Every boss who is creepy loves Christmas a lot, but this Grinch looking out for young workers DOES NOT!
Itap not that I don’t like the parties, the cheer, the nonstop rejoicing from fall to New Year’s. We gather co-workers, their spouses and others. We drink and we dance and we honor old codgers.
We toast our performance at work the past year with booze or champagne, or maybe craft beer. Then we drink to the boss and his loyal VP, and try to protect the young staff ’fore they flee.
’Cuz right there before us the dudes are all drooling and buying more drinks as if they are fooling the rest of us here who are watching with fears as the youngest of interns endure their crude leers.
The jokes they get raunchy, the games more persistent, the boss, grey and paunchy, beguiles his assistant. A hug and a squeeze, then he’s mimicking spankin’. He thinks he’s real funny, as if he’s Al Franken.
The lewd chief accountant who works in finances is pressuring interns for hugs and sly dances. They smile and they laugh, and politely decline. He scowls and complains and then chugs all his wine.
Way out in the foyer, and smelling of horse, the company lawyer is trying to force the hostap teenage daughter to take a house tour. He’s crude and repulsive, an ersatz Roy Moore!
And just when the party could not get more racy, the VP starts acting just like Kevin Spacey. He’s pawing the guy at a distant dark table who makes his escape just as soon as he’s able.
The rest of us try to the best that we can to rescue young staffers, the women, the man. We go to the bosses and ask them to dance, then we tell them we’ll give them a final last chance to knock off the jokes, the ridiculous pranks or else we’ll report them just like ol’ Trent Franks.
The company’s owners should heed all the warnings. ’Cuz women are fed up, and bastions they’re storming. The big #MeToo movement has really caught fire. For jerks and harassers, the future is dire.
Just look at that rich guy from North Carolina who stifled accusers by paying a fine — a real shameless endeavor at age 81, a final comeuppance for Jer’ Richardson.
But …
For all of the women and, yes, some men, too, this sudden outpouring is way overdue.
Itap surely not easy, just talk to Faith Winter! The backlash is brutal, support — it can splinter.
Not everything’s sexy, accused creeps will say. Sometimes itap just joking, just innocent play. They’re sick of the women who come forth to whine, as if all were victims of Harvey Weinstein.
The skeptics will say it’s a hunt by some witches who call it harassment when anyone twitches. But #MeToo accusers are taking new ground in a war against workplace abuse thatap profound.
So …
As all of us bask in the season of lights, the burning of candles and cool LEDs, itap time to stop raging against the dark nights and look to each other to stop all the sleaze.
There’s no need to freak out ’bout new office rules, or cheap lie detectors that play us for fools. Just try to stay sober and don’t take the chance when the party is over that you’ve lost your pants.
For bosses who don’t want to come off as creepers, just think of your workers as equals then, jeepers, remember to give the respect they deserve and even if drunk, please don’t act like a perv.
For workers, the secret is being polite and telling the boss his advances aren’t right. And then if he cans you, you know what to do. Just ring up the lawyers at ACLU.
So here’s to a Christmas where everyone sees we’re in this together. We’re not enemies.
A Hanukkah gift of real joy and a respite from folks taking shots in the war of the sexes.
And here’s to a year with a whole lot less spleen.
Here’s to love, hope and peace.
Here’s to 2018!
Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant and a regular columnist for The Denver Post.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
