Just a vent really ...

Ann Chovie

Ploughing my own furrow
Joined
Apr 4, 2013
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417
Sorry this is just a vent really..

I am at on a long and tedious weeks training course at work in an organisation whose whole ethos is built on non-judgemental, non-discriminatory support of disadvantaged groups. Where every comment we make and every case file we write up is under strict scrutiny for signs of non-PC activity.

And today.. the manager of MIND was presenting a very interesting run down of their service and breaking down old perceptions of mental health, and taking questions from the floor. A volunteer starts to describe her difficulty dealing with clients who cannot deal with their own affairs and her lack of confidence in determining the reasons why. And she suddenly blurts out ' How on earth do I decide if they are unoperative or whether they are just plain mental?

Several people shook their heads and tutted but no-one, not the guy from MIND, my CEO, my mate at the back who had arranged the event , no one. A room full of super duper important heads of volunteer service providers and Council reps and no one spoke. I did not either because I was forcing myself to stay in my chair and not poke her eyes out!

What I actually did was wait until the tea break and seek her out but she had left . So I called my CEO into the office and made a formal complaint about his lack of intervention and her inappropriate words. He sheepishly shrugged his shoulders and said that lots of people were talking about it over the lunch (which strangely I chose to pass on). He asked if I wanted to make a formal complaint and I assured him that I did.

I am more angry and disappointed that he did not see fit to intervene than I am with the woman that said it. I put it down to keeping the training seminar 'nice' and not displaying any cracks in our perfect organisational team. Disgusting.

No one in the office thought it was worth missing their ham sandwiches for either and shrugged and wished I would shut up. So I gave them the senario they might react to ..of someone describing a black client as a N***** or an Asian client as a P****. And I asked them would they be so dismissive then?

Of course they all looked sheepish and carried on munching on their ham sandwiches ..couldnt grasp the double standard at all strangely!!

So nothing to say really except :mad::mad::mad:
 
:fp: It shows how much progress we need to make when comments like that are made so casually.
 
:fp: It shows how much progress we need to make when comments like that are made so casually.
I agree Moll..it was dismissed by a supervisor as a 'slip of the tongue' in other words she forgot her PC training and said what she really thought!

Very disappointed with several people today. :(