This lady is a friend of mine and let me tell you that she is a nicer person than I am. She could have had the asshole's job for what he said.
This reminds me of what one of my managers at IBM did. One of the instructors I worked with got pregnant. She didn't have a husband and no, she was not black. She had been dating another instructor about this time. At the going away party for another instructor who had just been promoted, my manager asked the guy this instructor had been dating if he was the father of her child. That was not a very bright thing to do.
The female instructor found out about it and was in his office the very next day. She ran him over the coals, or as she told me, "Dennis (she always called me Dennis), I held his balls in my hand."
I asked her why she diddn't squeeze them off? She told me that he was so frightened that his face turned white. He was black. Had she wanted to, she could have had his job.
A year later, at the going away party of the instructor whom my manager had asked about his being the father, my manager asked him once again if he were the father. Not only was my manager an asshole, he was an idiot.
Posted by denny at October 26, 2005 10:24 PMI see there are mental giants (/sarcasm) everywhere.
This yo-yo will screw up again, Denny. When he does, the ground work has been laid and the incident documented.
When that happens I'll be the rich bitch riding on his back as his forks over the cash. Then you and I will swap "It's good to be retired" stories.
I hope you enjoyed your birthday.
Looking forward to seeing you in April, if we don't manage to get together before then.
; )
Posted by: Christina on October 26, 2005 10:45 PMHow about a mini-meet in San Antonio in January? I hope you take that sexist ashole down!
Posted by: Denny on October 26, 2005 10:50 PMi'm lost here. what's the bfg?
Posted by: joe on October 27, 2005 12:03 AMmake that a "d" instead of a "g"
Posted by: joe on October 27, 2005 12:06 AMJoe, I agree, you are lost (by which I mean "clueless").
The BFD is: "If you wouldn't take kindly to someone saying that to your wife or daughter, then why is OK to say it to someone else's wife and daughter?"
Posted by: Bob on October 27, 2005 01:32 PMI'm clueless with Joe on this one. She was single. She dated a co-worker. She got pregnant. At a social gathering the boss asked, out of curiosity, if the other fella was the father. I don't see an insult. I don't see intimidation or threats of any action. Call me all the names necessary, but can someone explain to me (and all others with a 6 year old's mentality) why it would be that she now "had his balls in her hand"? I just don't see how she gained any power over him. I only see this as a tact-less thing for the boss to do.
Posted by: Travis on October 27, 2005 02:41 PMThe topic is what happened to Christina, not what it reminded Denny of. Would you just click on the link and read the danged story?
Sheesh!
Posted by: Bob on October 27, 2005 03:24 PMTravis and Joe - You obviously weren't around in the days before Clinton when feminists were real big on sexual harassment. Thanks to Clinton,and the one free grope rule, sexual harassment guidelines have been set back about 40 years. Asking an unwed mother who the father of her baby was, or asking someone else if he were the father was getting way too personal with an employee, especially if you were a manager. This was office gossip of the worst sort. This guy could have gotten fired from IBM for this and he knew it.
Posted by: Denny on October 27, 2005 04:31 PMDenny, sadly I suspect Travis's comment also reveals a change in both attitude and diction that we old goats tend to miss -- you wrote, "She had been dating another instructor ..." but I'm guessing that Travis understood you to mean, "She'd been fucking this other instuctor ..."
Sorry, but those innocent days when a young man was assumed to be taking a lady out to get to know her (in a way other than Biblically) are long passed.
Posted by: Bob on October 27, 2005 05:18 PMBob - Actually she had been fucking the other instructor as well, but they had stopped seeing each other before she got knocked up. At least that's what the two of them said. Either way, it was not the manager's business. Also it was not my business, even tho' she told me it was an old boyfriend who had passed through town. I didn't ask who the father was, she told me of her own volition. I had known her for quite some time as we had been CE's together back in St. Louis. Either way, she had decided to have the baby and raise him by herself.
Posted by: Denny on October 27, 2005 05:28 PMBob - I should have been clear. I wasn't referring to the linked article, i was referring to the IBM story. I just don't think that's a bfd.
Posted by: joe on October 27, 2005 07:02 PMA lot of what Denny writes you could say 'BFD' (actually, that sums up most peoples day-to-day life), but it's very entertaining social commentary.
Posted by: StlCdr on October 28, 2005 09:08 AMJoe, I tend to agree that the incident Denny related was no big deal. But then that just emphasizes Denny's point -- if a supervisor could get in trouble for a stupid question about paternity, then Christina's incident is definitely a BFD.
Posted by: Bob on October 28, 2005 12:08 PM