Microaggressions, traffic violence, and ableism, oh my!
The City of Portland bureaucracy never ceases to amaze. Now they're trying to force workers back to their offices downtown, instead of working at home. And the workers are staunchly resisting. But not because they're afraid, as many of us would be, of being beaten, stabbed, robbed, or shot on the street downtown. No, they want to stay home so that they can avoid the miserable racist, sexist atmosphere in their offices.
If city leaders want to repopulate downtown offices, they will have to do so over the objections of hundreds of city workers who say in writing that requiring them to work in person is racist, sexist, ableist and a violation of the city’s climate goals....
“Without our input, without transparency, and by continuing top-down decision-making that devalues staff contributions,” the letter read, “we fear the city will continue to support racist, ableist, and sexist policies, the very systems of oppression we want to dismantle.”
They wrote that requiring employees to come back was especially unfair to marginalized groups because teleworking results in “fewer microaggressions and fewer instances of overt racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc., in the workplace or during their commute.” They also wrote that city employees cared about carbon emissions from commuting and argued that they were “saving lives from traffic violence with fewer vehicle miles traveled.”
What? Carbon emissions? You mean they don't all ride bikes or take Tri-Met? Heresy!
Oh, and 29 of them, at least, don't live in Oregon or Washington any more, so they pay no Oregon income tax. No word on how many more also avoid Oregon tax by living in Clark County, Washington.
Anyway, I can't tell which side to root for in this dispute. To me there are losers on both sides.
What an altruistic bunch. It’s not like they don’t mind coming back to the office, but they are only trying to protect a few emotional basket cases from having to face the real world. Do the aggrieved people ever leave the house, beyond going to work? I can’t imagine the horrors that they must deal with on a daily basis. Each glance towards them, or each word spoken to them, is a potential hate crime in process.
ReplyDeleteThe city pushes this garbage, so it is only fair that their employees take it to heart. And this also tells you that the city worker’s are probably not worth it to begin with, so the best thing to do is to let them go. They can lead a much happier existence being cocooned away inside of their homes. Away from any microagressions and ableism(s). Whatever that means.
My wife, who toiled in the city bureaucracy for several years, and finally couldn't take being torn between the incompetence of the commissioners and the entitled attitude of of the employees, said when she saw this-"That's why you can't get anything done, these people are such babies."
ReplyDeleteSpoiled little (probably not physically) children. Put on some clean clothes, pack your lunch bucket and get your fat ass back into the office. Actually most of them could be let go and things would probably run better. Micro-aggression, another made up term so that you never have to be humble and respectful of others.
ReplyDelete