At 08:24 PM 12/9/2002 -0800, Tim May wrote:
Last night had a plot device on "The Practice" (a generally bad show...I ought to stop watching) where nearly all residents in an upscale burbclave had signed a pledge--reminiscent of my opening point--where owners of cars would invite the police to stop their cars and search them without a warrant of any kind, without even today's lax probable cause. Obedient citizen-units would place a bumper sticker on their vehicles giving up their Fourth Amendment expectations of being secure in their papers and possessions.I had a somewhat heated discussion with an HR person at a former company. She was explaining the federal laws regarding harassment. I found at least one aspect untenable: jokes. As I understand the current laws, its actionable for "offending" jokes to be made on the workplace premises or other places where company business is being conducted. The regulations made it incumbent that the teller determine prior to the joke whether any within earshot might potentially be offended. Sine this might be problematic, given the difficulty of gauging a priori any particular person's sensitivities, the HR person said to be safe, no jokes with sexual, racial, etc. content should be told. (I knew of one incident at this company where an employee was given a stern warning and pressured to offer up a formal apology, for what seemed to me to be a rather innocuous comment.)
Anyway, I offered what seemed to me to be a good "libertarian" solution: an opt-in humor group. Employees who had preferences regarding particular humor could display a color coded "Joker's Club" badge. Tellers could now quickly glance around and know if an intended utterance would offend. The HR person became almost uncontrollable incensed, saying such an approach could stigmatize those who decided not to display a badge and was therefore discriminatory and illegal. Sheesh! If I ever start a US-based company, it will definitely include a Joker's Club.
steve
