Lemmee 'xplain.
The office I work out of is a big room with 12 tables for the Teaching Associates and one sort of cubicle for the part timer. Any who, I am the oldest in the room by one year, by the calender. The divide is much greater than that.
If someone is in office hours, the door is open. If no one is, most of the time the door is shut. The problem comes from the really inappropriate, nasty, sexual, sexist and general immature conversations that go on no matter if the door is open or closed.
I just completed my training at the other job for harassment, both the not how to harass and how to handle harassment as a supervisor. Oh My God. It has really been bothering me. I mean, its bad, really bad.
I mentioned it to one of the other TAs when we left to get food and she asked what she could do to help. I came up with the idea that we all needed to be responsible for our office hours when the door is open.
It happened today. When someone is telling a story and is repeating what happened, which involves screaming "She's a cum-sucking whore", yeah, I had to step in. So I used my, 'the door is open, maybe we should watch our language.' It worked.
Then it happened again this afternoon. I always start with, "Is someone in office hours?" I try to point out that I am not being a stick in the mud, I am trying to make sure we are not opening the office up to harassment allegations and more importantly, we look professional. So I used the maybe we should watch what we say line... It didn't work, they quieted down for a moment and then started back up again. And I had to go to my other job so I grabbed my bag and left.
So there is the story behind my comment early, delivered when I returned to the TA office from the other job. Its frustrating. I don't have time nor the energy to deal with this kind of crap. Its so juvenile.
This has been a heck of a year so far...
2 comments:
What about a "cuss jar" or a "potty-mouth fund"? You know, 5 cents for words, 25 cents for sexist terms, or just a flat-fee for violating the potty-mouth policy. You could set terms, and then spend the money on something the whole office wanted, like pie. (Pie? Yeah, I want pie!)
Sorry to hear your office is not such a comfortable place to be. Is there a faculty advisor that could maybe drop a general comment to the TAs? Sometimes these things carry more weight if they come from a superior. Although it shouldn't matter. You work there too and I don't think asking people not to make nasty sexist comments is unreasonable. Grrrr.
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