Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Sexual Harrassment Class at the Salt Mines

Entrapment

There's been a trend among employers to have classes on sexual harrassment. Both the Salt Mines themselves and the Mining Company have it periodically, so if it's not one it's the other on their own time tables.

But it seems to be a cottage industry to make everyone into criminals of some sort, and that seems to be what is really behind it all.

Now you don't know me, but I don't have problems with this topic at all generally, and even pretty much agree with it, plus have really benefitted when other  tyrants in my life fall victim to it, which has happened several times. And for me that last part overrules all other arguments about the topic itself.

I wasn't doing anything, and then they have me seated right next to an interesting blonde lady I had never seen before, in the class itself.

Since I had already worked all night on an 8-hour shift, and had to go in the next night, it was not pleasant to have a 6-hour class in the middle during bedtime, 20 miles away. But I didn't say anything.

Instead the blonde lady started complaining, saying all the things I was thinking, but hadn't said because I am not a complainer:  ' I shouldn't be here, I worked all night, I have to work tonight, etc. This is stupid.' I wouldn't have said all that, but I was thinking it.

And then all through the films, she was yawning and stretching, and yawning again. I was too, seeing as how I could barely stay awake. I mean like four and five per minute. It was hours after bedtime, we should be buried in our coffins before the rays of the sun can touch us.

Notice how I never even heard of her, and now I am saying 'us,' like that.

Each yawn was a reminder, as was each other complaint she said, of how many things we have in common. Same Salt Mine company, same Salt Mines, same schedule, same thoughts, same yawns, same same same.

As to the class itself, I was noticing that my own personal policy is actually harsher than theirs is on paper at least, since I think it is all up to the how the recipient feels about it, whereas a couple items they were prepared to think could be reasonable, I was thinking sure they COULD be but they also could NOT be with someone else, since my personal standard is based on the recipient's own feelings and reactions, which will vary from one person to the next.

Plus I have had two or three monstrous Bosses eliminated this way, maybe more if I think back on them,  when I had long since given up hope on getting them out of my life any other way, so the whole topic has actually favored me indirectly more than once. Because someone else nailed them on these grounds, miraculously, when I could see no other escape from their clutches myself.

This aspect has been of the greatest benefit to me and should not be discounted. These guys were real jerks in several cases, and somehow this one thing has the power to get rid of them once and for all. The companies think it's perfectly all right for them to harrass me ten different ways, but Gott sei Dank eventually someone else may nail them on Sexual Harrassment and poof--they are gone!

In the corner of my eye, while trying earnestly NOT to check her out, in accordance with what the movie was talking about, which I fully agreed with, outwardly,  using just the very outer edge of my peripheral vision, I detected that She was checking me out! Ha!


If it weren't for this class I'd have never had any of this happening. It's like they set it up, as an entrapment creating a 'crime' where there was not one in the first place, not even a glimmer of one.

Luckily the previous year's class I was next to an ugly one, who was frustrated that she understood her legal powers but was frustrated that no one would harass her, ever, since she was too ugly, and so she could not come up with any way to use those powers.

So in this year's one I'm yawning away, feeling guiltier by the minute, because each of my yawns elicited a sympathetic vibe and yawn from my fellow worker, and I detected no guilt on her part despite the subject matter.


Ironic that they work us so hard here that the very Sexual Harrassment class itself becomes our only remaining social life. Yes it was all very Professional. Nothing happened really, we just exchanged a smile at the end. And got back to work as soon as we woke up.

9 comments:

  1. That didn't sound like a whole lot of fun, its a bit rough having to sit in a classroom in between nightshifts, I would have fallen asleep for sure!

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  2. Plus driving forty miles before and after with the blazing hot sunlight beating down and all the daytime traffic. Anyway the smile proves no one's guilty, right? Thanks for the comment, it is quite empowering to hear from Mr Sex himself of Salute on this topic.

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  3. I'm constantly been harassed at work especially by Ray, I may need some guidance from yourself about what to do?

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  4. Now I'm just back from a 16-hour day, which actually seemed a little short since the other one took 17 hours to end.

    Turns out everybody else knows the blonde lady in the story, except me, and then a fellow Salt Minette thinks this story is Pathetic and did not turn out juicy enough, and is trying to hook me up with a couple other characters around there, completely regardless of anything in the class, which is still stirring up the stew even more.

    She misses the point, I was just struck by a couple ironies about it and wasn't trying to stir anything up. We yawned, big deal.



    @TAL: How about this, ironically the most effective punishment for Ray for harrassment would be to actually lighten up on the corrections, so as to cause him to continue on his own path and continue to be Ray, where he did it 'his way.'

    But only do that if you're really angry at the time.

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  5. LOL!!! Did you get her number?

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  6. So the blonde needed to be reminded not to harass sexually any coworker?

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  7. @Nemesis:

    No, we just yawned. But I did not notice if the other people did or not, so even for that I felt guilty, for noticing, considering what was up on the screen at the time.

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  8. @Patti D. Not only did we all need the class, but now we all need it again thanks to all of what happened as a result of the class. There is even more that did not make it to the article.

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