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Post by Cornflake on Mar 2, 2018 19:07:56 GMT -5
It isn't because of anything I did. After I retired I agreed to be in charge of the eucharistic ministers at my church. For those who aren't Episcopalian or Catholic, that means lay people who help serve communion. The diocese has decided that the heads of all ministries and all members of some ministries must have sexual misconduct training.
It's kind of flattering at the age of 67 to be seen as being at risk for sexual misconduct.
Actually, I think this is a good idea. I know of two of our priests who were defrocked in the last fifteen years for sexual misconduct. In one case it was a consensual relationship with a female parishioner. In the other case the details were left unspecified. Our priests are allowed to marry so it isn't hostility to sex. There are parishioners who put excessive faith in anyone seen as an authority figure in the church. There's a risk that such trust could be exploited. The training will be a nuisance but it's the right kind of nuisance.
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Post by brucemacneill on Mar 2, 2018 19:13:47 GMT -5
Maybe you can test out of it and still get credit. You know how to do it don't you?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2018 19:26:54 GMT -5
I take both classroom and on-line annual training for the same thing. In the Army, we call is sexual harassment/assault prevention or SHARP. Sad that we need it, but we do. I'm not sold on the efficacy of the annual training bit. Changing people's perceptions and behaviors is an organizational culture question, and that requires constant attention. The notion that an hour class and an hour training online is changing organizational culture is horse crap.
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Post by billhammond on Mar 2, 2018 19:29:54 GMT -5
This word guy always has to suppress a giggle whenever I hear or read about a horny priest being defrocked -- isn't that exactly where all the trouble begins? Oh, defrock me, baby!
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Post by TKennedy on Mar 2, 2018 19:37:36 GMT -5
The big problem is nuns and priests getting into the habit.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Mar 2, 2018 19:40:48 GMT -5
The big problem is nuns and priests getting into the habit. You mean getting out of the habit, don't you? Mike |
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Post by epaul on Mar 2, 2018 19:46:52 GMT -5
I never did need any sexual misconduct training. Sexual misconduct came to me naturally. Just had the knack, I guess.
If you need any tips, PM me.
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Post by Cornflake on Mar 2, 2018 19:47:23 GMT -5
"The notion that an hour class and an hour training online is changing organizational culture is horse crap." I used to think that, Paul, but I'm not so sure now. There are no quick ways to change organizational culture.
In the 90s, our state's Supreme Court decided to change the legal culture here. I was raised in the hyper-aggressive school of litigating, as were many others. The Supreme Court started to require training to get us away from all that. Some scoffed and said they were trying to teach remedial human-beinghood. I agreed. But over time it worked. Judges' expectations changed. Lawyers' attitudes changed. People cut out the crap. A lot of out-of-state lawyers who hadn't gotten the word wound up getting in trouble. I don't know that we have a better way of changing institutional culture.
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Post by RickW on Mar 2, 2018 20:32:33 GMT -5
"The notion that an hour class and an hour training online is changing organizational culture is horse crap." I used to think that, Paul, but I'm not so sure now. There are no quick ways to change organizational culture. In the 90s, our state's Supreme Court decided to change the legal culture here. I was raised in the hyper-aggressive school of litigating, as were many others. The Supreme Court started to require training to get us away from all that. Some scoffed and said they were trying to teach remedial human-beinghood. I agreed. But over time it worked. Judges' expectations changed. Lawyers' attitudes changed. People cut out the crap. A lot of out-of-state lawyers who hadn't gotten the word wound up getting in trouble. I don't know that we have a better way of changing institutional culture. You can at least try. It’s tough to make lasting change, and that change has to be supported. When I was in Internal Audit, there was a phrase, “Tone at the Top.” If you want culture change, it has be done supported, vocally, by the head guy, and pushed down. If you get that, you get change. |
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Post by Village Idiot on Mar 2, 2018 21:23:42 GMT -5
Unfortunately everyone needs that training for the benefit of a very few. Just like all kinds of trainings many of us have been through for the benefit of a very few.
What you'll learn Cornflake, is to carry on as you have your entire life.
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Post by Phil N. Theblank on Mar 2, 2018 22:03:38 GMT -5
There is also the CYA part, incase of a lawsuit, the church can say they are not liable after all they did provide training to the alleged harasser.
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Post by Cornflake on Mar 2, 2018 22:29:13 GMT -5
"There is also the CYA part, incase of a lawsuit, the church can say they are not liable after all they did provide training to the alleged harasser." That concern probably did enter into the decision, and it should have. If our bishop were indifferent to potential liabilities, he wouldn't be a very good bishop. But I suspect that wanting to do the right thing played a bigger part.
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Post by david on Mar 3, 2018 0:14:06 GMT -5
Flake, I appreciate what you say. But how does all that stuff relate to this?:
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Post by timfarney on Mar 3, 2018 8:08:40 GMT -5
Having spent nearly a decade of my career as an independent consultant, I’ve been politically corrected by a half dozen Fortune 500 companies. I’m sure this kind of training, as tedious and obvious as it is, doesn’t hurt anything, but I doubt it changes behavior a lot. That’s not it’s purpose. It’s purpose is to put a layer of protection between individual behavior and corporate liability. Sorry to be so cynical, but there it is.
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Post by brucemacneill on Mar 3, 2018 8:32:40 GMT -5
Having spent nearly a decade of my career as an independent consultant, I’ve been politically corrected by a half dozen Fortune 500 companies. I’m sure this kind of training, as tedious and obvious as it is, doesn’t hurt anything, but I doubt it changes behavior a lot. That’s not it’s purpose. It’s purpose is to put a layer of protection between individual behavior and corporate liability. Sorry to be so cynical, but there it is. Damn, I have to agree with Tim on this one. |
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Post by jdd2 on Mar 3, 2018 8:44:36 GMT -5
Given the number of posts, this thread has the highest like/LOL count, esp towards the beginning, in recent memory.
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Post by lar on Mar 3, 2018 9:00:08 GMT -5
At the risk of being labeled a non-21st Century male (a label that fits like a glove), it's my opinion that sexual harassment training is basically a CYA move on the part of employers. In this day and age, who doesn't know what sexual harassment is and that it's wrong? Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
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Post by james on Mar 3, 2018 9:23:33 GMT -5
Clerical abuse and the inadequacy of responses to those who have suffered it are widespread and unhappy realities. I would be interested to hear of your experience of the course.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 9:43:17 GMT -5
People frequently forget that this can be a two-way street.
In the mid-1990s, when I still worked in magazine publishing, I was harassed by a female colleague. Now I know, many men would jokingly ask, "What was the problem with that?" because maybe it was an indication of my attractiveness to certain women, and a macho thing; but there was a problem with that for a number of reasons—and whether I was attracted to her wasn't even part of the equation. She was my assistant, for one thing, and I was still married to my first wife and, even though the marriage was in a shambles, I wasn't about to "jump the fence," as the expression goes. So, I lived in a private hell at both ends of the subway commute. I was also quite concerned about my integrity and reputation at this large and well-known publishing company, which were already suffering from the effects of my marriage falling apart.
When I politely rejected this person's advances, she retaliated. Social communication between us stopped, only minimal conversation about the work took place, and she would go literally crying into our manager's office every morning, telling him that I was "being mean" to her. Sadly, he bought into it for a long time, and excoriated me for my behavior. From her cubicle, just behind mine, she would pop up every so often, like a shaft of asparagus, and try to read emails over my shoulder. Any time another female coworker came over to my desk for a consultation, particularly any who were young and single, she'd stand up in her cube and eavesdrop. She'd stare daggers at me other times.
I complained to management and no one did anything about it. The situation made my life there miserable for almost two years, until she left for another city to marry her boyfriend and get a pretty high-profile job managing the website of a major educational network.
In retrospect, and after the fact, my manager admitted to me that he finally understood what she had been doing. But that taught me something about co-workers, in general: with one or two exceptions through a long career, these people are not your friends. They are contestants in a serious game of corporate Darwinism.
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Post by theevan on Mar 3, 2018 9:49:20 GMT -5
"The notion that an hour class and an hour training online is changing organizational culture is horse crap." I used to think that, Paul, but I'm not so sure now. There are no quick ways to change organizational culture. In the 90s, our state's Supreme Court decided to change the legal culture here. I was raised in the hyper-aggressive school of litigating, as were many others. The Supreme Court started to require training to get us away from all that. Some scoffed and said they were trying to teach remedial human-beinghood. I agreed. But over time it worked. Judges' expectations changed. Lawyers' attitudes changed. People cut out the crap. A lot of out-of-state lawyers who hadn't gotten the word wound up getting in trouble. I don't know that we have a better way of changing institutional culture. That's remarkable. I wish, oh how I wish! |
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