Woke

[Vespa]

The judge said it was 'misplaced humour', and then ruled that it was sex discrimination. Calling a woman a bird isn't discriminating against anyone. He wasn't making an unjust or prejudicial distinction in the treatment of different categories of people, on the grounds of race, sex, age, or disability. Some may call it demeaning, but it wasn't sexist. I suppose if her name was Robyn it would have been OK.

It's was just another roll over to satisfy the pretentious set. He had even stopped using the word, but that wasn't enough to stop the witch hunt.

She had also been made redundant, so this was quite obviously a malicious move to get her revenge.

I'm closing my account which I have had with Barclays since I was 16 in protest.

It's interesting the media focused on the section of her complaint about being bullied but not the primary part of the case which is Barclays refused to alter her hours to accommodate her illness, endometriosis. As that disease progresses it can result in the removal of the uterus.

Reading this case it appears her boss called her a number of things that she asked him not to because she found them sexist, when she complained he told her not to tell HR and then carried on doing it because he thought it funny. He then ignored her requests for them to accommodate her illness, whilst 'joking' with her.

I don't have daughters but I think if one worked for someone he referred to her as 'bird' rather than her name even after she'd repeatedly ask them not to I'd think at best they were being a dick at worst deliberately bullying her. If she also had a debilitating disease that he hand waved away whilst continuing to mock her in a way she asked him not to I think it would be fair to call him a sexist.

[subsub]

The judge said it was 'misplaced humour', and then ruled that it was sex discrimination. Calling a woman a bird isn't discriminating against anyone. He wasn't making an unjust or prejudicial distinction in the treatment of different categories of people, on the grounds of race, sex, age, or disability. Some may call it demeaning, but it wasn't sexist. I suppose if her name was Robyn it would have been OK.

It's was just another roll over to satisfy the pretentious set. He had even stopped using the word, but that wasn't enough to stop the witch hunt.

She had also been made redundant, so this was quite obviously a malicious move to get her revenge.

I'm closing my account which I have had with Barclays since I was 16 in protest.

It's interesting the media focused on the section of her complaint about being bullied but not the primary part of the case which is Barclays refused to alter her hours to accommodate her illness, endometriosis. As that disease progresses it can result in the removal of the uterus.

Reading this case it appears her boss called her a number of things that she asked him not to because she found them sexist, when she complained he told her not to tell HR and then carried on doing it because he thought it funny. He then ignored her requests for them to accommodate her illness, whilst 'joking' with her.

I don't have daughters but I think if one worked for someone he referred to her as 'bird' rather than her name even after she'd repeatedly ask them not to I'd think at best they were being a dick at worst deliberately bullying her. If she also had a debilitating disease that he hand waved away whilst continuing to mock her in a way she asked him not to I think it would be fair to call him a sexist.

Spot on, Vespa.
Sounds like the correct decision was reached in this case.

[birdie]

There's a fine line between banter and bullying or demeaning, light hearted humour can quickly become bullying, OK, once or twice, or perhaps half a dozen, but repeatedly it becomes something which the recipient knows is coming and begins to dread having to come face to face with the person.
In a social context there is nothing wrong with a bunch of lads talking about 'birds', or 'lasses', but when it comes to a workplace superior referring to women colleagues as birds is, IMO only, of course, not on, what would happen if a woman were to call the men in the office 'geezers', 'blokes' or, heaven forfend, 'old farts'.
I don't think the term 'bird' is sexist, it's just not a term which should be habitually used by a superior in a business setting.

[subsub]

There's a fine line between banter and bullying or demeaning, light hearted humour can quickly become bullying, OK, once or twice, or perhaps half a dozen, but repeatedly it becomes something which the recipient knows is coming and begins to dread having to come face to face with the person.
In a social context there is nothing wrong with a bunch of lads talking about 'birds', or 'lasses', but when it comes to a workplace superior referring to women colleagues as birds is, IMO only, of course, not on, what would happen if a woman were to call the men in the office 'geezers', 'blokes' or, heaven forfend, 'old farts'.
I don't think the term 'bird' is sexist, it's just not a term which should be habitually used by a superior in a business setting.

Great post, birdie

[JudgeTedd]

There's a fine line between banter and bullying or demeaning, light hearted humour can quickly become bullying, OK, once or twice, or perhaps half a dozen, but repeatedly it becomes something which the recipient knows is coming and begins to dread having to come face to face with the person.
In a social context there is nothing wrong with a bunch of lads talking about 'birds', or 'lasses', but when it comes to a workplace superior referring to women colleagues as birds is, IMO only, of course, not on, what would happen if a woman were to call the men in the office 'geezers', 'blokes' or, heaven forfend, 'old farts'.
I don't think the term 'bird' is sexist, it's just not a term which should be habitually used by a superior in a business setting.

Great post, birdie

You have to worry about people who can’t distinguish between the two different scenarios. There’s a totally different language I’d use between friends and the one I’d use with work colleagues.

[Zambo]

The emphasis on compo culture has reached laughable levels, with ridiculous unjustified and frivolous claims for compensation in the press on a regular basis.

This woman will receive thousands of pounds for being called a 'bird'. Utterly crazy. Woke lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank and the woke brigade are lapping it up and throwing their arms in the air when anyone questions it.

It's not even a slur or a mild insult. People used to laugh this sort of thing off, now it's seen as serious damage to a reputation.

[Vespa]

The emphasis on compo culture has reached laughable levels, with ridiculous unjustified and frivolous claims for compensation in the press on a regular basis.

This woman will receive thousands of pounds for being called a 'bird'. Utterly crazy. Woke lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank and the woke brigade are lapping it up and throwing their arms in the air when anyone questions it.

It's not even a slur or a mild insult. People used to laugh this sort of thing off, now it's seen as serious damage to a reputation.

She received thousands of pounds in compensation because it was proved that her employer didn't accommodate her reasonable request for flexible hours because of her disease based on the fact she was a woman. Political correctness has gone mad.

[birdie]

The emphasis on compo culture has reached laughable levels, with ridiculous unjustified and frivolous claims for compensation in the press on a regular basis.

This woman will receive thousands of pounds for being called a 'bird'. Utterly crazy. Woke lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank and the woke brigade are lapping it up and throwing their arms in the air when anyone questions it.

It's not even a slur or a mild insult. People used to laugh this sort of thing off, now it's seen as serious damage to a reputation.

The use of some words, is, to say the least, sometimes strange. In another life I lived in Hull, there was a large fishing industry at the time and what could be called the 'fishing community' lived mostly around the Hessle Road area not far from the fish dock.
Most people not from the area wouldn't use the word 'tart' to describe a girlfriend, but if someone asked a fisherman what he might be doing on his 3 day turn around he'd most likely say 'going to see me tart', I hazard a guess that most people 'down South' would take that as a strange way to describe a girlfriend, as, I suppose, some people could be offended by someone referring to a woman as a 'dame', but that's language.

[subsub]

The emphasis on compo culture has reached laughable levels, with ridiculous unjustified and frivolous claims for compensation in the press on a regular basis.

This woman will receive thousands of pounds for being called a 'bird'. Utterly crazy. Woke lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank and the woke brigade are lapping it up and throwing their arms in the air when anyone questions it.

It's not even a slur or a mild insult. People used to laugh this sort of thing off, now it's seen as serious damage to a reputation.

The use of some words, is, to say the least, sometimes strange. In another life I lived in Hull, there was a large fishing industry at the time and what could be called the 'fishing community' lived mostly around the Hessle Road area not far from the fish dock.
Most people not from the area wouldn't use the word 'tart' to describe a girlfriend, but if someone asked a fisherman what he might be doing on his 3 day turn around he'd most likely say 'going to see me tart', I hazard a guess that most people 'down South' would take that as a strange way to describe a girlfriend, as, I suppose, some people could be offended by someone referring to a woman as a 'dame', but that's language.

Indeed, and as I said in an earlier post, context is everything.
But referring to female work colleagues as "birds" is totally unacceptable, as has now rightly been proven, as this case shows.

[Zambo]

Let's ban all words other than man or woman when referring to human beings.

[shabbado]

Newsflash

Mod who bans people for being offensive wants to uphold the right for people to be offensive

[Turningleft]

A bloke I work with used to say "who's the new bit of fluff" whenever we had a new female starter.

It made him look and sound like a complete dinosaur.

[subsub]

Let's ban all words other than man or woman when referring to human beings

Why would you do that?

[Zambo]

In case it causes offence and more time is wasted on silly tribunerals.

[The Tick]

This latest daily fail crusade has hit somewhat of a buffer.