Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

This is the polite off topic forum. If you’re looking to talk smack and spew nonsense, keep moving along.

Moderators: mgil, chromoly

Post Reply
User avatar
BenM
Registered User
Posts: 3831
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:18 pm
Age: 47

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1021

Post by BenM » Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:35 pm

As a WASP I mostly take for granted that I don't have to deal with such bullshit. Sorry you dudes have to deal with that.

User avatar
omaniphil
Registered User
Posts: 1889
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:41 pm
Location: Cleveland, OH
Age: 41

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1022

Post by omaniphil » Wed Dec 14, 2022 6:52 pm

BenM wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:35 pm As a WASP I mostly take for granted that I don't have to deal with such bullshit. Sorry you dudes have to deal with that.
+1 to that.

User avatar
Hardartery
Registered User
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:28 pm
Location: Fat City

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1023

Post by Hardartery » Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:53 pm

BenM wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:35 pm As a WASP I mostly take for granted that I don't have to deal with such bullshit. Sorry you dudes have to deal with that.
Visit a poor Latin country. You will get hit on in odd ways for no reason other than that you are white, and they don't care from which white country the general belief is all white people are rich and can get them and their families out of economic hardship. And many consider sex a small price to pay in exchange. It is a surreal thing.

User avatar
CheekiBreekiFitness
Registered User
Posts: 684
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2022 3:46 am

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1024

Post by CheekiBreekiFitness » Thu Dec 15, 2022 12:06 am

Hardartery wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:53 pm
BenM wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:35 pm As a WASP I mostly take for granted that I don't have to deal with such bullshit. Sorry you dudes have to deal with that.
Visit a poor Latin country. You will get hit on in odd ways for no reason other than that you are white, and they don't care from which white country the general belief is all white people are rich and can get them and their families out of economic hardship. And many consider sex a small price to pay in exchange. It is a surreal thing.
I think that even in countries that are not poor (so that people will not give you attention with the hope of obtaining some of your wealth in exchange for a relationship), if you're the only white person you'll stand out of the crowd, and you'll get some attention (good and bad). It's an interesting experience to say the least.

User avatar
SnakePlissken
Registered User
Posts: 876
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:22 am
Age: 29

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1025

Post by SnakePlissken » Thu Dec 15, 2022 6:21 am

Hardartery wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:53 pm
BenM wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:35 pm As a WASP I mostly take for granted that I don't have to deal with such bullshit. Sorry you dudes have to deal with that.
Visit a poor Latin country. You will get hit on in odd ways for no reason other than that you are white, and they don't care from which white country the general belief is all white people are rich and can get them and their families out of economic hardship. And many consider sex a small price to pay in exchange. It is a surreal thing.
I've experienced a little bit of this. Having blonde hair and blue eyes does the same thing with Asian women.

User avatar
mouse
Registered User
Posts: 4141
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2018 8:48 am
Age: 37

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1026

Post by mouse » Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:34 am

Renascent wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 7:58 am *long sarcastic rant about Asian sexy harassment*
This couple with muff's account of being talked to in spanglish reminds me of one of my all time favorite experiences with real world benign racism.

Friend of mine here supports an area with a lot of hand soldering work, and most (scratch that, ALL) of the people in that spot happen to be older Asian women.

He is absolutely notorious for speaking to them in broken English. It's got to be almost reflexive at this point because one time I noticed he couldn't turn it off, and started speaking to me in the same dialect. I called him on it, we had a good laugh, and then a minute or two later he accidentally did it again.

It still makes me laugh.



As an aside, I briefly wondered if it would ruffle any feathers if I quoted muff's original rant and simply replied with "Well is she hot?"

asdf
Registered User
Posts: 1208
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:29 pm

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1027

Post by asdf » Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:57 am

mouse wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:34 am speaking to them in broken English.
"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. Close now." (Hemingway, "A Clean Well-lighted Place")

User avatar
GlasgowJock
Registered User
Posts: 1610
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2017 9:15 am
Location: Glasgow, U.K.
Age: 38

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1028

Post by GlasgowJock » Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:23 am

mouse wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:34 am As an aside, I briefly wondered if it would ruffle any feathers if I quoted muff's original rant and simply replied with "Well is she hot?"
These are the real questions needing asked.

I'd let a hot lass chat in a shitty William Wallace accent to me if she really just wanted to play 'hide the haggis'.

dw
Registered User
Posts: 1500
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:35 pm

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1029

Post by dw » Fri Dec 16, 2022 9:04 am

asdf wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:57 am
mouse wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:34 am speaking to them in broken English.
"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. Close now." (Hemingway, "A Clean Well-lighted Place")
Interesting Hemingway would call that stupid because I think the opposite is stupid...using fully formed and grammatically complex English sentences to communicate with say, Thai cab drivers who only know a handful of key words.

User avatar
Renascent
Desperado
Posts: 2957
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:42 am
Age: 39

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1030

Post by Renascent » Fri Dec 16, 2022 9:06 am

mouse wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:34 am
Renascent wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 7:58 am *long sarcastic rant about Asian sexy harassment*
real world benign racism.
lol. Good lord.
mouse wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:34 amAs an aside, I briefly wondered if it would ruffle any feathers if I quoted muff's original rant and simply replied with "Well is she hot?"
Uh, haha...

You probably have a point in that I wasted my own time.

User avatar
broseph
High Fiber
Posts: 4895
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:11 am
Location: West Michigan
Age: 41

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1031

Post by broseph » Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:30 pm

Why say lot word when few word do trick?

I think a lot of people unconsciously chameleonize. Even if I’m only briefly speaking with someone with a different dialect/accent/style, I catch myself mimicking them. I stop myself so as to not cause offense when there’s a large cultural difference, but I think it comes from a place of wanting to fit in and make the other person comfortable.

I even do this with my neighbors who are the same race, age, and socioeconomic background as me. I’m frantic and loud with the frantic loud neighbor, and slow and quiet with the slow quiet neighbor.


Also, I too have been sexually harassed by a female at work. It’s a weird thing because it pissed me off, but maybe because they couldn’t physically coerce me I didn’t feel “victimized.” Although, at the time I was physically occupied and therefore unable to move away from her. And she harassed me with repeated inappropriate touching… I’m changing my mind- mark me down as victimized.

User avatar
Hardartery
Registered User
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:28 pm
Location: Fat City

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1032

Post by Hardartery » Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:42 pm

broseph wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:30 pm Why say lot word when few word do trick?

I think a lot of people unconsciously chameleonize. Even if I’m only briefly speaking with someone with a different dialect/accent/style, I catch myself mimicking them. I stop myself so as to not cause offense when there’s a large cultural difference, but I think it comes from a place of wanting to fit in and make the other person comfortable.

I even do this with my neighbors who are the same race, age, and socioeconomic background as me. I’m frantic and loud with the frantic loud neighbor, and slow and quiet with the slow quiet neighbor.


Also, I too have been sexually harassed by a female at work. It’s a weird thing because it pissed me off, but maybe because they couldn’t physically coerce me I didn’t feel “victimized.” Although, at the time I was physically occupied and therefore unable to move away from her. And she harassed me with repeated inappropriate touching… I’m changing my mind- mark me down as victimized.
But was she hot?
Just kidding, that is never cool. Mimicing others is actually a good trait for learning a new language, it helos to form an accent that is more natural to the language and not carry a hard English accent over to the other language. The ability to imitate the native speakers is helpful, they will "Hear" things correctly sometimes even when you didn't actually say them correctly, but a hard English accent can make you impossible to understand even if you are using the exact correct words in the correct way.

User avatar
broseph
High Fiber
Posts: 4895
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:11 am
Location: West Michigan
Age: 41

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1033

Post by broseph » Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:50 pm

Hardartery wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:42 pm Mimicing others is actually a good trait for learning a new language, it helos to form an accent that is more natural to the language and not carry a hard English accent over to the other language. The ability to imitate the native speakers is helpful, they will "Hear" things correctly sometimes even when you didn't actually say them correctly, but a hard English accent can make you impossible to understand even if you are using the exact correct words in the correct way.
Yeah. I speak un pokito espanol and listen to a lot of german music. Even though I'm probably butchering all of it, I can't help but say it the way I've heard it.

User avatar
Hardartery
Registered User
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:28 pm
Location: Fat City

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1034

Post by Hardartery » Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:57 pm

broseph wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:50 pm
Hardartery wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:42 pm Mimicing others is actually a good trait for learning a new language, it helos to form an accent that is more natural to the language and not carry a hard English accent over to the other language. The ability to imitate the native speakers is helpful, they will "Hear" things correctly sometimes even when you didn't actually say them correctly, but a hard English accent can make you impossible to understand even if you are using the exact correct words in the correct way.
Yeah. I speak un pokito espanol and listen to a lot of german music. Even though I'm probably butchering all of it, I can't help but say it the way I've heard it.
Spanish is really dependent on HOW you say it, much more than what you actually say. It drive the native Spanish speakers nuts when they try and learn English, there are way too many acceptable ways to pronounce individual English words, and in Spanish there's only ONE legitimate way to say each letter (With literally only a couple of exceptions that have their own rules). They look at things like read, reid, reed and get frustrated, and then you throw in the read and red are also the same, not to mention the words that simply have optional vowel pronounciations and I am amazed that any of them manage to learn English.

User avatar
Renascent
Desperado
Posts: 2957
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:42 am
Age: 39

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1035

Post by Renascent » Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:08 pm

With all the risks of speaking on someone else's behalf in mind, EggMcMuffin was pretty descriptive in the way this woman employed her broken Spanish routine, and how he felt about it.
EggMcMuffin wrote: Tue Dec 13, 2022 3:58 am I don't work in an office but this chick at my shitty retail job has one of those fucked up fetishes for Latino dudes and is constantly sexually harassing me and every other Spanish speaking person in the building. She has a habit of claiming anyone who rebukes her advances is sexually harassing *her*. She does this awesome thing where she will talk to us in broken Spanish in a really gross, patronizing manner.
Personally, I don't think Cheeki was trying to be malevolently racist with a capital "R."

I used a woman in my satirical post, because, generally, people are able to more easily see sexual harassment for what it is when it's genderized in such a traditional manner. Could be wrong, but I'm not sure very many people would be saying or thinking, "Who cares about the race-based condescension; was he hot?" if a woman had written the same post as Muffin.

I daresay some might even think it beneath them if that were the case, because Mark Rippetoe or some shit.

mouse's story was hardly applicable ("benign" racism be damned), and the balking at what is or isn't rayc!ss was just lazy -- as was the usual balking and quipping about a particular kind of interaction being turned into a matter of race by that Black guy yet again.

What Muffin described wasn't remotely the same thing as hyucking with a co-worker who speaks in broken English all day.

There's also an element of perceived power that I think is being overlooked in some of the comparison stories shared thus far.

Sorry about the post length. :D

dw
Registered User
Posts: 1500
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:35 pm

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1036

Post by dw » Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:41 pm

I question why anyone takes Muffin's lamentations about anything (and everything) at face value given his posting history.

Of course the behavior he described could easily be characterized as racial and sexual harassment, and of course he could go to HR and get her reprimanded and very possibly fired, and of course he knows this. And yet he did not go to HR... but rather wrote a forum post.

Could it be he was not actually seeking advice because he doesn't really care about the topic, and who knows, just might have exaggerated a little bit ("constantly sexually harassing every Spanish speaking person in the building"...sounds like she may have a productivity problem), but rather just enjoys posting overwrought tales of woe?

That would not exactly be out of character for him.

And speaking of our author...how curious that he doesn't seem to have taken much of an interest in any of the replies offered him.

User avatar
alek
Registered User
Posts: 3146
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2018 4:11 pm
Location: 2 gainzZz goblinz
Age: 42

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1037

Post by alek » Fri Dec 16, 2022 6:12 pm

asdf wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:57 am
mouse wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:34 am speaking to them in broken English.
"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. Close now." (Hemingway, "A Clean Well-lighted Place")
That brought back memories. I read that in English 101 in college.

User avatar
Renascent
Desperado
Posts: 2957
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:42 am
Age: 39

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1038

Post by Renascent » Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:09 pm

dw wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:41 pmOf course the behavior he described could easily be characterized as racial and sexual harassment, and of course he could go to HR and get her reprimanded and very possibly fired
In an ideal situation, it could play out that way.

I think it's also reasonable to figure that it might not.

The one time I managed to get someone fired over sexual harassment, I had more authority than she did (and, thusly, more believability in the eyes of HR), though we were both of similar social standing. Had either of those two factors been different, I could've easily been seen as a jilted aggressor acting out of revenge.

She was dumb enough to leave a handwritten note on my desk, along with an email, so the situation was easier to resolve.

As Muff describes it, it could easily be considered he-said-she-said fuckery that gets swept under the rug because no one in a position of authority cares enough to address it -- in which case I'd probably be bitching in vain too.
dw wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:41 pmCould it be he was not actually seeking advice because he doesn't really care about the topic
Could very well be.

He didn't solicit advice, and the nature of the thread lends itself to work-related complaints, so it's not as if he's the only person sharing a story here for the simple sake of doing so.

Philbert
Registered User
Posts: 488
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 9:50 am

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1039

Post by Philbert » Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:30 pm

Renascent wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:09 pm
dw wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:41 pmOf course the behavior he described could easily be characterized as racial and sexual harassment, and of course he could go to HR and get her reprimanded and very possibly fired
In an ideal situation, it could play out that way.

I think it's also reasonable to figure that it might not.

The one time I managed to get someone fired over sexual harassment, I had more authority than she did (and, thusly, more believability in the eyes of HR), though we were both of similar social standing. Had either of those two factors been different, I could've easily been seen as a jilted aggressor acting out of revenge.

She was dumb enough to leave a handwritten note on my desk, along with an email, so the situation was easier to resolve.

As Muff describes it, it could easily be considered he-said-she-said fuckery that gets swept under the rug because no one in a position of authority cares enough to address it -- in which case I'd probably be bitching in vain too.
dw wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:41 pmCould it be he was not actually seeking advice because he doesn't really care about the topic
Could very well be.

He didn't solicit advice, and the nature of the thread lends itself to work-related complaints, so it's not as if he's the only person sharing a story here.
I think you are correct here regarding his chances with HR. As he tells the story, any complaint will be met with a counter complaint that he is sexually harassing her. If she has more friends willing to lie than he has witnesses who see it as harassment, the winning strategy is to play dumb and live with it. In other words, for some people the only way to win the HR game is not to play.

User avatar
Renascent
Desperado
Posts: 2957
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:42 am
Age: 39

Re: Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

#1040

Post by Renascent » Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:35 pm

And if his writing skills are any indication of his ability to speak English, I can't see a valid reason why this coworker (assuming she's a native English speaker) feels the need to communicate with him in broken Spanish.

She's just being a dickhead.

Post Reply