http://web.archive.org/web/20050209050454/www.thislife.org/pages/trax/text/adm2.html

wrong interpretation of the Hurd story. Some clarity provided here:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/10/mark-hurd-lowest-approval/

The CEO is a flag bearer. If he cannot rally the troops to follow him into battle then he needs to be ditched. That’s what the board of directors did — in the most humiliating way possible.

The only thing worst they could have done was allege that he had pedophile material on his work computer.

Daphne, I did not have investment bankers in mind as employees of good reputation (exclamation mark). Look what they have done to the banking system and to themselves.

Then there I go. U ijja, I rest my case.

“Businesses are there to make money and not to police gender issues or protect fragile egos. No business is going to sack a valuable employee because he has been rude to a less valuable employee.”
Not sure I can agree with this. This man has earned a lot of money for his shareholders, but he was sent packing (in spin language, he resigned) just last week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10900198

In the Anglo-Saxon countries, sexual harassment at the work place is deemed to be a very serious issue. No one would laugh if a joke contains a hint of sexual discrimination or harassment.

In those countries, if a business is somehow associated with a lax culture on sexual discrimination or harassment, it will simply not attract good employees who care about their reputation and the reputation of the company they work for.

[Daphne – Bollocks. Ask around about the culture in investment banking, for example, or any other business where part of established practice is entertaining clients at lap-dancing clubs.]

Was it really bullying? If anything it was pub talk…

I think we’re stretching the term here… this isn’t kinder or primary school

From my limited reading of the situation: she seems to have been last to get to the meeting since there where no chairs left. What if the meeting was starting late because some felt it was ok to dilly dally.

Then she had the cheek to act like the damsel-in-distress looking for her knight-in-shining-armour. Is that equality for you?

Interesting point. Some are now blaming an increase in depression amongst youths to helicopter parenting and the past decades’ fad of ’empowering’ children by telling them they’re special instead of making them work for it…and teaching them how to extract value/recompense from their work.

Being such a loser, this idiot has been making people’s lives hell for many years. Most, those with better mobility, end up leaving the company. The less fortunate simply accept the abuse and try to build a perverse sense of normality.

Unfortunately the HR manager at this company is a victim of the person involved and higher management seem to accept the antics. Ask around.

[Daphne – The point is, Marika, no man would have had the guts to speak to me like that in the first place, and this even before I acquired a national reputation. The question to ask is, why? Victims either have it written on their foreheads that they are weak and frightened or they are the type to ‘engage’ with the bully, entering into a relationship of reciprocal banter that becomes a form of play in itself. With men like that, you have to first make sure that you are not the type they are going to bully and, should they misjudge the situation, the only permanent solution is to cut them up verbally. And I mean cut them up, not just a witty wisecrack.]

However, I wouldn’t have rushed out in tears, I wouldn’t have stayed off work, I wouldn’t have had a nervous breakdown, I wouldn’t have even contemplated the Industrial Tribunal.

I would have just ignored the man and gone off and got a chair for myself.

And I’m sure that’s what most women would have done. These sort of remarks are so common in the workplace that if everyone, male and female, went to the tribunal there would be a waiting list to rival Mater Dei’s.