Employees violating the contract?

[blue efficacy]

There is sort of a damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-dont aspect to "inappropriate" jokes and language and sexual harassment.

On the one hand, it is patently wrong for a bunch of crude guys to demean or degrade a female coworker, or create a hostile and offensive climate.

On the other hand...if a woman walks in to a room full of guys who immediately shut up in order to avoid saying anything that might offend her...that in and of itself can be hostile and unwelcoming.

I used to eat lunch with a couple of the other guys in my loop every day. We would engage in the standard "guy talk" which included the occasional dirty joke or sexual innuendo.

We had a female relief driver in the center who knew all the routes in that loop and she started eating lunch with us when she was on one of them. This was about 15 yrs ago when "sexual harassment" was becoming a hot-button issue, and us guys started clamming up whenever she ate with us for fear of being offensive.

She was intuitive enough to pick up on it, and rather than deal with the awkward silence, she blew us out of the water by sharing a few raunchy jokes of her own in order to break the ice and become a welcome member of the group.

This in turn led to a truly open and honest 2-way discussion about sexual harassment, where we were all able to truthfully share our points of view and figure out what was and wasnt appropriate.

She was able to be "one of the guys", while us "guys" were able to learn the difference between harmless humour and truly inappropriate behavior. And we were even able to ask one another for marital advice as far as how to deal with our spouses. It was an elightening experience for all of us.

I learned a lot more from that exchange than I ever did from some bland corporate "policy statement" being read aloud at a PCM.

Women like her are fine by me and have every place in a blue collar workplace.

I have known at least two guys who were temporarily fired for innocently telling raunchy jokes, which a female employee caught wind of. Don't get me wrong, there are legitimate concerns with sexual harassment, but raunchy jokes aren't one of them. If you can't handle that sort of thing, go work at a school or a medical clinic where you'll easily outnumber the boys.

 

[Dis-organized Labor]

A woman in a male dominated job who can't deal with guys in good humor is like a bull in a china shop.

I understand the "male dominated shop" point, but I think we're in the 21st century now and no one the right to do or saything that is intended to offend another employee. I am far from a politically correct manager, but I'd whack anyone that was intentionally harassing another employee. I'm also not saying I would overreact to every allegation, but after investigating and determining there was something afoul, the offender would be staring down the barrel of the DOL howitzer before the end of the day.

 

[purplesky]

Just curious and never thought about it before now that a contract is between two parties so that means that both parties can violate the contract but all I ever hear about is the company violating the contract.
Is the contract between UPS and the Union or between UPS and it's boring and stupidbargaining unit employees?

When an employee takes 5 minutes extra for their lunch or a break, is that considered "violating our contract".

How about when an employee is disciplined? Is that because they violated the contract?

Interesting subject ... what do you think?

No not interesting at all!!! Very boring. Save it for HUB SCHOOL.