Currently in the trades and I personally haven’t seen too much of that but that may also be due to being in MN. We had one guy who was pretty bad but he moved back down to florida pretty quick because he hated living in a “liberal hellscape”.
I agree that most of the team aren’t always terribly politically correct in their speech but it’s always performative crassness with the boys without any actual hostile intent. For example shortly after I first got hired on I was helping a couple of more senior techs install a new piece of equipment and there was an issue with the equipment so our sales guy who sold it stopped down to check it out. He looked at the issue and said “Well, that’s fucking gay.” Then he noticed I was there (we hadn’t met yet) and he said “Wait, you’re not gay are you? Because that’s whatever. But this is gay. Uh… A different gay?” But other that stuff like that I’ve never heard bigotry with any actual intent behind it.
As far as misogyny goes I haven’t heard any from any of the team (other than the prick mentioned earlier). Of course that could also be because our dispatchers are women and pissing off dispatch is a sure fire way to get stuck with the worst jobs. As far as racism goes the closest I’ve heard is guys hating working on certain sites because most of the people there don’t speak english. But even then, the complaint is never about the people but rather about how much of a pain it is to try to communicate technical information across a language barrier.
That’s not to say I work with a bunch of saints of course. Some of my coworkers can be catty as fuck. But if any of the guys ever want to actually shit talk a coworker it’s always about the quality of their work or general intelligence. To your point about projection, it is usually the guys that do the worst work whining about the quality of others work.
It is also still a team of white men who are at least seemingly cishet. But at the same time, we’re perpetually hiring and at least over the past year we haven’t had any applicants who aren’t the same. So we’re exactly as diverse as our applicant pool.
I live in a very diverse area so that workplace was very diverse. I got to witness and experience a diverse range of hate. A lot of that hate was subtle to the point where it was easy to mistake it was a playful joke.
It was COVID that broke the walls down. Asking these guys who put all their personality into being “men” to care for their community (in this specific case, their coworkers) was taken as a personal attack and so they stopped being subtle with their hate. Standing back and reflecting, it was always hate. They were holding back because they didn’t feel embowered to speak their hate before COVID and the changes it brought.
Some guys absolutely hated that one project manager was a woman and had to take instructions from her. All the Chinese people were hated on because of COVID. So many guys were clearly threatened by the one openly gay guy working there even though the dude was minding his own business in the shipping department.
I have had so many guys attack the quality of my work but it was never about the quality of my work. It was because I worked by myself without their help, I worked efficiently because I focused on one task at a time, I put attention into the presentation of my work and because I was able to put boundaries down when it came to dealing with authority. It took me zero effort to make them feel insecure about themselves. Unsurprisingly, they lashed out at me.
That workplace was so toxic. I could live a healthier life in the wilds of Chernobyl compared to being there. I’m glad I kicked over the flaming garbage can on the way out.
Currently in the trades and I personally haven’t seen too much of that but that may also be due to being in MN. We had one guy who was pretty bad but he moved back down to florida pretty quick because he hated living in a “liberal hellscape”.
I agree that most of the team aren’t always terribly politically correct in their speech but it’s always performative crassness with the boys without any actual hostile intent. For example shortly after I first got hired on I was helping a couple of more senior techs install a new piece of equipment and there was an issue with the equipment so our sales guy who sold it stopped down to check it out. He looked at the issue and said “Well, that’s fucking gay.” Then he noticed I was there (we hadn’t met yet) and he said “Wait, you’re not gay are you? Because that’s whatever. But this is gay. Uh… A different gay?” But other that stuff like that I’ve never heard bigotry with any actual intent behind it.
As far as misogyny goes I haven’t heard any from any of the team (other than the prick mentioned earlier). Of course that could also be because our dispatchers are women and pissing off dispatch is a sure fire way to get stuck with the worst jobs. As far as racism goes the closest I’ve heard is guys hating working on certain sites because most of the people there don’t speak english. But even then, the complaint is never about the people but rather about how much of a pain it is to try to communicate technical information across a language barrier.
That’s not to say I work with a bunch of saints of course. Some of my coworkers can be catty as fuck. But if any of the guys ever want to actually shit talk a coworker it’s always about the quality of their work or general intelligence. To your point about projection, it is usually the guys that do the worst work whining about the quality of others work.
It is also still a team of white men who are at least seemingly cishet. But at the same time, we’re perpetually hiring and at least over the past year we haven’t had any applicants who aren’t the same. So we’re exactly as diverse as our applicant pool.
I caught the tradies who were doing my roof having an argument about Hamlet while in the queue for the chippy.
Which was a surprise.
I live in a very diverse area so that workplace was very diverse. I got to witness and experience a diverse range of hate. A lot of that hate was subtle to the point where it was easy to mistake it was a playful joke.
It was COVID that broke the walls down. Asking these guys who put all their personality into being “men” to care for their community (in this specific case, their coworkers) was taken as a personal attack and so they stopped being subtle with their hate. Standing back and reflecting, it was always hate. They were holding back because they didn’t feel embowered to speak their hate before COVID and the changes it brought.
Some guys absolutely hated that one project manager was a woman and had to take instructions from her. All the Chinese people were hated on because of COVID. So many guys were clearly threatened by the one openly gay guy working there even though the dude was minding his own business in the shipping department.
I have had so many guys attack the quality of my work but it was never about the quality of my work. It was because I worked by myself without their help, I worked efficiently because I focused on one task at a time, I put attention into the presentation of my work and because I was able to put boundaries down when it came to dealing with authority. It took me zero effort to make them feel insecure about themselves. Unsurprisingly, they lashed out at me.
That workplace was so toxic. I could live a healthier life in the wilds of Chernobyl compared to being there. I’m glad I kicked over the flaming garbage can on the way out.
Damn. That’s fucking awful. I’m sorry you had to deal with that. It makes me extra glad for the crew I work with.