Hello and welcome back to another day at the office, and another day in the breakroom. I do want to apologize for my absence; between some illness floating around my household and being forced to expel Microsoft Edge off my computer, it has been a crazy few weeks. Thankfully, I’m just in time today because Michael has been pretty busy since the moment the day started. He has gotten onto one of his email forwarding kicks so if you don’t see anything in your inbox, you might want to check your spam folder like Jim had to. Spoiler alert, the email includes a copy of “30 Signs Your Priest Might be Michael Jackson.” Michael considers himself the “king of forwards” because this is how he likes to do business, keeping everyone laughing and in a good mood.
This brings up a very important topic about email etiquette in the workplace. For those of you who have not worked in an office setting, email procedure goes beyond simply including your signature or having a solid title. Companies traditionally have a set of formal guidelines in place which can dictate font, color, and signature details. Traditionally, emailing within the company to your colleagues should be done professionally without including lots of emojis or inappropriate language 1. When it comes to forwarding emails in the workplace, these practices should still hold true in that the nature of the email should relate to professional material. I found some insight from ScoreCEO which has a post dedicated to email forwarding in the workplace. Among these rules: do not forward a post which states it must be forward (chain emails), if someone requested to not received forwards please respect their wishes, and you should at least include some sort of comment along with the forward2. I believe it is safe to say that Michael has not seen these sources as he breaks several of these rules on a frequent basis. He likes the “chain emails” that must be sent to so many individuals or you will have bad luck, his forwards do not pertain to work, and he sends them out as he likes without caring if the recipient wants to be included. When working in an office/corporate environment, please be sure to adhere to email etiquette as you truly can face consequences.
So if what prompts Michael to continuously keep up with his antics? The fact that he does have those you encourage his jokes; all it takes is one to validate his sense of humor. The ever-loyal Dwight is there offering up video idea including an incredibly inappropriate, and disturbing, monkey sex video. But most of all we have Todd Packer, which I believe this might be your first time meeting him, right? Currently a traveling salesman usually out on the road, he has known Michael since they started so he is probably his best friend. While Michael’s jokes are to keep people in a good mood and like him, Todd is just simply crude and sort of says whatever he wants because he thinks he is amazing. I think his salutation to Jim sort of sums him, “Hey Halpert, still queer?” Though today, he has some grade-A gossip about what is happening over at the corporate office in that our CFO (Chief Financial Officer) Randall has resigned out of the blue. Seems he has been having an affair with his secretary and she recently went public with the situation which resulted in Randall needing to step down.
It should go without saying that relationships between managers and their subordinates are quite often scrutinized, and for good reason. When they are kept secret, you have to wonder if one, or both, are married and are often see as someone in a position of power coercing someone into sexual situations. The #metoo movement helped shine a long overdue light on this difference in power is consistently exerted in the workplace to put people into difficult situations where they truly fear for their jobs if they do not give in to these unwanted advances. Sexual harassment in the workplace can come in many forms and have been known to be vastly ignored over the years because a great deal of it comes down to a “he-said, she-said” scenario and might not be taken seriously. But if you feel you are receiving inappropriate advances, you should absolutely feel empowered to put a stop to it, including going to Human Resources if needed. While I do not know all of the details between Randall and his secretary, the biggest red flag was that it was kept secret. If they are two single people, they should have reported this to HR to stay above board. Due to their professional relationship, what could have been done was the secretary could have been reassigned to ensure to remove the ability where Randall could have given his secretary unfair privilege, or else chosen to simply fire her. Each company has their own procedure but when you try to hide a relationship like that, you should know there is a problem with it and the situation should be evaluated. More importantly, Packer’s comments about the secretary are precisely the reason why most people do not come forward with claims about harassment or feeling pressured to accept unwarranted advances. Victims are often blamed as being an equal participant in these acts, when it truly is not always as simple as that when one of them holds such power and authority over them.
On a lighter note, evidently Pam’s mom is coming into the office today and Jim is pretty intrigued at this opportunity. He is excited for the opportunity to meet her and get the inside dirt on Pam’s childhood. Personally I do not know why her mom is so eager to stop by and “see where she works” when it really is just a simple office, but who am I to question? Off in the bullpen, we just Toby take Michael aside into his office to talk about something. That’s Toby Flenderson from Human Resources, you pry do not see him often since he is typically back in the annex. But mostly because Michael really doesn’t like him, he has this weird thing against HR workers, or maybe it is just Toby. But because of the incident at corporate, Toby needs to go over the sexual harassment policy with everyone and should require five minutes. This is what really sets Michael over the edge, he truly believes that such rules will impede his ability to conduct work, or be able to be funny. I do not know if you have ever had a leader go out to buy a blow up doll to be used as an example but now you can say that you have. While it may have not been specifically for Pam to practice being a lesbian on, but it certainly came to his mind pretty quick. And this was enough to warrant Michael, and I guess the warehouse staff, to need to sit down to watch the sexual harassment video, ‘Crossing the Line: Rules for the Modern Workplace.’
Now for those of you who have worked in large companies, videos like this or quick presentations like Toby performed are most likely nothing new. While I have had my share of these, most often you will see self-guided online presentations that offer multiple choice questions and a signature at the end to signal you have gone through it. But some experts are saying that these methods may be the reason behind an increase in sexual harassment incidents. An article through Business Insurance by Louise Esola talks about how companies are not truly taking sexual harassment training seriously because of how these trainings are very generic, not to mention designed to simply pass and not think about for another year3. Much like how Michael and the warehouse are not paying attention to the content, sexual harassment is seen as either a joke or simply something that “could never happen here.” Harassment comes in many forms and should be considered a true problem, so companies should be taking this training more seriously. Rather than a faceless entity on a screen, perhaps it should be on division leaders to be responsible for conducting the training and going through the policy. It is also important to cover a variety of offenses which can include playing inappropriate music, making comments about sexual orientations or gender identity, or even simply calling someone a MILF. Most importantly, there should be consequences for when employees harass someone. These things cannot be simply swept under the rug but it should be documented and some form punishment be issued; while not every instance may be so severe that an outright termination be handed out, it cannot simply be ignored. To leaders out there, if you do not believe your company has an appropriate sexual harassment policy and training in place then bring it up with your leaders and human resources. While you may not know of a given instance, statistically you do have a colleague who would benefit from knowing their employer takes these cases seriously.
While Dunder Mifflin might have a very generic approach to their training, I do believe that Jan does take it serious given that she traveled to the office along with a company lawyer to deal with the Scranton branch. This certainly caught Michael off-guard, so much so he even got his own lawyer to help protect himself; evidently he wasn’t aware that the company lawyer was there to protect him. This was when it finally dawned on Michael that these policies are not about “stifling his voice” but to help protect him. I truly do not think of Michael as someone with malicious intent, simply someone with a questionable sense of humor and is honestly trying to keep morale up through humor. This is certainly not to protect him or warrant his language or actions, but to help show that there is a large spectrum of harassment. While he doesn’t meant to be offensive or harm anyone, but his humor is not meant for everyone and is certainly not considered work appropriate. And if one thing came from today, I think Michael did start to reflect on his jokes and especially Packer’s and how they make his employees feel. While he may not have told Packer off, I am thankful he stuck up for Phyllis. He just gets so caught up with Packer that he lets him get all worked up thinking they are hilarious, when really Packer is a great example of who to not be in the workplace.
So what have we learned about sexual harassment today? We heard many key phrases including “intent is irrelevant” and especially “where is the line?” I think the most important thing to remember is to simply treat everyone as a decent person. More importantly, at the end of the day your job is not your home. Your language and actions should be monitored because a workplace demands a certain level of professionalism. So at the end of the day, if you cannot say anything any decent and kind perhaps just do not say anything at all. With that, I hope you learned something today as well, and as always I will make sure to see you around the breakroom.
- Griffin, E. (2020, September 19). The 9 Rules of Work Email Etiquette Smart People Follow. The Muse. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/rules-of-work-email-etiquette ↩︎
- Almodovar, A. (2019, January 17). Email Etiquette 101: Email Forwarding. ScoreCEO. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://www.scoreceo.com/email-etiquette-101-email-forwarding/ ↩︎
- Esola, L. (2023, July 12). Experts say employers lag in sexual harassment prevention training. Business Insurance. Retrieved September 26, 2023, from https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20230712/NEWS08/912358417/Experts-say-employers-lag-in-sexual-harassment-prevention-training ↩︎
