harassment
My colleague KS and some of our members were already waiting at the building entrance when I came loping out to meet them for lunch. Seeing that they’re still not moving yet, I asked :
Me: “Who are we still waiting for?”
Somebody answered some names, but the one that caught my ear was KS’s reply.
KS: “We better move quick lest that GODDAMN FUCKING FREAK comes out!”
Yep, he was referring to Elliot the freak. You see, KS had just discovered my blog a few days ago, and apparently got very excited about that Elliot entry he had just read.
The moment when KS mentioned “GODDAMN FUCKING FREAK”, I noticed that there’s a female employee gawking at him just a couple feet away from where he stood. She appeared stunned, probably in a state of disbelieving what she has just heard. I was kinda alarmed at that particular split second, because some people are just plain sensitive on hearing profanities at workplace…
Like, sure enough, a girl might be condoning sexual acts or wouldn’t mind blowing the cream off his boyfriend’s lizard… but still, that person could still be very likely offended with things as simple as overhearing an unintended use of expletives - which in turn, might prompt her to report this to some authorities and get our ass fired for conspiring a harassment act against another employee… You get what I mean? (this workplace harassment thingy goes a lonnnnnng way…)
Then, just as I thought it was over, KS reiterated louder… “Elliot. The GODDAMN FUCKING FREAK.” Part of me wanted to laugh at that remark (coz it’s just too funny at that time) but another part of me wanted to be serious about making sure that we’re not in hot soup pissing off that lady who might think this is all offensive. Well, luckily, she just let out a suppressed laugh and we bailed that place immediately.
That was a close call. We’re lucky that she isn’t one of those troublemakers that loves to abuse the system (protection from workplace harassment, that is). There are simply too many of such tramps around, waiting to strike at any opportunity they can find.
You see, there have been talks around about this workplace harassment thingy… and it has been our fear ever since we’ve been educated about the possible liabilities on what we do everyday. A simple exclamation of the word “fuck” could pretty much get one into trouble. How close are we to that? That’s our colloquial word! All you need is someone to hear you and get pissed off… and that’s it.
Some people, they get personal over stuffs. They would abuse the privilege and make use of the system to rid of the people that they don’t feel good about. They’re dangerous. (office politics). So, it’s not really hard that you might get such people eavesdropping on you and alleged that he/she’s offended by what you’ve been talking about to another person. (trust me, I’ve heard far too much horror experiences about the abuse…)
Man, what has this world been turned into. Respects are being manipulated like toys by jerks… I don’t even feel secure working around with people anymore. It’s so easy to get axed nowadays. (Perhaps I should work at a zoo with animals, at least they don’t get to report to authorities when I say “fuck” too much…)