U Not Gonna Like This

This from the Times Online:

The Sunday Times
October 08, 2006
Nervous men kill off the office romance
Roger Dobson and Yuba Bessaoud

A SERIES of high-profile harassment cases has sparked the first signs of “segregation” in the workplace as relationships between the sexes are disrupted by mutual suspicion.

Men are self-censoring innocent compliments and office banter when in mixed company, killing off office romance, according to a study by psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The academics have identified the emergence of a “glass partition” between the sexes that, they say, is also damaging the career prospects of women.

Kim Elsesser, co-author of Glass Partition: Obstacles to Cross-sex Friendships at Work, published in the academic journal Human Relations said: “The unintended consequence of sexual harassment awareness is that women suffer from men’s uncertainty on how to behave.

“While it is mostly the men who feel restricted in what they say, unfortunately the career implications affect the women because the men have the power and women have a hard time befriending men.

“Just as the glass ceiling prevents women from reaching the top of organisations, the glass partition prevents women from making the friendships that could help their careers.” She said rules intended to discourage romantic relationships were also making it harder to form work friendships.

Sexual harassment cases can trigger changes in the rest of the workforce. Phillip Randall, 32, is a middle manager at a small financial services company. He had been working there for six years when he was accused of sexual harassment by a female colleague. He insisted on using a pseudonym because the case is still being investigated.

He said that the office atmosphere had soured. “It’s affected the liveliness of the whole workplace. It used to be such an enjoyable environment.

“The other staff don’t go out for drinks as a group. There is an atmosphere of ‘who can I talk to?’
They send fewer e-mails around the office because they are scared someone will take offence.

“It makes things difficult because as a manager you’ve got to relate to your staff.”

The academic researchers found evidence of one of the most significant shift in attitudes since the influx of women into the workforce in the 1960s.

They found that 75% of male workers constantly considered the risks of being accused of sexual harassment when talking to female colleagues. Humour was considered one of the most risky areas.

Conversely, only 5% of women said they had to watch what they said around men but 66% noticed that men seemed inhibited. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 41 professionals.

Jane Mann, head of employment at Fox Williams, a City law firm, said sexual harassment legislation in the UK was creating similar patterns.

“People are much more wary of banter in the workplace and much more concerned about whether they are saying or doing the right thing.

Update Tuesday, October 10, 2006:

I just checked the Eternal Bachelor and here's his comments on this story:

For starters, this isn't news. Furthermore, how the fuck does not making "friendships" prevent career advancement? Friendships may help, but generally, in the real world, you get promotions by working hard, not by being mates with the boss. I've known bosses promote guys they didn't really like on a personal basis much, but simply because those guys bought in the profits. If women think they can get to the top by just friendships, it's clear where they're going wrong! Finally, note how the whole thing blames us men, us nasty evil men daring to not fraternize or flirt with female colleagues just because we might get done for sexual harassment! If we're friendly with women, we're evil sexual harassers, if we don't, we're making them feel left out.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't. Nothing new there.

And here's what was posted in the comments section:

Christopher in Oregon said...

I'm employed by a government agency, and let me tell you, the sexual harassment policy is nothing short of insane.

ANY physically contact, including the slightest brushing up against a woman in passing can be grounds for termination. Any unwelcome look, if deemed sexual or leering by the woman, is grounds for termination. ANY unwelcome comments, not necessarily sexual, that make a woman uncomfortable, are grounds for termination.

Any "homophobic" comments.

In short, anything you say or do in their presence can get you fired. Even if they hear about your comments second hand. Last year, we had a husband/wife couple who are both working here kiss in passing. Nothing sexual. Just a peck. A woman screamed sexual harassment, and this couple almost lost their jobs. Their kissing made this other woman "uncomfortable".

WTF?

When is a woman NOT uncomfortable? Or pissed? Or....

When at work, I almost never speak to women. I never smile. I never discuss my personal life. Religion. Politics. Anything. Only business. I am never alone with one of them. I keep a distance of at least several feet away from them at all times.
I treat women like the enemy, because, in fact, they are the enemy.
They always have been.

Christopher
6:31 PM

Viking said...
I can certainly see how the lack of male/female fraternization would have a negative impact on a woman's ability to advance...

Without the opportunity to accuse men of sexual harassment, and thereby remove potential rivals and at the same time gain leverage over the organization, a woman might actually have to compete with her peers on the basis of productivity alone, an obvious disadvantage. Also, for the better looking women out there, it also removes much the opportunity to for her to "ply her feminine wiles" in order to gain favor. It's obviously a conspiracy to keep women for using those attributes that they are stronger in such as the ubiquitous communications skills, people skills and/or soft skills.

ditchthebitch said...
I have been avoiding women in the workplace now myself for the last 2 years- it's nice to finally see an article about this- just to know I'm not losing my mind or think I've been over-reacting to the possible danger all this time. I saw this gag on Saturday Night Live a few months ago that was a mock up of a 'sexual harassment education' film that employers show their employees- it showed a balding, overweight guy walk up to a woman typing in the office, and she just said, "no," before he even said anything.

Then a more attractive, younger guy walks up in his underwear, starts grabbing her breasts and everything's just peachy. The narrator says along with it spelled out on the screen, "To avoid sxual harassment accusations- be attractive. Don't be unattractive." The real point is, though, even if you ARE attractive as a man, it still doesn't matter- what if you're just not all that bright when it comes to talking to women? Sure, it sucks, but that doesn't mean that you should be fired and the company SUED.

Plus- bottom line, just not knowing what a woman MAY find offensive isn't even the tip of the iceberg- she could simply misinterpret an innocent comment because you didn't put the accent on the syllables just right- not to mention the fact all the massive false allegations by women simply to cash in- makes women in the workplace LETHAL to a business.

The solution is simple- if women mixed with men in the workplace causes a threat of sexual harassment, then who do you think should be the ones to go? Who do you think is more necessary anyway to any business? Do you really think that if all the women in workplace left tomorrow it would really make any real difference?

Businesses have always thrived off the testosterone drive of males and the resulting competitive edge-women legally forced their way into the workforce and not only are they poor at production, they are a liablity. Absolutely- all men should completely avoid women in the workplace unless they absolutely have to speak to them- women are insane and the risk is just too great. Maybe as a result women will begin to finally leave the workplace and we can have things back to normal.
7:11 PM

Days of Broken Windows said...
I'm glad this information is finally being validated, because I have been avoiding women at work for years for this very reason.

But I want to stress something to the regulars: The women most likely to accuse are those who dress the most provocatively. That's because these women LIVE for drama.

The Internet has exposed this -- because there are many women on My Space that post sexy pics of themselves, then complain about that in their My Space blogs!! This is called creating chaos, and it's men who have to pay when this happens in the workplace.

For an example, go here: http://www.myspace.com/trishjr31
8:01 PM

phoenix said...

And how do you think it makes us men feel, to have to walk around on eggshells and work like robots at work? Wait, you just don't care, because we're men? Yeah, I thought so. I hate work because of women. Women still gossup and say inappropriate things to men, other women, or on the phone, so I don't see how it impacts them. It's the men that are basically isolated. Women spend their time spying on men too so that you can't even surf the web at some jobs.

I remember a job I had as a temp awhile back. It was 2 men other than me, and they worked at the front. I worked towards the back with all women. The women would occasionally take shopping breaks together and act like we couldn't live without them. When they were gone, everything ran extremely smoothly. When they were there, they'd bitch about how much work there was, say really stupid and innappropriate things the entire time, make fun of each other, cause drama, etc. They'd whine that we weren't working, meanwhile they'd sit around and gossip. I remember once a few of us were talking about sports, this one woman got extremely mad at us. I think we talked for about 10 minutes, whereas these women would spend hours and hours talking. They hypocrisy was just ridiculous.

I would much rather get into a physical fight, and then relax and be friends with someone rather than be the victim of a long emotional/verbal assault that women specialize in. It's amazing to me that courts can on the one hand claim a man verbally abusing his wife assaulted her, but on the other completely ignore nagging and whining and belittling from the woman towards the man. Men are just absolutely not even allowed to defend themselves, they're being forced to be defenseless victims.

Why do women need protection? The only thing they would need protection from men is in physical force. The government and workplaces prevent that. If anything, men need to be protected from women's emotional and verbal abuse.

I should have become a construction worker, or sanitation worker. What is the point of higher education? I'm a lot dumber now that when I was younger and could pursue subjects on my own.

I'm now stuck working with women, have less intelligence, and am surrounded by people that think a bullshit piece of paper costing tens of thousands of dollars is the measure of intelligence. Most women are like that poster in another thread, Patricia. Absolutely no mental activity occurring, the use of pre-"learned" patterns rather than acquiring and adjusting to the specific situation, shaming language and put-downs, appeals to previous "accomplishment" of academia. What's it all for?

Why does anybody need 6 figures? mid-5 figures are plenty enough if you live on your own, and there should be plenty of jobs that pay that much. Society is doomed when more and more men realize this. We always pushed ourselves for women, but now women are making themselves worthless, and actually harmful to us.
8:14 PM