Vocal Voices

There is this woman, Ms Ann Francke, head of the Chartered Management Institute, who wants to ban office chat about sports because some women can feel left out and it can lead to laddish behaviour.

Err, 'laddish', isn't that a bit sexist with a hint of misandry thrown in and also stereotypical?

Imagine the outcry if a Mr Andrew Francke had said similar about soaps, makeup and all those many other subjects of no interest to men.

People like Ms Francke just seem to be out to divide us based on their ideology of how things should be. It is they who should have their chatterings monitored.

I was wondering what would be next to be banned! Crackers.

When I started work, office chat was banned, unless it was with regard to work.

People today don't know how lucky they are.

When I started office work in the '70s they were dreadfully sexist places, with men thinking it was ok to pass remarks on your clothing, or various parts of anatomy! At one DHSS office I worked in, the men drew up a chart of how attractive they rated the female staff, in order of merit

Thankfully those days are gone, but banning sports' talk does sound way OTT!

Kaz wrote:When I started office work in the '70s they were dreadfully sexist places, with men thinking it was ok to pass remarks on your clothing, or various parts of anatomy! At one DHSS office I worked in, the men drew up a chart of how attractive they rated the female staff, in order of merit

They did an episode similar to that on Men Behaving Badly in the 1990s!! It WAS funny though....even better when the women returned the favour

I also started office work in the 70's, Kaz; thankfully I never encountered anything like that, though. Way out of line.

But now the pendulum seems to be swinging too far the other way. This at a time when we are all being encouraged to "Get Britain Talking", too!