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Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

Being easily offended used to be a character flaw. Now it’s a job description.

– Hugh MacLeod

May 13th, 2018 |

7 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Julie near Chicago
    May 13, 2018 at 1:13 am

    😆

  • Paul Marks
    May 13, 2018 at 7:16 pm

    Sadly true.

  • Niall Kilmartin (Stirling)
    May 13, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    I wonder: what would the legal status be of a job description that said the successful candidate “must not be easily offended”? Suppose one added “especially by political incorrect remarks that 10 years ago would not have been”?

    Of course, the modern HR department is more likely to reject a candidate that lacks that quality. Up The Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits by Robert Townsend explains that, as new CEO, he turned around a failing company by (among other things) firing the entire HR department and not replacing them.

  • K
    May 14, 2018 at 2:00 am

    Bah. It’s a tactic and nothing more. If you can’t argue rationally for your position, throw a tantrum. It’s a linear extrapolation of political correctness. Normals originally agreed to behave and talk in a “politically correct” (no N word!!!) manner because it hurt other people’s feelings and it was simply bad manners to do that. That effect has been codified (thanks media!) into doing whatever the cultural marxists want, up to and including giving up your job and promotions to those “more needy” – aka victims of your rudeness. Except the penalties have now been upped from being thought a bore to physical attack. The solution is a “free speech” movement. It’s not caring if snowflakes and crybullies kick and scream. Real mothers (and there are fewer and fewer of those these days) know you don’t give in to the child. You give them a “time out” ignor them and when they decide they want to be part of a real workable society they can behave like adults.

  • James Hargrave
    May 14, 2018 at 7:11 am

    Niall. ‘HR’, a topic dear to my heart. They should be fired in the sense of witches on a bonfire. Slaves to every passing fad and generally not the sort of people one would want to employ in any capacity.

  • Penseivat
    May 14, 2018 at 7:17 pm

    What a wonderful slogan for a T-shirt. I wonder how many people it would, hopefully, offend?

  • Mr Ed
    May 14, 2018 at 8:52 pm

    Niall,

    what would the legal status be of a job description that said the successful candidate “must not be easily offended”?

    Of no effect, even if incorporated into the contract, it would be void for being an attempt to contract out of the statutory right not to be subjected to harassment under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits harassment, but only that related to protected characteristics. There is however, a sort of safety valve under S26 (4):

    4) In deciding whether conduct has the effect referred to in subsection (1)(b), each of the following must be taken into account—
    (a) the perception of B; (i.e. the victim)
    (b) the other circumstances of the case;
    (c) whether it is reasonable for the conduct to have that effect.

    Other harassment is a matter for what is reasonably expected in the job.

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