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[#MeToo] Comes To Gaming

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Posts

  • NosfNosf Registered User regular
    Wait, is that a thing? Is that a named fetish? That .... that is a new one to me.

  • IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Coinage wrote: »
    Bragging about how much you cranked it is puzzling. Maybe he just discovered hentai or something

    Honestly the longer MeToo goes on the more I just find it all puzzling. You go into this expecting certain kinds of blatant horrible sexism and abuse. And instead there's so many stories that are just "Wait, why would anyone even think of doing that?".

    Lack of oversight allows one's sense of right and wrong to be like a frog in a slowly warming pot of water.

    Man, there's lack of oversight and then there's "masturbating into a potted plant in front of someone" and I feel fairly safe in saying most people were not expecting the latter when this all took off.

    I guess if they've never heard of frats or rich people ever.

  • Atlas in ChainsAtlas in Chains Registered User regular
    Nosf wrote: »
    Wait, is that a thing? Is that a named fetish? That .... that is a new one to me.

    What you call a fetish, Harvey Weinstein calls "networking".

  • IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Nosf wrote: »
    Wait, is that a thing? Is that a named fetish? That .... that is a new one to me.

    What you call a fetish, Harvey Weinstein calls "networking".

    There's also the incredibly long history of mutual blackmail setups where people do the same messed up thing so that nobody can safely call anyone else out for doing other terrible things.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited July 2020
    Getting away with shit is addictive. And like most addictions you need to chase the dragon. The dose needs to get bigger and bigger to get the hit.

    Steal a candy bar, and next time it's a bag of chips. Get away with it long enough and you're swiping the the security camera off the U-scan while ringing up an Xbox as an onion, just for the same excitement you got from that first candy bar.

    Hevach on
  • Atlas in ChainsAtlas in Chains Registered User regular
    Incenjucar wrote: »
    Nosf wrote: »
    Wait, is that a thing? Is that a named fetish? That .... that is a new one to me.

    What you call a fetish, Harvey Weinstein calls "networking".

    There's also the incredibly long history of mutual blackmail setups where people do the same messed up thing so that nobody can safely call anyone else out for doing other terrible things.

    Well, that may be, but if I understand the story correctly, the potted plant wasn't a premeditated thing. He was self starting before he got consent, got rejected, and still refused to engage the brakes. Let's be clear, his intent was to abuse an actress. The plant was just more convenient than getting violent or cleaning up after himself.

  • TNTrooperTNTrooper Registered User regular
    Nosf wrote: »
    Wait, is that a thing? Is that a named fetish? That .... that is a new one to me.

    Let's check Urban Dictionary

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=herbaphilia

    PicardFacepalm.jpg

    steam_sig.png
  • NosfNosf Registered User regular
    Awww yeah, gonna jack it on this sweet, sweet peony.

  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    We had a drunk person outside my store attempt to proposition - sexually - the ficus plant. I didn't realize the plant could have been in mortal danger!

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    My parents own a couple of apartments they generally let out to students. One year when they inspected one they found the 18 year old occupants had decided to play darts. Without a dartboard. Just hey, let's throw darts at the wall. Was annoying to fix. Needless to say, no security deposits happened.

    Reflecting on this anecdote, maybe "slowly warming" was the wrong perspective. Weird behaviour can manifest a lot quicker.

  • notyanotya Registered User regular
    x
    shryke wrote: »
    Coinage wrote: »
    Bragging about how much you cranked it is puzzling. Maybe he just discovered hentai or something

    Honestly the longer MeToo goes on the more I just find it all puzzling. You go into this expecting certain kinds of blatant horrible sexism and abuse. And instead there's so many stories that are just "Wait, why would anyone even think of doing that?".

    It doesn't seem that weird to me. The gross conversations you have with you friends in college where everyone is trying to out-gross everyone else just never stops. This is true of many industries these days, but video game studios especially (by design) lack any kind of formality or sense of professional behavior in their offices. You can dress however you want, put toys all over your desk, etc. There's no real rules besides get stuff done. The sense of putting on a suit and work being a place of business kinda died off. Who is explaining to anyone that there are different rules in a workplace? No one. You just get a job out of college and have no reason to change your behavior.

    Another side is obviously how they're boy's clubs. But to continue my last point, in college, these people probably spent 95 percent of their time with the boys there as well.

  • HappylilElfHappylilElf Registered User regular
    Erlkönig wrote: »
    Forar wrote: »
    *sigh*

    My point was that it's likely a reporting fuckup. Unless they had horse pill sized mega doses, "they swallowed one bottle" is vastly more likely than "they tried to eat a crate of the damned things".

    You're focusing on the wrong part of the point I was trying to make. I don't care if it was 100 or 1000, I'm saying it seems a lot more likely the article fucked it up than they spent an evening with hundreds of thousands of pills (or whatever) and a small shovel.

    See, I think I'm focusing on the right part: people are bad at large-ish numbers (especially when it comes to metric units of measure). That's not directed at you specifically, but mainly at the reporting of the doses in question.

    No, you're just focusing on a useless tangent.

    Forar's point was "That seems unlikely because that would be an absurd number of pills!"

    Your counter is "Well, actually it would be an even larger absurd number of pills god why are people so bad at large-ish numbers (especially when it comes to metric units of measure)".

    Which doesn't really have anything to do with countering the point that Forar was trying to make or the issue at hand which brings us back to useless tangent.

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited July 2020
    notya wrote: »
    This is true of many industries these days, but video game studios especially (by design) lack any kind of formality or sense of professional behavior in their offices. You can dress however you want, put toys all over your desk, etc. There's no real rules besides get stuff done. The sense of putting on a suit and work being a place of business kinda died off. Who is explaining to anyone that there are different rules in a workplace? No one. You just get a job out of college and have no reason to change your behavior.

    Well to be fair a lot of "workplace professionalism" rules are arbitrary and tell people they can't have exposed tattoos, "unprofessional hairstyles" (dreadlocks and afros), have to dress in khakis and shit even if you work in a cubicle in a backroom, etc.

    Also I personally don't give a fuck if people have toys on their desks unless they're like hentai figures or something or you literally don't have enough room around Godzilla's tail for your paperwork.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    notya wrote: »
    This is true of many industries these days, but video game studios especially (by design) lack any kind of formality or sense of professional behavior in their offices. You can dress however you want, put toys all over your desk, etc. There's no real rules besides get stuff done. The sense of putting on a suit and work being a place of business kinda died off. Who is explaining to anyone that there are different rules in a workplace? No one. You just get a job out of college and have no reason to change your behavior.

    Well to be fair a lot of "workplace professionalism" rules are arbitrary and tell people they can't have exposed tattoos, "unprofessional hairstyles" (dreadlocks and afros), have to dress in khakis and shit even if you work in a cubicle in a backroom, etc.

    Yeah this isn't about that. It's not like wearing a suit made any other industry less likely to pull this crap.

  • notyanotya Registered User regular
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    notya wrote: »
    This is true of many industries these days, but video game studios especially (by design) lack any kind of formality or sense of professional behavior in their offices. You can dress however you want, put toys all over your desk, etc. There's no real rules besides get stuff done. The sense of putting on a suit and work being a place of business kinda died off. Who is explaining to anyone that there are different rules in a workplace? No one. You just get a job out of college and have no reason to change your behavior.

    Well to be fair a lot of "workplace professionalism" rules are arbitrary and tell people they can't have exposed tattoos, "unprofessional hairstyles" (dreadlocks and afros), have to dress in khakis and shit even if you work in a cubicle in a backroom, etc.

    Also I personally don't give a fuck if people have toys on their desks unless they're like hentai figures or something.

    There are different rules of behavior for when you're hanging out with the bros in your dorm room vs. when you're sitting at a conference table in an office. There are a variety of different ways to make this clear to people. Wearing a uniform can be one of them, not that I want that. The point I was trying to make is that if your organization is purposefully blending personal and professional lifestyles to where there isn't much of a difference, people will behave like they do privately in what should be professional settings.

  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    edited July 2020
    As much as people attack "workplace professionalism" rules, the alternatives quite simply haven't proven to be credible. There's more harassment and more exploitation on places without said rules.

    On topic, about the firm that Ubisoft is hiring for their "external investigation" is, you guessed it, an union-busting service:

    Reb Palacios is a senior UI developer and co-founder of Pixelles Montreal, a NGO dedicated to promote women in the gaming industry,


    Yeah fuck Ubisoft.

    TryCatcher on
  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    On other updates, the NotMethod guild was formed:

    That trailer includes the roster, which is the same crew except the former management for obvious reasons. It includes Fragnance, that 6 years ago when he was 18 shared nudes of his then girlfriend to his friends and had to own up to it and apologize after the Twitlonger went up. So there's that.

    There's some rumors running around on Reddit saying that Sco and "Darrie" tried to get the raiders to sign a document saying something among the lines of "Method management knew nothing and we raiders back them up", which was going to be the "stream annoucement". When they got told to fuck off (because besides being disgusting bullshit, is signing up to sink with the ship), "Darrie" left the org.

  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Coinage wrote: »
    Bragging about how much you cranked it is puzzling. Maybe he just discovered hentai or something

    Honestly the longer MeToo goes on the more I just find it all puzzling. You go into this expecting certain kinds of blatant horrible sexism and abuse. And instead there's so many stories that are just "Wait, why would anyone even think of doing that?".

    I once went on a date with a girl in college, and we were talking about old school SNES games and I said I had one at my house (was sharing a house with a couple other friends at the time) and asked if she would like to come back and play some. She said yes, so we went back to my place.

    My SNES was hooked up in my room, which was tucked way in the back of the house and behind another room.

    At the time, I didn't think anything of it, but she spent the entire time sitting far away, on the very very edge of the bed.

    I was so confused why she was sitting so far away, after she left I called my dad and asked him about it.

    Now I get it.

    Now I get it.

    LxX6eco.jpg
    PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
  • Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    notya wrote: »
    x
    shryke wrote: »
    Coinage wrote: »
    Bragging about how much you cranked it is puzzling. Maybe he just discovered hentai or something

    Honestly the longer MeToo goes on the more I just find it all puzzling. You go into this expecting certain kinds of blatant horrible sexism and abuse. And instead there's so many stories that are just "Wait, why would anyone even think of doing that?".

    It doesn't seem that weird to me. The gross conversations you have with you friends in college where everyone is trying to out-gross everyone else just never stops. This is true of many industries these days, but video game studios especially (by design) lack any kind of formality or sense of professional behavior in their offices. You can dress however you want, put toys all over your desk, etc. There's no real rules besides get stuff done. The sense of putting on a suit and work being a place of business kinda died off. Who is explaining to anyone that there are different rules in a workplace? No one. You just get a job out of college and have no reason to change your behavior.

    Another side is obviously how they're boy's clubs. But to continue my last point, in college, these people probably spent 95 percent of their time with the boys there as well.

    You are talking about the Crunch factor right?. I mean when you spend 12 hours a day, seven days a week for six months at work it is going to have a negative effect on peoples psyche . Like your basically living at the office only going home to shower and sleep. You don't have a personal life and don't meet people outside of work like at all. honestly, Boundary and professional issues would be a natural outcome and the people that would rise to the top would be the people that could stand the Crunch and leverage it to their advantage.

    Even if its not the cause, I am surprised that nobody is trying to blame the Crunch for their issues. We do know that overwork and stress causes mental deterioration and fatigue. Like its a get-out of jail free card right there for the taking.

    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Kipling217 wrote: »
    notya wrote: »
    x
    shryke wrote: »
    Coinage wrote: »
    Bragging about how much you cranked it is puzzling. Maybe he just discovered hentai or something

    Honestly the longer MeToo goes on the more I just find it all puzzling. You go into this expecting certain kinds of blatant horrible sexism and abuse. And instead there's so many stories that are just "Wait, why would anyone even think of doing that?".

    It doesn't seem that weird to me. The gross conversations you have with you friends in college where everyone is trying to out-gross everyone else just never stops. This is true of many industries these days, but video game studios especially (by design) lack any kind of formality or sense of professional behavior in their offices. You can dress however you want, put toys all over your desk, etc. There's no real rules besides get stuff done. The sense of putting on a suit and work being a place of business kinda died off. Who is explaining to anyone that there are different rules in a workplace? No one. You just get a job out of college and have no reason to change your behavior.

    Another side is obviously how they're boy's clubs. But to continue my last point, in college, these people probably spent 95 percent of their time with the boys there as well.

    You are talking about the Crunch factor right?. I mean when you spend 12 hours a day, seven days a week for six months at work it is going to have a negative effect on peoples psyche . Like your basically living at the office only going home to shower and sleep. You don't have a personal life and don't meet people outside of work like at all. honestly, Boundary and professional issues would be a natural outcome and the people that would rise to the top would be the people that could stand the Crunch and leverage it to their advantage.

    Even if its not the cause, I am surprised that nobody is trying to blame the Crunch for their issues. We do know that overwork and stress causes mental deterioration and fatigue. Like its a get-out of jail free card right there for the taking.

    They might have to actually do something to limit crunch if they did that.

  • CalicaCalica Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Coinage wrote: »
    Bragging about how much you cranked it is puzzling. Maybe he just discovered hentai or something

    Honestly the longer MeToo goes on the more I just find it all puzzling. You go into this expecting certain kinds of blatant horrible sexism and abuse. And instead there's so many stories that are just "Wait, why would anyone even think of doing that?".

    Lack of oversight allows one's sense of right and wrong to be like a frog in a slowly warming pot of water.

    Man, there's lack of oversight and then there's "masturbating into a potted plant in front of someone" and I feel fairly safe in saying most people were not expecting the latter when this all took off.

    People keep releasing men into the wild without properly socializing them first, is all I can figure.
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    As much as people attack "workplace professionalism" rules, the alternatives quite simply haven't proven to be credible. There's more harassment and more exploitation on places without said rules.

    You can allow jeans and (non-offensive) T-shirts at work and still have strict rules on interpersonal conduct.

    (The thing is that creative workers - which programmers absolutely are - have to be physically comfortable, whatever that means to the individual. So if you want your employees to be productive, you do actually need to be flexible, within reason, about what people are allowed to wear and surround themselves with. Yes to innocent desk toys; no to hentei desktop wallpaper. Etc.)

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • CalicaCalica Registered User regular
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    Hence the magical phrase, "Subject to manager's approval." (As in, the manager can always choose to ban a particular item. They can't allow something otherwise prohibited by company policy.)

  • DibbitDibbit Registered User regular
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    Aahh yes, the sterile Flex workplace, the ideal environment to be creative in.
    Not only does it sap the will to live out of you, it is also a constant reminder that your are but a cog in the machine, and can be replaced within 10 minutes.
    Bonus points if there if you have no fixed desk, and everyday you just get assigned a random empty one.

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Dibbit wrote: »
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    Aahh yes, the sterile Flex workplace, the ideal environment to be creative in.
    Not only does it sap the will to live out of you, it is also a constant reminder that your are but a cog in the machine, and can be replaced within 10 minutes.
    Bonus points if there if you have no fixed desk, and everyday you just get assigned a random empty one.

    Feel free to change your desktop wallpaper

    To any of the seven pre-approved images

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    CONFORM CONFORM CONFORM

    LxX6eco.jpg
    PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
  • CaedwyrCaedwyr Registered User regular
    Dibbit wrote: »
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    Aahh yes, the sterile Flex workplace, the ideal environment to be creative in.
    Not only does it sap the will to live out of you, it is also a constant reminder that your are but a cog in the machine, and can be replaced within 10 minutes.
    Bonus points if there if you have no fixed desk, and everyday you just get assigned a random empty one.

    Feel free to change your desktop wallpaper

    To any of the seven pre-approved images

    Look at Mx. Fancy here with the ability to change their corporate wallpaper.

  • DoodmannDoodmann Registered User regular
    edited July 2020
    Dibbit wrote: »
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    Aahh yes, the sterile Flex workplace, the ideal environment to be creative in.
    Not only does it sap the will to live out of you, it is also a constant reminder that your are but a cog in the machine, and can be replaced within 10 minutes.
    Bonus points if there if you have no fixed desk, and everyday you just get assigned a random empty one.

    See, I find this re-assuring because it means there is less pressure on me to hold it together. As long as I get my shit done it's off my desk and out of my mind.

    Doodmann on
    Whippy wrote: »
    nope nope nope nope abort abort talk about anime
    Sometimes I sell my stuff on Ebay
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    I feel like huge swaths of MeToo have been an abject lesson in why letting people decide what is and is not appropriate is not the smart play.

  • CalicaCalica Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    I feel like huge swaths of MeToo have been an abject lesson in why letting people decide what is and is not appropriate is not the smart play.

    Okay, but taken at face value there is literally no other alternative. The best anyone can do is try to create or join groups that agree with them on what is and is not appropriate behavior.

  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    Calica wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    I feel like huge swaths of MeToo have been an abject lesson in why letting people decide what is and is not appropriate is not the smart play.

    Okay, but taken at face value there is literally no other alternative. The best anyone can do is try to create or join groups that agree with them on what is and is not appropriate behavior.

    Just like at Ubisoft!

    steam_sig.png
  • IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Calica wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    I feel like huge swaths of MeToo have been an abject lesson in why letting people decide what is and is not appropriate is not the smart play.

    Okay, but taken at face value there is literally no other alternative. The best anyone can do is try to create or join groups that agree with them on what is and is not appropriate behavior.

    Or actually commit to a standard that's built around being proactively inclusive and actually pursuing change when someone brings up a lack of comfort.

    You don't really need nuance until you get to the question of how much you should accommodate extremely strict cultural practices, like bans on graven images or personal modesty.

  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-07-29-riot-signs-controversial-sponsorship-deal-with-saudi-arabia-city-project
    Riot signs controversial sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabia city project

    While simultaneously using LGBTQ+ logo.
    The deal will see Neom become the main partner for the LEC's summer season and sponsor a new "Oracle Lens" segment of the live broadcast, which along with a similar partnership with CS:GO tournament BLAST, should bring the project a fair amount of exposure. Neom is a cross-border city project planned for construction in the Tabuk province of Saudi Arabia. Backed by both the Saudi Arabian state and international investors, the megacity is supposed to represent the future of humanity, with plans made by Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman including flying cars, robot dinosaurs and a giant artificial moon (via Wall Street Journal [paywall]). Costing £400bn to complete, the city-state will cover an area the size of Belgium.

    There appears to be a far darker side to this high-tech city, however, as reports allege Saudi authorities are removing and even killing Huwaiti tribe members to make way for the project (via The Guardian). Following the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an act the CIA attributed to Salman, the crown prince allegedly told colleagues that "no one will invest [in the project] for years" due to the international outcry that followed (via The Financial Times [paywall]).
    This is the sort of thing I absolutely expect from Riot.

    The project they are getting sponsored by is the sort of horrific propaganda boondoggle that no company should want to touch with a 100 foot pole.

  • NosfNosf Registered User regular
    edited July 2020
    Zero tolerance policies are lazy AF.

    We looked at locking down the desktop background, but in 10 years with 70 up to now 450 staff, we've never had an issue. If there was an issue it would get addressed.

    Nosf on
  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Yeah, I've had the cover organisation from James Bond as the background on my government laptop for almost three years, and nobody's mentioned it

    Slightly different to one of those ahago girl pictures, obviously*

    Most of my colleagues have pets, kids, holiday pictures or something to do with sports

    *I'm pretty sure that's not how it's spelled and is probably an online-only fashion retailer, but I'm not about to Google it

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    The thing is with a lot of peoples desk top stuff. Seniority wins out for a lot of orgs, so someone could have an offensive desk or display, but because they have been there a long time a new employee would be told "oh that's just George he's not a bad person." And the new person immediately knows where the power is and its not with them.

    I've always kept my office stuff to pop culture funny stuff like a fall out bobble head. But outside of that my desk is pretty spartan.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • CaedwyrCaedwyr Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    The thing is with a lot of peoples desk top stuff. Seniority wins out for a lot of orgs, so someone could have an offensive desk or display, but because they have been there a long time a new employee would be told "oh that's just George he's not a bad person." And the new person immediately knows where the power is and its not with them.

    I've always kept my office stuff to pop culture funny stuff like a fall out bobble head. But outside of that my desk is pretty spartan.

    I've always avoided desk stuff problems by maintaining a deep strata of print-outs, old reports, scratch paper, full size drawing draft prints, maps, and other bits of paper mixed in with some unused chopsticks, soy sauce packets, almost dead pens, broken mechanical pencils, and 4 rulers. Has worked like a charm.

  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Caedwyr wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    The thing is with a lot of peoples desk top stuff. Seniority wins out for a lot of orgs, so someone could have an offensive desk or display, but because they have been there a long time a new employee would be told "oh that's just George he's not a bad person." And the new person immediately knows where the power is and its not with them.

    I've always kept my office stuff to pop culture funny stuff like a fall out bobble head. But outside of that my desk is pretty spartan.

    I've always avoided desk stuff problems by maintaining a deep strata of print-outs, old reports, scratch paper, full size drawing draft prints, maps, and other bits of paper mixed in with some unused chopsticks, soy sauce packets, almost dead pens, broken mechanical pencils, and 4 rulers. Has worked like a charm.

    Apparently I worked next to three of you...

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • NosfNosf Registered User regular
    Slight derail: Back in the day I worked at a large insurance company as an IT contractor. One summer they had one of the firefighter calendar drives and the dudes came in and signed the calendars, so basically all the cubes were filled with half naked calendar dudes. Whatever.

    I was fixing a printer in a cube and one of the women made some comment about the calendar and I offered, without missing a beat, that it was ok as I had a Sunshine Girl (bikini clad young women) calendar up at my desk. (Which wasn't true of course.) She gawked at me, the raw sexism of it! Her cubemates laughed and she went to say something, then closed her mouth, then opened it, then her cubemates started to laugh even louder. I can't even remember what was said, but I finished fixing their printer and wandered off to my next fix.

    After that I worked at a bank for their Y2K project, and they were rolling new desktops out (corporate desktops - not personal computers - we were to stress this!) and one of the things they agonized over was desktop wallpaper, yea or nay? Word from our staff liason was that there had never been an issue, but they went with a forced orange / dark green logo picture anyways, man that thing was fuckin' ugly. One of the higher up VPs actually said, "You wouldn't plaster your phone with pictures would you?" and my thought was, yeah, they do, they put stickers all over them.

    I *did* have a Sunshine girl calendar in my locker in high school and a supply teacher tore it down in a rage and stormed off with it. Nevermind that three lockers down, a girl I would go on to date had a playgirl centrefold up in her locker - schlong out and all. Anyways, my math teacher advised they couldn't actually do that to me and sent me to the office to collect my calendar - hey, it was $10 back then. I went down and one of the secretaries laughed, "Oh that was yours!" and handed me a box - a veritable treasure trove of confiscated erotica! Ladies with enormous chests (nipples unleashed in some cases) and even larger hair! (It was the 80s) and more than a few posters of dudes - a few with their dicks out no less! Anways, I just took the whole thing. I went back to my locker and put my calendar back up, but what to do with the other sexy treasures? I handed them out. That whole row of lockers was like a goddamn Playboy / Playgirl exhibition for the rest of the school year.

  • CalicaCalica Registered User regular
    Incenjucar wrote: »
    Calica wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Zero tolerance policies on desk decoration also save HR from protracted discussions on what constitutes offensive

    Nobody wants a two hour argument on why the Venus de Milo is acceptable when a clothed schoolgirl being penetrated by an octopus isn't (or vice versa), or how much cleavage is too much, etc

    I feel like huge swaths of MeToo have been an abject lesson in why letting people decide what is and is not appropriate is not the smart play.

    Okay, but taken at face value there is literally no other alternative. The best anyone can do is try to create or join groups that agree with them on what is and is not appropriate behavior.

    Or actually commit to a standard that's built around being proactively inclusive and actually pursuing change when someone brings up a lack of comfort.

    You don't really need nuance until you get to the question of how much you should accommodate extremely strict cultural practices, like bans on graven images or personal modesty.

    ...and the standard would still be "people decid[ing] what is and is not appropriate". It's not like these things are dictated from on high.

    I'm not disagreeing with you! There should be standards! Just, standards are always made by people, so saying it's not a good idea to let people decide is a nonsensical statement.

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