Well, that was unpleasant

[mousme]

So one of my supervisors sent me a "joke" email. Y'know, one of those forwards that's meant to be cute or funny or both.

Except that this one wasn't. In fact, I was pretty offended, and I am not all that easily offended.

Gander International Airport

Newfoundlanders can be so polite!

Gander Tower : "Saudi Air 511 -- You are cleared to land on runway 9R."
Saudi Air : "Thank you Gander . Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be Praised."
Gander Tower : " Iran Air 711 - You are cleared to land on runway 27L."
Iran Air : "Thank you Gander. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 27L. - Allah is Great."

Pause.....

Saudi Air : " GANDER TOWER - GANDER TOWER !"
Gander Tower : "Go ahead Saudi Air 511.."
Saudi Air : "YOU HAVE CLEARED BOTH OUR AIRCRAFT FOR THE SAME RUNWAY GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE . . . . . INSTRUCTIONS, PLEASE!"

Gander Tower : "Well bless your hearts, and praise Jesus. Proceed to your destination and tell Allah we all said "Hi".

...

So, yeah. Offended kind of doesn't begin to cover it. The fact that it's a "joke" doesn't mean that I am supposed to be amused by the deliberate murder of dozens if not hundreds of civilians based on their religion or ethnicity or both.

So I sent the supervisor an email expressing my sentiments, politely, and CC'd our boss.

The supervisor's defense? He's former military, and he's lost friends to the war in Afghanistan, to the enemy and to suicide. Therefore, to him, the death of any person of Arab origin or who practices Islam, is fair game for a joke.

Dude, I GET that part, but you're talking about murdering non-combattants, here. Women and children take planes too. Students, the elderly. Someone's mother. Someone's cousin. Someone's best friend.

I have friends who are in the military too. Does that mean I will gleefully look on while one person deliberately aims two airplanes at each other? No.

Anyway, he's annoyed that I CC'd the boss. *shrug* I debated about that for a while, but in the end, I think I did the right thing. Our boss needs to know if one of the supervisors is a racist asshole. At least he's removed me from his mailing list.

Comments

[chasingthenuns.livejournal.com]

Good for you for standing up for it. I'm so tired of "jokes" like this one. It's just not funny to me if anyone is dieing at the end of it.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Exactly. That was the way I saw it, anyway.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Ugh, no. Not funny, and even less funny to me as a Christian because can we please not imply that this has anything to do with Jesus?

You did the right thing.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

See? That's what I thought! Why invoke the name of Jesus when you're aiming two airplanes full of civilians at each other? I thought the whole point was NOT to kill in the name of religion. :P

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

No, you were right. That's just plain offensive, no matter whose viewpoint you look at it from. Let us know what your boss thinks of it!

[mousme.livejournal.com]

My boss was unimpressed with the whole thing, although he did tell me he didn't read the original email itself. He just told me to let him know if my supervisor didn't address the problem with me within a reasonable timeframe.

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Lovely. I expect that if you review your discrimination in the workplace policy, you'll probably find you did the right thing.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'd have to wade through the admin manuals to do that, but I suspect you're right.

It was highly inappropriate, to say the least, even if not everyone would find it offensive. I think I'm the only one who read it, found it offensive, and bothered to do something about it.

[foi-nefaste.livejournal.com]

Oh good god. *boggles*

You absolutely did the right thing (though it may be somewhat unpleasant to deal with him).

[mousme.livejournal.com]

It wasn't super pleasant, no, and I suspect I may have partially burned a bridge there, but I really couldn't let it slide. It was too gross for words.

I'd like to know in what universe he thought it would be appropriate to send something like that to official RCMP email addresses.

[brigidmn.livejournal.com]

You did the right thing. Mass murder is never funny. *hugs you*

[mousme.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

Ridiculous. It always catches me off-guard when I find this stuff at work. I know there are people like that out there, but somehow I never expect it to be so close to home. :(

[calishar (from livejournal.com)]

Where I work, our policy for that is straightforward... DON'T. And if someone does, let your manager, and HR know. Or if you're really offended, contact our Harassment Prevention folks directly.

I'd say you did the moderate thing... didn't kick up a real fuss, but let him know that his attitude is unacceptable. And in case you had any doubt, yes, it is completely unacceptable by any right (as in proper) thinking folks.

Nigel (here via Kenora who told me about it)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey there!

I'm pretty sure I took the right course of action. My boss backed me up, and the supervisor agreed to go be racist where I couldn't see him do it. :P

[serenitylioness.livejournal.com]

Wow. So he gets to continue doing this? Holy crap. Or should I say unholy. That would be grounds for dismissal in most places I've worked. I don't understand why he's not being reprimanded? That sort of thing creates a climate of fear and harassment. Isn't there some sort of RCMP manual for proper conduct?

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

I had something similar happen to me at a workplace. Someone thought it was funny to send distasteful stuff dead baby jokes (not just dead baby jokes, but but an amalgam of crap) Offensive yes. When I approached the person (she was the Executive Assistant to the President of the company at the time) she just said she thought it was funny, didn't care I snopesed the hell out of it, nor that she upset me. She just said I wouldn't be getting anything but professional emails from her in the future.

Good for you. And if you're supervisor harasses you about cc'ing you have grounds, I'm sure, to sue the smirk off his face. >.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn. That sucks, I'm sorry that happened. :(

I doubt he'll harass me, he's not the type. I'm just hoping he won't hold it against me in the long run.

[heartofawarrior.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Incredibly crappy "joke", for one thing, and for another, even if someone DOES find that funny, it doesn't belong in the workplace. It reflects badly on the institution, not just the idiot who thought it'd be great to spread around the office. Good on you for involving the boss - there are rules about what constitutes a "hostile work environment" for a reason! Hopefully this supervisor gets dealt with accordingly.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I don't think any immediate action will be taken, not unless it really gets out of hand. I think he will be more careful about what he spreads around the office in future, though. I hope so, anyway.

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

It is extremely offensive and you did the right thing.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm quite sure I did too.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

You did the right thing. But I bet it was very stressful for you to have to be the whistleblower. Poor you, like what you needed in life was more stress.

Also, that "joke" has me scratching my head because even if it wasn't racist, it still wouldn't be funny. It's like a random attempt to squish newfies and middle easterners into the same joke. And that annoys me too! If you're going to spam people with jokes they should be GOOD jokes. I got faxed a hilarious dirty joke at work the other day, and it made me really sad to have to delete it without forwarding it to the rest of my team.

[wererogue.livejournal.com]

Chiming in to say that I'd have done the same in your place. Not acceptable in any workplace.

[tcaptain.livejournal.com]

Absolutely you did the right thing!

(chiming in late)

That stuff needs to stop somewhere. The workplace is not the place and frankly, ANYWHERE isn't the place.

As for the supervisor's defense? That has got to be the lamest cop out. Racism due to service? C'mon...

[luvenditti.livejournal.com]

wow. just .... wow.