Thanks, and more news on That Fire

[rolanni]

The fire at the Topless Coffee Shoppe has been ruled arson. Thanks to catletude for the link.

Had an end-of-year budget meeting at the day-job today. Because of budget cut backs, there was no coffee. Not that it was tough to stay awake, or anything.

Even worse, budget cuts have affected the Employee Picnic (aka Staff Day)! There will be No Free T-shirts this year, though I'm encouraged to wear a t-shirt from a previous year, which I, um, gave away, 'cause they're ugly. I suppose this means I need to chose between my "Sell Your Soul for a Cookie" t-shirt, Girl Genius Air Ship t-shirt, Abney Park stripy t-shirt, or play it safe with the Dahlov Ipcar Black-and-White animals t-shirt. Decisions, decisions.

'nother meeting tomorrow, this one, so we're told, Federally Mandated. How to Avoid Sexual Harassment or something similar. Anybody else been to one of these? Should I take my own coffee?

I am figuring out the quarterly taxes. My head hurts. There is, of course, no correlation between these two things.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the "pro blog" issue. I think I'll stick with what I have for the moment; I'm comfortable here, and as someone pointed out in comments, there are the infodumps. I may try to think about a way to make them more prominent/accessible to folks who just want The News.

Comments

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

Take your own coffee. Really. If you're really nice, take two. And if you do hand-crafts, take a small, discreet one.

My profs all knit through Sexual Harassment Training, as did about 1/3rd of their grad students.

[lagilman]

Ah, yes, the seminars on sexual harassment. They never really give you a how-to booklet, so we just wrote our own.

Bring your own coffee. Also some no-doze.


and was I the only one who, when the first report of the topless waitress wandering outside surfaced, thought "someone paid her to do that to get them in trouble and block the zoning changes"? I was? Really? I have such a suspicious mind...

[mlplouff.livejournal.com]

Take a -thermos- of coffee. These seminars are ... dull.

Basically, if someone objects, and you repeat the behavior anyway, it's harassment. Don't do that.

There. You'd think they could make it shorter, right? But no, it goes on for what seems like ever.

[sraun]

And that's a distinct improvement over some of the stuff I had to deal with in the early '90s! There was a period of time where whether or not I was harassing someone was dependent on how they took it - the first time. This was ... not nice. I remember being delighted when the case-law changed to match your description.

[muehe.livejournal.com]

I would suggest that you take your own reading material -- but that does not go over well.
Just be thankful you do not have to go to a team building one. What a joke.

[bookmobiler.livejournal.com]

I suppose this means I need to chose

What?

Nothing available from Liaden Universe?

If the free T's were that ugly it just proves something good can come from budget cuts.

As for the sexual harassment thing - to quote madam_the_chef - "Basically, if someone objects, and you repeat the behavior anyway, it's harassment. Don't do that. "

Any way to work with that to stop having those Federally Mandated meetings?

[ledav.livejournal.com]

Unless your tolerance is very high definitely take coffee (and maybe a cattle prod to liven up the people around you.)

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend not only coffee, but a squeezy ball and a pincushion. I find most presenters on sexual harassment to be mind-bogglingly sexist and clueless, and I have to do something to keep from leaping up from the table and slapping them upside the head.

Of course, I live in the Ozarks, the well-known Sensitivity Center of These Heah United States, so maybe your experience will be merely dull.

As a librarian, I have oodles of bookish t-shirts that I can't wear to work. If there's time, I'd gladly donate one to the cause. My defaults are usually the READ RESPONSIBLY from unshelved.com or DISAFFECTED INTELLECTUAL from librarianavengers.org, but for a picnic I might go with the Sluggy Freelance MY FEET HURT ... WITH DESTINY! that my daughter made for me.

[jane-barfly.livejournal.com]

Bring Coffee. Bring sketch pad, or coloring book. Or anything to doodle with. My wrists preclude the joys of knitting or crocheting or tatting to the extent of useful, but boy, howdy, I don't need my time wasted for more than two hours a year on this stuff.

By comparison, almost any other mandatory seminar is less fraught with upset at wasted time. You can smell the steam rising from ears...

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

Coffee, lots of coffee. I sort of agree with those who said bring something to do. I, bad person that I am, read a book on my Palm while looking like I was taking notes. I think it was "Cats in Cyberspace" but I may be wrong. That did keep me awake and amused enough to not strangle any of the idiots presenting.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Y'a know, if you could get a random sample of 100 of the 4,200, you could tell with 95% confidence that N% (+/- 10) of the population did or didn't like the Coffeeshop? That statement by Richard Flick (who is he?) that 97% don't like it kind of stands out in the AP news. Looks like a statistic pulled out of the air to me?

I don't know about the sexual harassment meeting. I usually consider events like this as opportunities to check out how quickly the speaker puts the audience to sleep, what weaselwording is used to avoid addressing the topic, and a chance to consider how this really could be approached to do something as opposed to merely talked around. But the content in this kind of meeting that I've been in has not been terribly good, if that's the question.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

93.72% of statistics are made up on the spot. That's official, I just made it up.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Ayep... that's about where I think the fellow in the AP report got his number. But it sure would be kind of interesting to do a quick survey and get a reliable number...

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

Yes to coffee. The problem with workshops of this nature is that the people who need to listen don't do so. Their real purpose is so that when there are problems, the employer can say "We told the harrasser not to do that" and also say "we told the recipient that they didn't have to put up with it, but they have to say "Stop doing X, it makes me uncomfortable.""

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

There was one good one once -- the head of the group that did interventions (I think that was the term that was used) brought in a stack of scenarios pulled from their files. Then we got to play case study (like role playing). And try to work through them. I thought that was one of the more effective ones. But I think the next year we got lectured again, which suggests that someone didn't appreciate it.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, you could always add a link to that tag (infodump) at the top of your sidebar. Just under or above the month's calender perhaps?

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

"Anybody else been to one of these? Should I take my own coffee?"

Take your knitting, if you knit. Or a notepad and write bits of novel. Or anything that serves as a distraction. (A small sledgehammer?)