Corporate America

In spite of looming deadlines, "eager" customers, project dependencies hinging on a timely completion of my project -- I spent an hour and a half this morning in a Sexual Harassment Training seminar; or was it Sexual Harassment Awareness? No. It was just Harassment Awareness. Whatever the case, I sub-titled the handout, Tips & Tricks. It made the whole thing more enjoyable.

You see, each employee must attend such a seminar each year, and the auditorium had quite a few people in it. I brought along my phone so that I could do some reading in case the class was even half as boring as I expected it to be - that is, some drivel ejected by an HR bimbo - but instead a lawyer taught the class from the perspective of the legal definition of harassment. Very entertaining stuff. For instance, she said viewing porn sites, or otherwise storing porn at one's desk was prohibited. AND, she said that groping other employees was also prohibited. You learn something new every day....

The final portion of the class was comprised of several conversational questions. The second one went exactly like this:

Victor went on vacation to the south of France.
He sent a postcard depicting a number of topless
women sunbathing to the guys at the office. The
guys decide to hang the postcard on the bulletin
board because there are a number of sexist
cartoons already hanging there.

The lawyer followed up with the question, "what three groups are at fault here?" No one said anything so I finally suggested, "France".