NZBee

I have been in NZ now 20 months....really loving it, made great friends and do enjoy my job (although do miss the family and mates in the uk).....however,something I cannot get over here is how much people get away with in the office...

What I mean by this is the comments and actions of other people, especially managers.......sexist, bullying, non PC (ok, I know before anyone says anything, UK is extreme on the PC front, but seriously stuff said here is bad!), open bad mouthing and general poor feeling....

Has anyone else noticed this? Luckily, I have not been on the receiving end of anything, but am still quite shocked and dont think it promotes a healthy working environment.

I do enjoy my job, but am amazed at how this happens, and HR are not pulled in....bizarre.

sparkie down under

welcome to NZ
to name just a few kiwisum's "build a bridge'; 'get over it';"yeah"

sr71

You've obviously never worked in the The City or Canary Wharf. Bullying is accepted and positively encouraged.

Genesis

Yeah loads of bullying in UK Plod too!! Really bad in the Met..not so bad after leaving for a 'Shire force. I have suffered too in NZ at the hands of a senior who was a rotten bully. Bullies are basically utter tossers and losers who have shit loads of problems themselves who then pick on others who are 'different' or a soft touch to take the light away from their own problems. I detest bullies with a vengence. Scum of the earth....down there with white supremecists and the like.

BEVS

No bullying in the plumbing world to speak of. Put downs perhaps and the usual yawn type pom comments from those with pom ancestry but no downright bullying. There again would you try to bully a plumber with a crox tool or a hefty length of pipe in his hand ?

NZBee

yeah, i have actually.....and no where near as bad as what I see in NZ.....

kiwinow

Can you give some idea of the sort of thing that disturbs you?
I kind of think that NZ is PC, and working with elderly people I often cringe at their un-PC comments about wogs, poofs etc, but of course there will be people who still think they can get away with pinching your bum, or asking the "girls" to make a cuppa. You have to put them in their place. If it's worse than that you can actually complain.

sr71

I generally see not much wrong with the terms you have described, but then I do currently live in Australia and those terms are used very frequently and don't generally cause offence. It is the intent behind them that matters.

If something is genuinely causing you offence, and unwanted touching definitely falls into that category then that is unacceptable, but I do think people are far too sensitive these days.

Surely asking the 'girls' to make a cuppa is just banter?

sparkie down under

I agree with sr71, surely it's the intent behind the comment, rather than the comment itself.

I see hints of hidden PC coming in here.

I've worked in places as varied as building sites right through to the Welsh Assembly and under very different regimes. Some of the worse places I've been to were government offices. At least on a building site the bullying is more open and usually stops quite quick when a spanner flys!

NZBee

But surely any comment can be taken with intent, if with the more sensitive person. I agree, and growing up in Liverpool, you give back whatever anyone throws at you. But, not everyone is like that, and I dont think it is fair to make peoples lives miserable in the work place when they are not necessarily of the constitution to fight back.

IMVHO there is no place for bullying in the work place.

examples that I have seen here? Many, including a manager saying women are only good for one thing, (I wont finish off the sentence there, but I am sure you all know what he meant), another manager telling another employee in full view of the office and team that she was completely useless and should think of another career, or one as a housewife as she would only be good at that.....another manager saying that a certain ethnic group only have the brain capacity to work in the warehouse.....the list goes on.....get the gist? I have a thick skin, but I really dont think this is right.....and from speaking to other expats in Auckland I believe this isnt a unique situation. Was just interested on what other people on this site thought.

Incidently I work for a very large corporate, which again to me I think this is an even more unusual situation.....unfortunately HR are based in Australia and turn a blind eye.....

Perry Groves

15 years ago I worked in a working environment in London where random violence and "Jim Davidson" style impersonations of ethnic accents were normal, so it sounds like going back in time

Kiwiprincess

Holy heck. I have never worked in a place where people would say that kind of thing.

I am not so naive as to believe that there would be nobs who would think it - bigots are everywhere - but verbalising it, and by extension, thinking it is an acceptable mode of behaviour and thought is appalling.

And I have worked in a range of different places - corporates, charities, goverment departments, predominantly male or predominantly female environments etc.

Normally I would say that sometimes people are sensitive to things which are different to what they are used to - I was horrified by some things said overseas, not bigotry so much as completely unaware of some things - but I think if someone is making horrible comments about people or being bullying or whatever then they need to be reported - to whoever that may well be.

ExKiwilass

Sounds like my old boarding school. Are they ex-private school by any chance?

Bo-Jangles

Yes, it all sounds very familiar to me. I cringe everyday at the things that come out of some folk's mouths and as you say they are the managers and bosses - so who on earth do you complain to. I'm not known to be a sensitive soul and have worked in the past around builders and construction guys and with no disrespect, you do kind of come to expect to hear raucous banter, colourful language and a fair amount of ribbing. I don't expect however to hear that in a corporate office, where I work it is apalling, women are called 'stupid tarts', other colleauges are called 'pricks' and a whole host of other downright disrespectful names.

sr71

8 months ago I was working for a large UK bank in Canary Wharf - it was like working with dozens of Jim Davidsons.