A woman working in a fisheries office in Scotland complained about the sexist, abusive workplace culture there. The boys in the office responded by tying her to a chair and gagging her, and took photos of her humiliation.
In evidence to her ongoing tribunal, she said that one of the men involved, fisheries officer Reid Anderson, told her: “This is what you get when you speak out against the boys.”
The boys. The boys in that office are a bit thick, I guess — “There ain’t no sexist abusive culture here, and to prove it, we’re going to do a little bondage here in the office to intimidate you. And to make it even more clever, we’re going to take incriminating photos of it.”
Sexist, abusive, and stupid. They’ve got a troop of dull-witted boys managing fisheries in Scotland? That’s not good.
Let’s check in on upper management, shall we?
The manager said he would have “a word” with the men involved – Reid Anderson and Jody Paske.
He added: “I am sure they meant no harm and that was the boys just being boys.”
This sounds like one of those workplace comedies that come out of the UK, with a staff of incompetents bungling amusingly while the twits running the show have their own brand of oblivious boobery — think “The IT Crowd” or “The Office”. I didn’t know those shows were actually documentaries.
Sack the whole lot, is my recommendation.
Okay everybody, looking for a new job?
Not there. Never.
Have a quiet word to them? This is criminal behaviour. It should be referred to the police.
Now, did any of the boys feel embarrassed or humiliated when she spoke out?
Because whether the boys are the criminals or the victims here depends on that.
If they’re boys, isn’t the office in violation of child labor laws? I’d love to see the manager arrested for exploiting minors.
I remember some mind-bogglingly bad ideas at one place I worked (squirt gun fights… around computers) but fortunately we learned and nothing and nobody got hurt. But – tying up a co-worker? Yikes.
The way she is tied looks kind of bogus; unless there’s more going on, that tape would not hold anyone very well – especially with her arms separate like that. But it’s psychologically stunning – sometimes you can’t realize that it may be possible to get out. When I was a kid one of my playmates handcuffed me to a door by the doorknob. I was really upset and stood there for a while until I realized I could rip the doorknob off. So, he had to explain the footprints on the door to his parents and we both got yelled at.
My comment above was not intended to minimize any of what happened; I thought I was just meandering but I should not have said that. The point being: they shouldn’t have done that and the boss mis-handled the situation badly.
It’s not the tape that’s holding her in place. It’s the fact that there’s a bunch of coworkers around who would tape her up.
And yeah, this sounds like straight-up battery to me.
I hope she gave them a Glasgow kiss* to make up.
________________________
* The rapid application of one’s forehead to another’s nose, a quaint old Scottish custom.
Boys are cancelled until further notice.
Almost slides out of existence until he remembers he’s technically a man..
Phew.
Can’t help but notice the BBC captions are all about DeeAnn this and DeeAnn that. But the perpetrators get Mr this and Mr that.
Mythbusters tested the tensile strength of duct tape, and one strand breaks at just under 70 pounds. It’s going to be very hard to muster up that amount of force when your arms are bound directly to your side and you have to watch out for the crazy fuckers that put you there in the first place.
The “boys” all need to have the book thrown at them. I suggest a nice, big, hard cover dictionary.
Is it a good idea to post her pic?
@ 2 chrislawson
I was thinking assault and unlawful confinement?
The Scottish Government seems to have done a considerable amount of fuck-all about this.
Was it really necessary to post one of the pictures that was taken of the victim?
The victim seems to be requesting for it to be disseminated, or at least that’s what the media are saying.
I hope she gave them a Glasgow kiss* to make up..
While giving vent to the age old Scottish saying .
“Stitch that ,Jimmy “
Those assholes should go straight to the cage.
Have a word with them, as long as the word is “fired.”
Sack them?
What, is kidnapping not a felony in the UK?
if that is how they act in the office just, what does it suggest how they did the job? They areen powered to enforce the fisheries regulations under their jurisdiction. I would think a complete investigation is warranted it just looks like a little too much of a good old boys club to me I would also think that include some forensic accounting, examination of all the good ole boys including upper management. There is money floating around if fisheries. fishery regulations and rules are not universally welcomed by all the stake holders.
uncle frogy
Marcus Ranum @ 5,
Also keep in mind that to tie her up like that one of two things have to be true:
(a) She was a willing participant.
(b) They held her down forcefully (or otherwise coerced her).
I may be going out on a limb here, but I don’t think (a) is very likely.
What. The. Fuck?
Boys?
Well, boys, somewhere between ten and fifteen, might have done something like this. And they would deserve to get not a quiet word after that, but a lot of very loud ones.
Anyone over fifteen who does something like this should face criminal charges for assaullt and illegal restraint.
Go to fucking jail, do not pass go.
Fuck just firing. I’d like to see some (small amount of) jail time for this. This is assault and battery. Perhaps kidnapping too, wrongful detention of some kind. Anything short of a criminal conviction with some jail time is a gross disservice to the woman and the community at large.
I assume many others above echo what I say here, but I’m posting to add to the chorus.
Yep. This is not an HR problem. It’s a police problem.
So has there been any follow up to thos criminal act?
Fire them, prosecute them, and make sure they’re so widely known they will be unemployable anywhere in Scotland.