Gay Pride at work

AllForIt · 24-06-2018 10:38PM

Sounds like what I go through every xmas (uggh) except nowhere near as bad.

ted1 · 24-06-2018 10:40PM

paw patrol wrote: »

I understand why people in the LGBT want or feel the need for Pride and that's cool.

So what's my gripe....

I work in a bank, the bank has reasonable policies on discrimination and respecting others etc....which I agree with.

I go to work and create systems that allows the bank to function.
Why then does the bank need to decorate my office with rainbow flags and posters, spam my inbox with GO PRIDE style pep talk emails, invite us to a range of events during the week and more....?

Why? It's a bank. Is it too much for me to want to go to work , punch the clock and go home with my thinking of social matters being imposed upon?
Why does sexuality get such promotion in a bank , there are many noble campaigns , none get this coverage or close to it.

My workplace isn't alone ...I know it's happening in other companies like insurance companies and American multinationals eg, facebook, google

One such company (i've a friend there) has now a sign-up where you can pledge to be an LGBT ally and receive a special lanyard to wear "with pride" ( You can see what they did there??? ) around the office. The flip side of this is that it has created a culture where those without the lanyard are being asked why not?
Of course it's in an ever so polite and around about way...like "did you see the email on the lanyard" etc...

LGBT and their allies are a small section of society , why must their views be imposed on me at work. Christmas doesn't get such PR in my job.

I'm fairly neutral and happy to live and let live (on most matters) but this constant barrage at work makes me resent LGBT (the campaign rather than the individual people) a little.

I did ask at work and I got weird looks from HR and a bland meaningless reply about equality and diversity etc....
I think I am now guilty of wrong-think and possibly a second charge of using an outdated version of newspeak.:rolleyes: in the eyes of HR.

Strikes me as a corporate **** off in virtue signalling
Yes I did say Virtue Signalling. happy?

Is it wrong of me to want to just go to work in peace. No campaigns , promotions of any kind?

The pink pound is strong. Your employer is trying to capitalise on it. Simple as that

Cody montana · 24-06-2018 10:41PM

I'm gay, I don't celebrate it, I'm not ashamed of it, this is me.
However Pride month e.t.c. is surely a piss take, load of crap.
Keep this stuff out of work.

AllForIt · 24-06-2018 11:14PM

Cody montana wrote: »

I'm gay, I don't celebrate it, I'm not ashamed of it, this is me.
However Pride month e.t.c. is surely a piss take, load of crap.
Keep this stuff out of work.

I'm gay and I have no problem with your wish not to take part. I haven't taken part for years...being gay is not particularly a 'thing' in my life anymore...it's just a fact of who I am. I have a life to be getting on with just like everone else.

But what you are saying is that because you are not interested in the Pride event shouldn't even happen at all just cause your not interested. It's not up to you to decide it's crap on behalf of everyone else.

I'm not interested in lots of things in life...take the current World Cup for example . It's all over the media non-stop and I have ppl asking me if I watched such and such a match. I couldn't be less interested even if Ireland were in it. I don't think I'm being inaccurate when I feel ppl expect me to be interested in it and I find that rather irritating but I've got used to it and I just accept that in life there will always be 'things' that a majority are interested in that I'm not, like xmas as I mentioned earlier. I'd gladly ban it just for my own sake but I wouldn't really as I know some many ppl love it and it would be a bit selfish of me to ban it if I could just cause the whole season makes me cringe. I wouldn't be the first person to think xmas is a load of commercial crap..that goes on for 2 fecking months.

As I type the first headline on the TV news is a World Cup story about England winning a match. Video of fans guzzling beer and chanting. What I do is I change the channel. It'll be over before I know it.

Hector Savage · 25-06-2018 09:11AM

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

These sorts of things have a way of turning into farcical forced groupthink. The poppy that gets foisted by the uk media is an example.

Or the diversity trainings they have at Google ... check out James Damore interviews to see what hell it is in there.

Cody montana · 25-06-2018 09:31AM

AllForIt wrote: »

I'm gay and I have no problem with your wish not to take part. I haven't taken part for years...being gay is not particularly a 'thing' in my life anymore...it's just a fact of who I am. I have a life to be getting on with just like everone else.

But what you are saying is that because you are not interested in the Pride event shouldn't even happen at all just cause your not interested. It's not up to you to decide it's crap on behalf of everyone else.

I'm not interested in lots of things in life...take the current World Cup for example . It's all over the media non-stop and I have ppl asking me if I watched such and such a match. I couldn't be less interested even if Ireland were in it. I don't think I'm being inaccurate when I feel ppl expect me to be interested in it and I find that rather irritating but I've got used to it and I just accept that in life there will always be 'things' that a majority are interested in that I'm not, like xmas as I mentioned earlier. I'd gladly ban it just for my own sake but I wouldn't really as I know some many ppl love it and it would be a bit selfish of me to ban it if I could just cause the whole season makes me cringe. I wouldn't be the first person to think xmas is a load of commercial crap..that goes on for 2 fecking months.

As I type the first headline on the TV news is a World Cup story about England winning a match. Video of fans guzzling beer and chanting. What I do is I change the channel. It'll be over before I know it.

My opinion is that it’s crap, I didn’t decide anything for anyone else.

evil_seed · 25-06-2018 10:14AM

It basically has come down to a competition between the corporates to show how much inclusive we are over here than the others over there. Last year was my first time attending anything to do with pride and the march itself was just float after float for corporates around dublin. it was a logo competition, nothing to do with inclusiveness and love and acceptance. Also, if I can add my gripe, it's turning into a fetish show very gradually.

ohnonotgmail · 25-06-2018 10:22AM

Hector Savage wrote: »

Or the diversity trainings they have at Google ... check out James Damore interviews to see what hell it is in there.

This the guy who tried to claim that women were less able biologically to be engineers? Not really a shining beacon to hold up as an example of anything.

topper75 · 25-06-2018 10:23AM

yesto24 wrote: »

My wife had this problem in work as well.
Now let me be clear she spent a lot of time in London in the 90s where she was a fag hag.
She is still friends with a lot of these guys now.
So when this pride nonsense rolls around each year and her company is boarding the diversity bandwagon she just ignores it.
If challenged, she just tells them she "was friends with gay people before it was cool", or more depressingly for her before you were born.

Interesting contrast there:

She was friends with them - genuine friendship, the giving and taking and all that goes with it. Came at a cost potentially because these folks weren't always seen as cool at that time. Outside of friendship returned, no gain for her.

Look then at the lanyard people and contrast the self-centered nature of it. No direct help to others. Just a virtue signal. It's for them really. Hollow corporate ****e.

kunst nugget · 25-06-2018 10:29AM

evil_seed wrote: »

Last year was my first time attending anything to do with pride and the march itself was just float after float for corporates around dublin. it was a logo competition, nothing to do with inclusiveness and love and acceptance. Also, if I can add my gripe, it's turning into a fetish show very gradually.

If it was your first time attending how do you know it's gradually turning into a fetish show? You could say it's a fetish show gradually turning into a Paddy's Day parade…

kunst nugget · 25-06-2018 10:50AM

topper75 wrote: »

Interesting contrast there:

She was friends with them - genuine friendship, the giving and taking and all that goes with it. Came at a cost potentially because these folks weren't always seen as cool at that time. Outside of friendship returned, no gain for her.

Look then at the lanyard people and contrast the self-centered nature of it. No direct help to others. Just a virtue signal. It's for them really. Hollow corporate ****e.

Myself and the missus used to go to the George with friends in the 90s and go to the gay friendly nights like HAM and in the Pod because the music was great and monthly nights like Powderbubble were off the hook in terms of atmosphere. Gay culture was still very much on the fringes at the time and I use to read GCN because one of our housemates would bring it home. Ireland back then was a pretty crappy place to be gay - a place where homosexuality had just been decriminalised but still a place where you'd be ostracised for coming out of the closet. The fact a corporate entity is now comfortable celebrating Gay Pride shows how far we have come in terms of acceptance. If someone wants to wear a lanyard to virtue signal, I couldn't give two shíts. Give me that over how gay people were treated in this country in the past. I wouldn't feel the need to wear one myself though.

xzanti · 25-06-2018 10:57AM

yesto24 wrote: »

I know you are trying to make a joke and doing it badly.
But these are not the same.
One is a holiday that is came about out of centuries of tradition and life, that is essentially a mid winter festival based on the length of the day, that by its nature is inclusive. As of you a living here you suffer the short days of winter no matter what relegion (of peace) you have or none.
The other is now a corporate event that even questioning can get you called homophobic.
That some see a propaganda and other see as just bandwagon jumping.

The point I'm making is this; it's another celebration day, just like St Patrick's Day, Valentines Day, Easter, Father's/Mother's Day. It's here to stay and I'd imagine Hallmark are going to start cashing in on it soon enough.

I don't see how rainbows are any more annoying than love hearts, leprechauns or bunnies all over the place.

Get used to it

HappyAsLarE · 25-06-2018 11:54AM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

This the guy who tried to claim that women were less able biologically to be engineers? Not really a shining beacon to hold up as an example of anything.

Was he not claiming that women have less interest to be engineers?

ohnonotgmail · 25-06-2018 12:05PM

HappyAsLarE wrote: »

Was he not claiming that women have less interest to be engineers?

No.

kunst nugget · 25-06-2018 12:08PM

HappyAsLarE wrote: »

Was he not claiming that women have less interest to be engineers?

His assertions were based on there being biological differences that meant women weren't as interested in or as capable of being engineers.

https://thedoctorweighsin.com/was-james-damore-right-about-women-in-tech/

evil_seed · 25-06-2018 12:11PM

kunst nugget wrote: »

If it was your first time attending how do you know it's gradually turning into a fetish show? You could say it's a fetish show gradually turning into a Paddy's Day parade…

Because I have eyes. I seen the pride parade plenty, but last year I actually walked in it. Does that clear it up for you?

Foxhound38 · 25-06-2018 12:17PM

My OH works HR for a medium sized tech company and she was inundated with emails from 2 or 3 individuals demanding to know "what the company is going to do to mark Pride this year".

When she explained that while the company supports everyone's right to be who they are and have stringent anti-discrimination measures in place, this really seems like something people can mark on their own time, they've been looking at her like some sort of bigot ever since.

What ever happened to just going to work to do the work you're payed to do and go home? Why do so many people (not just LGBT btw) have this need for the corporation they work for to love and celebrate and accept them for the unique snowflake that they are these days? Maybe I'm alone, but I've never given a toss whether any of the companies I work for show acceptance of my personal life - the only thing I care about is whether they employ and pay me for the work I do. Anything else I can pursue on my own time outside of work.

kunst nugget · 25-06-2018 12:20PM

evil_seed wrote: »

Because I have eyes. I seen the pride parade plenty, but last year I actually walked in it. Does that clear it up for you?

I haven't seen Dublin Pride in years but any big gay event I ever attended back going back to the 90s would have had a fair bit of fetish gear on show.

AlekSmart · 25-06-2018 12:24PM

spurious wrote: »

Exactly, if the bank are appearing to 'include' a group of people, it's because they think there is money to be made.
All those gayers getting married now and wanting mortgages.

One "innovative" ..."challenging" and perhaps even "daring" suggestion which the OP could make to his Banking Employer (to further underline their committment to LBGT inclusiveness) might be,to offer special terms to their LBGT customers during Pride Week....or to hell with it,all Year Round !!!

How about suggesting to HR/Marketing that knocking a few % of an LBGT mortgage,might be seen as a more "meaningful" bit of corporateism by those very LBGT's whose custom they desire ?

Or allow LBGT'ers a longer period of grace,should they be unable to keep up their repayments in line with the ever lengthening small print on the bottom of PoxyBank plc's colourful adverts ?

This could be worded so the bank publicly recognises,and responds meaningfully to,the difficulties faced by LBGT people in the workplace etc

It might be somewhat more honest and real than crappy oul lanyards and baloons..?

I wonder what the Bank's response would be....?

ohnonotgmail · 25-06-2018 12:25PM

kunst nugget wrote: »

I haven't seen Dublin Pride in years but any big gay event I ever attended back going back to the 90s would have had a fair bit of fetish gear on show.

Its gone very vanilla lately.

HappyAsLarE · 25-06-2018 12:31PM

kunst nugget wrote: »

His assertions were based on there being biological differences that meant women weren't as interested in or as capable of being engineers.

https://thedoctorweighsin.com/was-james-damore-right-about-women-in-tech/

As an engineer in an all male engineering department I think he may have a point!

Capability comes from interest.

keano_afc · 25-06-2018 12:47PM

TG1 wrote: »

I work in HR. In a previous role a member of the workforce approached us about celebrating pride in the office. There was a small budget given and the employee in question organised a few decorations. All very low key, but a nice way to celebrate diversity in the company.

Another member of the workforce complained, and the CEO stepped in and refused to allow the decorations. I had to be the one to explain to the employee who had approached us that actually a colleague had gone out of their way to object to it, and as a result we couldn't celebrate our diverse workforce.

Don't be that person who complains, it's a week of decorations and lanyards, not torture...

I really hope you dont work in HR in my place of work. The person who complained was well within their rights to do so, and frankly I hope in future if people feel uncomfortable in their employment they go somewhere other than your door.

Royale with Cheese · 25-06-2018 12:53PM

I work in a large office that has been HEAVILY pushing this for the past few years, as have the other large multinationals in the same business park (you can see all the flags in the offices as you walk past). It's become a competition to see which company can be the most inclusive.

To be honest I've always found it completely bizarre, as have other members of my team, some of whom are gay themselves. I presume it was the gay marriage referendum that kicked this off, and now every HR department in Ireland is trying to ride the wave. My opinion has always been that true equality means your sexuality is irrelevant, if I were gay I would not want my sexuality to define me. I would not want people to look at me and think there is a gay man, but that's totally fine now!!! I'd just want them to think there is a man, and the fact he is gay is about as relevant as his interest in rock music.

That said I've no problem if you want to celebrate pride. But just how heavily it's being pushed through many offices is weird, and not being done out of compassion either. I feel it will die out eventually and be looked back upon as probably meaning well at its core, but executed very badly.

stooge · 25-06-2018 01:00PM

Rather than celebrate LBGTQ, why not just have a day that celebrates any type of orientation (including straight) and call it sex day or something. that way everyone is included rather than minorities. Plus its a good excuse to go home to the OH and ask.....

suicide_circus · 25-06-2018 01:09PM

OP - can you tell me what bank you work for because I'd like to open an account with them now that they're down with the gays.

Shytehawks.

professore wrote: »

The OPs problem is he actually is interested in real equality and diversity. He thinks of people as individuals. Not "equality and diversity" rammed down his throat from above and only applied to certain select groups.

You mean diversity of opinion? Not on my watch! Stick to the script, keep you're head down, tick the right boxes, fall into line.

JupiterKid · 25-06-2018 01:09PM

I dont thinking mixing politics and work is a good idea. Sure you can wear a small pride badge, but all this malarkey about "diversity" and "inclusivemess" and lanyards (WTF??) is OTT.

In fact I don't think it is gay people driving this, but more virtue signalling right on PC hetero types who want to be seen to be "inclusive." A lot of frivolous nonsense and I can see why employees would be annoyed.

Christmas is one thing but this is another. I'd be of the same view about racial minority awareness day, mobility challenged week, womens week etc.

As long as you are valued on your ability and your merits, your sexuality should just not be an issue.

End of (and I post that a gay guy myself)

HappyAsLarE · 25-06-2018 01:19PM

I find it ironic that those that peddle diversity also want equality. Diverse inputs will cause inequitable results in any system.

suicide_circus · 25-06-2018 01:26PM

HappyAsLarE wrote: »

I find it ironic that those that peddle diversity also want equality. Diverse inputs will cause inequitable results in any system.

Less of that kind of talk!

J Mysterio · 25-06-2018 01:32PM

doylefe wrote: »

Christmas is banned where I work. Must use the term "Holidays" and all imagery of winter snow or Christmas decorations are not allowed in inter company communications.

lol. Thats completely fucķin retarded.

DickSwiveller · 25-06-2018 02:18PM

J Mysterio wrote: »

lol. Thats completely fucķin retarded.

It's a logical step if people refuse to oppose political correctness.

Gay Pride at work

Comments