Transphobic comments

Intentionally silencing the truth

  • @FishFace
    link
    110 months ago

    What does that mean in practice? The only way to “not tolerate” abusive behaviour in this context is reactive - blacklist the number, report the incident to the police if it was so bad it might constitute a breach of the law, etc. But the effect on the working environment has already happened, employees will still be calling new numbers, and will still receive abuse. Similarly, in the example above, HR could have a policy to report comments people come across, but the same situation occurs: the effect on the working environment already happened, and there will be more bigoted comments out there.

    It’s not the employer’s job to shield their employees from every possible abuse they might encounter when interacting with the public through phones, the internet or indeed real life. They do have a duty (depending on jurisdiction) to take reasonable steps to protect them from abuse, but do you not see how while it’s reasonable to remove a customer saying bigoted stuff to someone working in a shop, it’s not reasonable to disable effective internet access in a job where you need access to third party libraries?

    • @RegalPotoo
      link
      English
      110 months ago
      1. If you aren’t in the US, it absolutely is the employers responsibility to ensure their employers aren’t forced to endure abuse from the public
      2. I’ve worked with call centers extensively, and yes, that is exactly the recourse - block the number if they are calling, issuing trespass orders if they are in-person, and tearing up contracts if they are customers
      • @FishFace
        link
        110 months ago

        Right, so in 2. your employer has failed to ensure you aren’t forced to endure abuse. You endured the abuse and then the took action to prevent it from coming from the same source again. You would suffer again in the future.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      110 months ago

      In practice it means that employees are allowed to end the call at will rather than “having” to continue to deal with them. That’s the difference and it’s as simple as that. No one is asking the employers to shield their employees from every possible harm.

      • @FishFace
        link
        110 months ago

        Right so in practice employees shouldn’t have to interact with people on github who are abusing them, but OP was making it sound like they had to do more than that, to me.