Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Alan MacHett" <machett AT ibiblio.org>]

Michael Winslow Czeiszperger said:
>
>> On Monday, October 13, 2003, at 10:34  PM, Alan MacHett wrote:
>> [snip]
>
> ...In real life people have different types of relationships and
> different ways of communicating based on the situation. Do you really
> think that you would talk the same to a woman you're trying to pick up
> in a bar as a women in a business meeting? or to your grandmother? or
> your boss?
>

Of course people speak differently to their parents than they would their
friends than they would their bosses.  You're complicating the issue by
inserting power differentials.  All things being equal, there shouldn't be
any general difference between actions and speech among coworkers and
among friends and among relatives (of equal status: siblings, cousins,
etc.)

As for the woman in a bar vs. the woman in the business meeting...  Well,
I would hope so.  My intentions might be different, but I would hope that
the level of respect and the general manner of my speech and actions would
be the same [of course, maybe this is why I'm still single...]
But then again, that's a complicated issue; and who knows, maybe it would
be the woman in the business suit I'd be hitting on. ;)


> I'm sure that people have the right to speak as they wish in any
> situation, but as a boss I reserve the right to fire anyone who curses
> in front of customers all of the time or tries to mimic ejaculation on
> my computer screen because they can't tell the difference between
> what's appropriate in a bar with his buddies and what's appropriate at
> work.
>

Again, off the mark.  Like I've said before, an insult is an insult
regardless of the language involved; and rudeness or stupidity are not
acceptable anywhere.  Personally, I wouldn't find any of the above-listed
actions acceptable regardless of the venue, be that the workplace or a
bar: any limited vocabulary suggests the need for a good dictionary or
thesaurus, and any twit who thinks overt sexual mimicry is humorous should
never have been let out of the frat house.

-Alan