I went into a bathroom (unisex, public, marble floors, sculptures..etc) at a construction company I was working with. I looked through the vanity cabinet to try to locate a band-aid.
In the bottom drawer my search revealed, a drawer *FULL* of the filthiest, raunchiest pornographic magazines I have ever seen.
I mentioned it to my superior, and he responded with "Thats normal. It's like that everywhere, Is this your first time in construction?"
Aside from being highly unprofessional, is this in fact normal for this type of job?
What do you think?
2007-01-15 09:43:06 · 17 answers · asked by steak n' eggs 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
I must clarify that this was a company, not a job site. This is where the VP, CEO, etc reside. All middle to upper management. This is the main office where they bring clients to. Also, there were quite a few women there too!
2007-01-15 10:21:14 · update #1
I think it is very unprofessional. It is sad that the superior thinks it is "normal." It reminds me of the kind of horrible working environment in the movie, "North Country." The mining company was sued. These people better get a more professional attitude--sounds like they are so backwards and unprofessional. This incident and other incidents in my experience show how much sensitization training in schools is needed to deter bullying, sexual harassment, etc. early on. You are very brave to address this issue. I only hope it gives your supervisor a wake-up call even though he acted like nothing was wrong. I hope you don't get fired for speaking up. So good to know there are some good people like you who know that having porn at work is wrong and unprofessional. Those people at this construction company know that a woman could easily have seen the porn, and then felt victimized and threatened in that workplace. It is even possible that it was left there for a woman to see--maybe a female janitor. The victimizers (people with the porn) would try to justify it and blame it on the woman by saying they hid it under the sink. The truth is the porn should not be in the workplace at all because the cleaning people, children coming to visit, women working there, and female clients would see it if they were innocently looking for a band-aid or toilet paper or paper towels. It is also wrong to promote porn in the workplace because it seems to be encouraging people to be in a porn mindset while they are at work. It is like a slap in the face--there you are taking your job seriously, and they have porn around the place like they want to press their bad values on you and misrepresent why you are there (to work, not look at porn). The porn does not belong in the workplace.
2007-01-15 10:43:48 · answer #1 · answered by FlowersinWinter 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You are working in an industry that has been dominated my males for years. While things change, attitudes don't change that fast. Guys still like their porn, and guys will always like porn. Women like porn to, but just aren't as demonstrative as men are. and they tend to keep it to themselves.
Until society gets turned around to where you can walk into a bathroom at a construction company and not find porn, try not to look in that drawer. Just like TV, if you don't like whats on, change the channel. Things will change, but you have to give it time.
Now my next question is, if you were so offended, how did you know that all the magazines were the filthiest porn? How did you know that all the magazines were porn?
2007-01-15 17:55:24 · answer #2 · answered by David L 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Well I have worked in oil refinery construction and on site, you are lucky if the toilets have doors. Without a word of a lie, you had to take a newspaper with you to hold up in frot of you during the performance.
As for a head office, i thought the place was full of wankers, but now I know for sure.
2007-01-15 18:10:15 · answer #3 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes.
Pick your battles wisely though. Don't expect you're going to be applauded as a workplace hero for exposing sexuual harassment. Life is not a sitcom and 10 times out of 10 being the so-called whistleblower will lead to ostracism and get you labelled as a trouble maker.
2007-01-15 18:23:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's a construction company, of course its normal. How often do you really see a female working in the construction field? They are your typical guys, they like girls and they'll look at them whenever they get a chance even if it is a magazine while they're on the toilet. They're pervs, get used to it.
2007-01-15 17:51:04 · answer #5 · answered by mandapandaz80 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
If the stuff was in the bottom drawer, and you don't like it, then my answer to you is simple - Don't open that drawer anymore. Don't make a big deal out of nothing.
2007-01-15 18:42:36 · answer #6 · answered by sincarnato 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I don't know if it's normal, but does it really matter? It's not worth complaining over and being ostracized by co-workers and making enemies. Maybe the janitor or UPS delivery guy left them there right before you came in?
2007-01-15 19:28:19 · answer #7 · answered by Rapunzel XVIII 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
That sounds terrible. I hope you don't look at them. I thought the same thing as Olivia -- maybe those magazines belong to your boss?
This can be considered sexual harrassment, by the way, and you might consider mentioning that to your boss or the HR department.
2007-01-15 18:42:18 · answer #8 · answered by drshorty 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Dudes whacking off in a unisex bathroom at work is not normal no matter how it's explained.
2007-01-15 18:11:35 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
If you were going through somebody else's vanity, first of all SHAME on you. Second it is very considerate of them to put them in the bottom drawer of THEIR vanity. They could have left them right on top of it. You might better be looking to correct your errors, not somebody else's that was being considerate.
2007-01-15 17:51:01 · answer #10 · answered by Speedbuggy43 4 · 4⤊ 2⤋