Bloody people
May. 24th, 2011 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pezAt work, we used to have boxes from these guys. They have a selection of snacks, and every time you take something out you put £1 in the box. The box isn't secure and it's just left in the kitchen all the time.
Last week, the head of the office says that the box is being withdrawn because at the last collection there was a shortage of £39.
My manager's immediate reaction, which I supposed would've been in line with most people's, was "it must be the cleaners."
...What?
The kitchen is out of the main office's direct view - anybody could have done it easily. Unless you're very close friends with everybody in the office and therefore feel some sort of loyalty towards them, why are you outruling the possibility that somebody in the company could've stolen money?
Why must it be the cleaners? Is it because they only come in when we aren't here and therefore you've never met them? Is it because they earn a low wage? Is it because they're mostly women? Do any of these reasons make them more suspicious?
For all I care, somebody in the office could've done it. To accuse the cleaners specifically when there is no evidence whatsoever is saying "I don't know/understand those people so they are suspicious/wrong/criminal/bad."
That is how most forms of discrimination and phobias come about, isn't it?
Last week, the head of the office says that the box is being withdrawn because at the last collection there was a shortage of £39.
My manager's immediate reaction, which I supposed would've been in line with most people's, was "it must be the cleaners."
...What?
The kitchen is out of the main office's direct view - anybody could have done it easily. Unless you're very close friends with everybody in the office and therefore feel some sort of loyalty towards them, why are you outruling the possibility that somebody in the company could've stolen money?
Why must it be the cleaners? Is it because they only come in when we aren't here and therefore you've never met them? Is it because they earn a low wage? Is it because they're mostly women? Do any of these reasons make them more suspicious?
For all I care, somebody in the office could've done it. To accuse the cleaners specifically when there is no evidence whatsoever is saying "I don't know/understand those people so they are suspicious/wrong/criminal/bad."
That is how most forms of discrimination and phobias come about, isn't it?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 10:24 am (UTC)(At least in this office, the cleaner is our boss's aunt. Which provides a nice slapdown to any thoughts people might have in that direction.)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 10:33 am (UTC)I had a rant about it with F during the site visit last week. It was good to know she was as enraged as I was.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 10:43 am (UTC)I'd be pretty annoyed by that random assumption, though.