Kathianne
07-01-2008, 04:55 AM
This doesn't look like it to me:
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2008/06/inherently_more.html
"inherently more offensive to women"
A simple cup of joe not always so simple
The days of women fetching coffee for the boss still linger in some workplaces
That was the headline on a story on the front page of the Business section of today's Inquirer. A perfectly good headline -- if disapproving in a feminist sort of way. But I couldn't find it online.
While the same article (by Jane M. Von Bergen) appears at the website, it has a different and more subdued headline "Hot controversy: Fetching coffee for the boss." A female receptionist was asked to get coffee for her boss. She refused, and was fired. So she brought suit in federal court alleging a "hostile and discriminatory work environment":
Nine minutes after receptionist Tamara Klopfenstein complained - for the second time - about getting her bosses coffee, she was fired.
"I don't expect to serve and wait on you by making and serving you coffee every day," Klopfenstein e-mailed to her boss at National Sales & Supply L.L.C., of Bensalem.
Manager Jason Shrager told her the issue wasn't "open for debate."
Instead, the issue caused a brouhaha in federal court.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller couldn't resist punning his way through a decision on the deeper issue - whether Klopfenstein's managers had created a hostile and discriminatory work environment by requiring the receptionist to fetch them coffee.
He wrote that she had no grounds for her complaints of sexual discrimination.
Please pour Judge Schiller decaf before he puns again.
"The act of getting coffee is not, by itself, a gender-specific act," Schiller wrote. The fact that a vice president wrote "looks nice, dresses well," on notes when she was hired also doesn't add up to discrimination, the judge wrote.
"While the behavior of plaintiff's supervisors may have been rude, gauche, or undesirable, their actions do not violate federal or state antidiscrimination laws," Schiller wrote.
Klopfenstein, who worked at the company for six weeks in 2006, plans to appeal, said her attorney, Timothy M. Kolman, of Langhorne.....
I went for an interview yesterday, (yes, got the job), for a summer position. For some reason I was careful about what I chose to wear, how my hair was done, and my body language throughout the interview. When I've been in a position to hire people, if they didn't take the time to make the best impression possible for an interview, why would I hire them? I know we were warned about writing such down, but seems things have improved on that front.
As for the getting coffee thing, since part of her job description was receptionist, seems reasonable. Considering she was there 6 weeks and complained twice, she may have had a bit of attitude problem?
I can remember my dad talking about 'coffee' being an issue for a short time where he worked, mind you he was retired over 20 years. It seems that in the 'old days' the 'secretaries' made the coffee. Pretty much it was a couple large rooms, with all of them sharing, more or less, the space. Most of them drank coffee, (and smoked). During the 'women's lib' times, one of the secretaries complained to my dad. He said, "Whoever takes the last cup, make more. If I'm getting myself a cup of coffee, I'll ask anyone around me if they'd like some while I'm up. How about everyone does the same?" End of problem, seems like common sense.
However, if a customer came in for a meeting, then coffee was expected to be brought into the conference room-he wasn't going that far. ;)
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2008/06/inherently_more.html
"inherently more offensive to women"
A simple cup of joe not always so simple
The days of women fetching coffee for the boss still linger in some workplaces
That was the headline on a story on the front page of the Business section of today's Inquirer. A perfectly good headline -- if disapproving in a feminist sort of way. But I couldn't find it online.
While the same article (by Jane M. Von Bergen) appears at the website, it has a different and more subdued headline "Hot controversy: Fetching coffee for the boss." A female receptionist was asked to get coffee for her boss. She refused, and was fired. So she brought suit in federal court alleging a "hostile and discriminatory work environment":
Nine minutes after receptionist Tamara Klopfenstein complained - for the second time - about getting her bosses coffee, she was fired.
"I don't expect to serve and wait on you by making and serving you coffee every day," Klopfenstein e-mailed to her boss at National Sales & Supply L.L.C., of Bensalem.
Manager Jason Shrager told her the issue wasn't "open for debate."
Instead, the issue caused a brouhaha in federal court.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller couldn't resist punning his way through a decision on the deeper issue - whether Klopfenstein's managers had created a hostile and discriminatory work environment by requiring the receptionist to fetch them coffee.
He wrote that she had no grounds for her complaints of sexual discrimination.
Please pour Judge Schiller decaf before he puns again.
"The act of getting coffee is not, by itself, a gender-specific act," Schiller wrote. The fact that a vice president wrote "looks nice, dresses well," on notes when she was hired also doesn't add up to discrimination, the judge wrote.
"While the behavior of plaintiff's supervisors may have been rude, gauche, or undesirable, their actions do not violate federal or state antidiscrimination laws," Schiller wrote.
Klopfenstein, who worked at the company for six weeks in 2006, plans to appeal, said her attorney, Timothy M. Kolman, of Langhorne.....
I went for an interview yesterday, (yes, got the job), for a summer position. For some reason I was careful about what I chose to wear, how my hair was done, and my body language throughout the interview. When I've been in a position to hire people, if they didn't take the time to make the best impression possible for an interview, why would I hire them? I know we were warned about writing such down, but seems things have improved on that front.
As for the getting coffee thing, since part of her job description was receptionist, seems reasonable. Considering she was there 6 weeks and complained twice, she may have had a bit of attitude problem?
I can remember my dad talking about 'coffee' being an issue for a short time where he worked, mind you he was retired over 20 years. It seems that in the 'old days' the 'secretaries' made the coffee. Pretty much it was a couple large rooms, with all of them sharing, more or less, the space. Most of them drank coffee, (and smoked). During the 'women's lib' times, one of the secretaries complained to my dad. He said, "Whoever takes the last cup, make more. If I'm getting myself a cup of coffee, I'll ask anyone around me if they'd like some while I'm up. How about everyone does the same?" End of problem, seems like common sense.
However, if a customer came in for a meeting, then coffee was expected to be brought into the conference room-he wasn't going that far. ;)