]

I worked for in small retail outlet back in the 60's and a young lady who was a part time secretary was turning 16, so the employees got together and bought a cake and a few presents. One older guy (50 ish) came with a present of his own, nicely wrapped. Inside the box was one of these along with a little card that said, "Your first screw." The reactions were forced laughs, including the young lady, who accepted it with grace.

 

[OhioLion]

I’m good until they call me “Sir”... then I’m offended. And my wife hates being called “Ma’am”. Do we look THAT old?!?!

Sorry, but I would be offending you and your wife.
Out of respect I refer to most everyone as "sir" and "ma'am". Nurse asking the many questions at an appointment is in her 40's and I'm 56. Answers are, yes, ma'am or, no, ma'am. Men the same way.
Not offending these individuals, just respect in my opinion.

OL

 

[BBrown]

Unfiltered old guys rule!!! Not quite old enough to pull that off yet. Definitely not something to say to the oversensitive population these days.

Reminds me of a similar type story with a less oversensitive group. We were in the break room, a middle aged (always grumpy and complaining) coworker was asked about a guy she was dating and replied that she broke it off because he was only trying to get into her pants. An older coworker asked if he was wearing gloves (because she is a very cold person).

Which reminds me of another story when I was in high school. It was a catholic high school so the facilities were old and we were standing in our religion class and a guy classmate makes the statement "It's as cold as a nuns ass in here", to which, unbeknownst to us, our teacher was right behind us and he was a priest, replies "Mr Smith, you obviously don't know some of the nuns I know" (Off topic I know but felt like sharing)

LMAO.

 

[BBrown]

It's anyone's guess what's acceptable nowadays. Sometimes when I go to a casual restaurant the waitress calls me "hon", "dear" or something similar. I don't take offense and I've never seen it as the waitress trying to demean me in any way. Imagine a waiter calling a female patron "hon" or "dear". Pack up your things and get out buddy because you just humiliated the poor woman. Of course that doesn't occur at high class joints, or so I've been told.

"Hon" is pretty much gender neutral and applied to everyone here in Balto.

 

[joeparules]

Tough call as I can see both sides. Yes, society has gotten way too overly sensitive. I remember a meeting in 1991 where my boss while smoking a pipe made his secretary cry in front of six department heads. She clearly made a big mistake, the kind of mistake that could have gotten her fired, but to dehumanize her to that degree may have been worse.

I still remember my first "Safety Training" session at my first real (post-college) job with the government in 1985. They packed every employee into a meeting hall down the street and showed a film that had to be from the 1950s/60s. When it talked about office safety it showed a clip of a woman in a dress (obviously a secretary) standing on a swivel chair trying to water a plant while the male narrator says "Look at this pretty little thing!" My jaw nearly hit the floor but as I looked around at all the old geezers in the room not a single one flinched or reacted like there was anything wrong with that. Then again the guys in the cube next to me smoked cigarettes and cigars in the office.

I know society still has many issues with sexism, racism, etc, but I like to think we have made some big strides in the right direction the past 30 years.

 

[Victor E. Bell]

If you work long enough I'm sure we all know guys like that. I knew a few and they were able to get away with it, for example this one guy older than me had a reputation for saying all manner of double-entrendre stuff and dirty limericks and lines and everybody laughed it off. Some guys have the right delivery I guess, and the few females I worked around always let it go. Other guys would never get away with it.

One day a bunch of us went to lunch, maybe three men and two women. One of the guys rode shotgun and dirty song guy was driving. The other dude and the two ladies were getting in the back and dirty song guy says to the younger single one (who was a bit of a "free spirit") "Yeah hop in the back there Judy, I'm sure you know your way around the back seat of a car." She cracked up, as did the rest but man, I'd never. Plus you put everybody else in the position of being interviewed by HR and having to dime him out for it. As I said many times, you can get in a lot of trouble trying to be funny.

 

[AvgUser]

I rarely listen any longer, but 2-5 years ago on the Philly WIP/WYSP morning show, the male hosts were always making jokes and innuendo with Rhea Hughes. Nobody seemed to care, including Rhea.

Come to think of it, their entire Wing Bowl Side Show is about getting busty women in bikinis out there for ogling. Nobody seems to care there either. The interview process is/was always innuendo and similarly comments.

 

[Ranger Dan]

He sounds like a guy that I'd like to have a beer with, but is way out in left field relative to what is acceptable to say in today's work environment. I've worked with some of them in the past, but there aren't any at my current company.

 

[nits74]

And pinch her ass.

I find that is frowned upon these days. What happened?

Bob, I gotta plead ignorance on this one. Is that wrong?

 

[anon_is9z1n0h3zblb]

I called someone "Sugar Tits" in a call earlier today. Should I be expecting a call from HR?

 

[Obliviax]

I worked for a small software company owned by a great guy who was Chinese. He flew in to meet with the senior management team of one of our largest clients when we were having tough time with our product....we were concerned we were going to get thrown out and the CIO was our greatest advocate.

So we are sitting in the board room with the CEO, CFO, COO, CRO, etc....about ten people from our client's company. After ten minutes late, the CIO, our advocate, barges in and says, with a big smile on his face "OK, so what is so GDed important that you have to fly the chink in?"

There was an audible gasp. that was followed by nervous laughter and then a very teamwork-like meeting to address the issues and get stuff done. After everyone leaves and it is just us and the CIO, he says "you guys wanna get lunch? do you like Chinese food?"

Later, my CEO says "you know, the CIO really took care of us. he knew were were going to get beat up and after he called me a chink, what were they going to do? They had no choice but to have a creative meeting and give us time to fix our problems".

I'll never forget that as long as I live.

 

[The Spin Meister]

Here's an old curmudgeon investigationing the load capacity of an existing Philly building roof built around 1900's.

Here's an old curmudgeon's response to your's and other's posts.

----
Hey Step; I understand how having you walk around would test the structural integrity of any roof but what is all that equipment for?

 

[step.eng69]

I've worked with some of them in the past, but there aren't any at my current company.

LOL
Ah, Ranger Dan, what the hell are we talking about? Hispanics, blacks, Italians, Polish, Irish, Indians, old curmudgeons?

“Don’t have a problem with them as long as they don’t live next door”!

 

[Ranger Dan]

LOL
Ah, Ranger Dan, what the hell are we talking about? Hispanics, blacks, Italians, Polish, Irish, Indians, old curmudgeons?

“Don’t have a problem with them as long as they don’t live next door”!

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Them= people without the ability to regulate the content of what they say and/or do not understand that certain language may be offensive to others. Like I said, I would probably enjoy having a beer and a laugh with them outside of work, but these people don't last long in today's modern, PC workplaces. I would say that for the most part the improvement to workplace conduct and language is for the best. You can make all of the inappropriate comments and jokes you want outside of work.

 

[BobPSU92]

I called someone "Sugar Tits" in a call earlier today. Should I be expecting a call from HR?

Not if you were right.

FLAG.

 

[jughead212]

I called someone "Sugar Tits" in a call earlier today. Should I be expecting a call from HR?

If you worked for me you would not have to wait for HR to call, I would have fired you on the spot.

 

[demlion]

Tough call as I can see both sides. Yes, society has gotten way too overly sensitive. I remember a meeting in 1991 where my boss while smoking a pipe made his secretary cry in front of six department heads. She clearly made a big mistake, the kind of mistake that could have gotten her fired, but to dehumanize her to that degree may have been worse.

"Society has gotten oversensitive." Um, no. what has happened is that people refuse to take the sort of abusive crap they used to take from (mostly) old (mostly) men.

What any of us thinks is sacred is capable of being mocked, as well. Everyone forgets that. What you might think is political correctness is simple respectfulness for the sacred cows of others. Nobody whines like an "anti-PC" person whose own sacred cows are being gutted.

 

[step.eng69]

----
Hey Step; I understand how having you walk around would test the structural integrity of any roof but what is all that equipment for?

The company uses me & my weight to test load buildings. The piece of $hit Antenna sleds are from another cell carrier.

The project required me to design an 18' wide x 22' steel equipment platform to service Verizon cellular installations. The net weight of platform & equipment was 15 tons which had to be supported by the gymnasium ceiling-roof.
Below is the under side of the roof support system. After I analyzed the roof supporting beams & trusses, I proposed the existing concrete platform in the pic below needed to be removed from the gymnasium. The existing concrete platform weighed 10 tons and with the additional 15 tons I was proposing, the roof would fail.

 

[Obliviax]

"Society has gotten oversensitive." Um, no. what has happened is that people refuse to take the sort of abusive crap they used to take from (mostly) old (mostly) men.

What any of us thinks is sacred is capable of being mocked, as well. Everyone forgets that. What you might think is political correctness is simple respectfulness for the sacred cows of others. Nobody whines like an "anti-PC" person whose own sacred cows are being gutted.

I totally agree...100%....but I have to say the "old" and "men" comment is off base. I am close to a guy that made a lot of money suing a company for just those very same comments. In fact, the judge came unglued when he became aware of several co-workers doing "it's go time"/Madelbaum imitations of him. Age is a federally protected minority (ADEA) and trumps state right to work laws. Age discrimination is a real thing and, as a lawyer, you should know better.

 

[step.eng69]

Them= people without the ability to regulate the content of what they say and/or do not understand that certain language may be offensive to others

kidding Ranger, I know what your point was.

 

[Ranger Dan]

From a few years ago: I was visiting a supplier in Ann Arbor Michigan to perform a quality systems audit. Waiting in the reception area, the receptionist (very cute college aged daughter of the owner) asked me whether it was my first time in Ann Arbor. I explained that I had been there before for a football game. There was a slight pause before I attempted to continue the conversation by adding: I'll bet it's not your first time. I immediately knew that my choice of words was inappropriate, but she was quick to respond with "what did you say"!?!? I fumbled with my words and then clarified that I meant that obviously she was familiar with Ann Arbor. It never became an issue with the supplier, and I think this was because she could easily tell how embarrassed I was by my poor choice of words. Thinking back, I an certain that I wasn't intentionally trying to flirt... maybe it was a subliminal thing because I did find her attractive.

 

[PSU2UNC]

"Society has gotten oversensitive." Um, no. what has happened is that people refuse to take the sort of abusive crap they used to take from (mostly) old (mostly) men.

What any of us thinks is sacred is capable of being mocked, as well. Everyone forgets that. What you might think is political correctness is simple respectfulness for the sacred cows of others. Nobody whines like an "anti-PC" person whose own sacred cows are being gutted.

What if I don't have any sacred cows? Nothing offends me (except perhaps people who choose to be ignorant).

And while I agree that we should avoid offending individuals, just because one individual is offended doesn't mean everyone is (e.g. if you don't like seeing a phallus on Michelangelo's David that doesn't mean it gets banned).

 

[BBrown]

"Society has gotten oversensitive." Um, no. what has happened is that people refuse to take the sort of abusive crap they used to take from (mostly) old (mostly) men.

What any of us thinks is sacred is capable of being mocked, as well. Everyone forgets that. What you might think is political correctness is simple respectfulness for the sacred cows of others. Nobody whines like an "anti-PC" person whose own sacred cows are being gutted.

Agree for the most part especially with your last paragraph. During the summers I worked as a computer attendant (I put on mag tapes if anyone remembers those) for a White Collar company on Walnut St. in Center City in the mid 80's.
Some of the most insensitive, homophobic, racist , sexist jokes and words were used by supposedly educated managers and VP's. Many in their mid to late 30's.

 

[The Spin Meister]

The company uses me & my weight to test load buildings. The piece of $hit Antenna sleds are from another cell carrier.

The project required me to design an 18' wide x 22' steel equipment platform to service Verizon cellular installations. The net weight of platform & equipment was 15 tons which had to be supported by the gymnasium ceiling-roof.
Below is the under side of the roof support system. After I analyzed the roof supporting beams & trusses, I proposed the existing concrete platform in the pic below needed to be removed from the gymnasium. The existing concrete platform weighed 10 tons and with the additional 15 tons I was proposing, the roof would fail.

Standby generator?

---
What the hey was a ten ton concrete platform doing in the roof? Old air handler base?

 

[BobPSU92]

If you worked for me you would not have to wait for HR to call, I would have fired you on the spot.

You must be a peach in the office.

 

[step.eng69]

If you work long enough I'm sure we all know guys like that. I knew a few and they were able to get away with it,