Actors Equity Association: Hostile Work Environment
by Larry O'ConnorYou hear the stories about the DMV worker asked to remove an American Flag from their cubicle, and the secretary forced to not have a bible on her desk, or the fireman who can’t have a Hooters calendar up at the firehouse. They all make the headlines and they contribute to the somewhat sanitized work environments now pretty standard in corporate America due to H.R. weenies scared of the ever-annoying “Hostile Work Environment” law suit.
It brings to mind the day I had to meet at the LA Actors Equity Association (AEA) offices to negotiate some special provisions for a show I was hired to manage. AEA is the union for stage actors and for all you Hollywood types who just deal with SAG, consider yourself lucky that at least you deal with a PROFESSIONAL operation.
To get to the conference room at the AEA office, I walked down the length of their front offices with a pool of desks on the left and a wall full of office doors down the right side of the corridor. The offices were for various representatives hired to enforce different contracts based on size of theatre and geographic location this side of the Mississippi.
As I walked, I noticed that on practically every other office on the right was a scotch-taped political cartoon. And this wasn’t your benign leftist “Doonesbury” or Jules Pfeiffer scribble. No, these were raw, in your face; George Bush is an evil, stupid chimp kind of cartoons. The standard, “Bush lied, people died”, kind of stuff and Dick Cheney is Darth Vader/United States of Haliburton kind of stuff.
What does it say about a workplace where the people in middle management feels completely comfortable posting these things for all the other employees, not to mention guests such as myself, to see?
So, I finish my meeting and I win a few items on my wish list and my friend and adversary on the other side of the table leans in and says “You know, there’s going to be a job opening here soon, and we’d really like to bring in some people from the producer’s side to help us in some organizing efforts and to help re-fashion some of the contracts. We think it would do us some good to have someone from the producers’ perspective on our team.”
I actually commended him on the idea and agreed that it would do them a lot of good to add that perspective, but I didn’t think this was the job for me.
If the entertainment industry leans left, then the theatre world is left of left. And if theatre is left of left, then the theatre actor’s UNION is so far left they consider Dennis Kucinich the reasonable alternative to Ralph Nader.
As I was walking back out to the front door, I stopped in to schmooze with the Western Region Director, and I casually asked “Does anyone ever complain about the cartoons on the doors down the corridor here?” “No, why?” he asked. Why, indeed.
I wonder if I should have taken the job just so I could have handed them a law suit six months later.
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26 Comments
Try walking around the offices of pretty much any college or university. You’ll see things equally as disgusting and vile posted, and this is in publically financed “places of learning.” Students are forced to endure these same juvenile cartoons and liberal idiocy just to meet with the professors who will be deciding their futures.
Surprisingly, it’s even worse in DoD — I work as contractor at several Intel Community facilities in the DC area. Government workers (GS-12, 13, 14, etc.) have no compunction with posting all sorts of vile and disrespectful stuff in their cubes, even though the President is the Commander in Chief and their ultimate boss. I don’t remember this kind off nonsense during the 1990’s under Clinton but I suspect this level of dissent and disrespect will not be tolerated after January 20. Don’t dare say anything, clearances are too easy to lose these days.
And this wasn’t your benign leftist “Doonesbury” or Jules Pfeiffer scribble. No, these were raw, in your face; George Bush is an evil, stupid chimp kind of cartoons. The standard, “Bush lied, people died”, kind of stuff and Dick Cheney is Darth Vader/United States of Haliburton kind of stuff.
Oh, I see — so was it Jim Mahfood or Ted Rall?
I work in non-profit fundraising…a similar hostile environment. We had a workshop on “issues” for those of us in management to learn to recognize work related “abuses” and such. One of the women was yammering on and on about girly calendars in the lunchroom, etc. and the inherent intolerance and sexual harassment. Though my boss was giving me the hairy eyeball, I asked about the cartoons posted on the fridge and in public cubicles and on doors with the same Hilter-McChimpy Bush and whether or not that was harassment against people with opposing political views….the silence was deafening. Harassing a Republican, you see is civic duty, an honor.
I only won my greater point when I reminded them that trustees and donors came through those areas and, not only did they come from both sides of the aisle, the majority of them were card carrying Republicans (despite the fact that it was a conservation organization…see! shocker!…GOPers care about the environment too!…but I had all of the giving histories to prove my point)
No matter…they treated me like I was smeared with the Ebola virus after that…outed…
I have always wondered when people would start caring about the double standard that exists in the media and in the school system. I’ve been vocally moderate my entire life and have had many bad relationships with my teachers because of it. Don’t tell me that our financial system is going under because the Republicans made it happen and expect me to just sit there and blindly believe you. It is taught in our schools and in no way is it fact. I graduated a few years ago but I still hear the same programmed bs coming from friends who are still in school. “Where’s the proof?” is usually met with a reference to an editorial in the NY times, the same magazine that has allowed the real culprits of the mortgage crisis to remain nameless in their pages.
No, a hostile work place law suit would not have changed anything. You would be fighting on their own turf, because for every radical far left theater union minion there are 10 equally radical leftist lawyers willing to fight pro-bono for the cause. Even if you won after several years of legal battles, what could you hope get? Legal expenses and free theater tickets?
The is only one way to win. A way has to be found to tell great stories to an enthusiastic paying audience while keeping leftist minions from organizations like the AEA from getting a piece of the pie!
Who said the military was first to have “don’t ask, don’t tell”? The entertainment industry has been doing this for 40+ years. The open-minded, diversity embracing Left…walking the walk as always. More like hopping the hop. My Left Foot, indeed.
At my old law firm — possibly THE top Wall Street litigation shop in the nation — the secretary cubicles sometimes posted very insulting Bush-bashing stuff right out in the open. It’s very unprofessional, not to mention bad for business — clients walk by on their way to meetings, and those clients might not agree with the sentiments expressed. One that ticked me off: an Hispanic secretary posted a drawing her kid had done, showing a boxer representing Mexico (with a Mexican flag as a belt buckle), punching out George Bush (with an American flag belt buckle and broken teeth), and saying something to the effect of, “You can’t keep me out of this country, Yanqui.” This, in the middle of Bush’s giant attempt to pass amnesty, leading the party’s base to finally throw in the towel on supporting him. Facts do not matter to liberals, they will never give credit where credit is due. But none of the very, very liberal Democratic heavy hitter partners thought to order her to take it down. Now if the picture had expressed pro-Bush sentiments…well, let’s just say she was an at will employee.
Sounds like there is money to be made in these businesses. You should have taken the job long enough to file a suit.
Bluejade – I don’t know what’s worse, the cartoon or the fact that a kid drew it; it means the lies are metastasized, passing from generation to generation unchallenged. “Why shouldn’t it be true? My parents said so!”
It takes a village to raise an idiot.
Be happy warriors. Covert office mischief is fun! No need to tell anyone in the office your politics (I don’t) but that doesn’t mean you can’t mess with those who do. Slap a conservative cartoon on one of their doors when no one’s around or an I heart Ronald Reagan sign. Even if they yank it down ten minutes later, you know the kind, it will cause them tenfold the amount of misery you deal with every day that you’re exposed to their obnoxious displays. I’ve certainly had my harmless fun with them.
No criticism is too harsh when it comes to atatcking Bush or Cheney. These two are the worst Americans ever.
Yet another reason for me not to become an actress… or at least Equity. I wish I could take back my $100 dollars I paid to AEA to become EMC. That is completely unprofessional and unacceptable. I should have known the people working for AEA were a bunch of pinheads.
Herman,
stop smoking pot.
I worked at TVGuide and it was only moderately lefty in terms of office culture.
In response to the many “1/20/2008 Bush’s Last Day” stickers, I used to flaunt my Palin 2008 mug complete with a DNC Donkey with moose antlers. And yes, there was a crosshairs on the Donkey/Moose.
What I love about getting older is not worrying about PC and what other people think.
Heavens to Betsy! Mean cartoons turn Stooge Right into a simpering baby!
No wonder Stooge lacks to stones to identify himself.
Run away, little puss.
I work in a company where there are many blacks, and I had an unabashed pride for being a Palin fan and a Conservative. Many of my co-workers used to hang around each others’ cubes and talk politics, involving only ourselves. One day, a very “delicate” co-worker of mine had a chit-chat with my boss, apparently miffed at our frightened tone of The Chosen One being the Prez, and my boss told me “some people (it’s always ’some’, isn’t it?) are complaining about too much political talk, and it’s hurting ’some’ peoples’ feelings.
I was like.. you know what? If they’re not adult enough to come up to a rational debate, then screw you! You cannot tell me what I can and cannot discuss at work with my friends – as long as it doesn’t interfere with my job. I find it quite amusing that those who are the most offended by talk of politics are those who are usually unarmed when it comes to engaging in civil and grown-up debate. They prefer the “BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED” mantra, and don’t want to appear that infantile at work.
Schadenfreude is a beautiful thing, especially when you know idle chit-chat makes some small person fume to themselves.
P.S. Now that the election is over, I just revel in my Sarah Palin 2009 calendar hung proudly on my cube wall, all the while knowing it infuriates that person. Although not quite as much as it did my 2008 George Bush calendar. LMAO
Hey, I see your point, but they're just cartoons, after all.
Nick M. beat me too it.
I gave up on working toward a PhD in part because of the absolute grind of group think. When you staff a place with such politically/socially like-minded people, the tiny few who don’t share the dominant world view are ground down – even if the ostracism isn’t as stark as it is in Hollywood.
I’ve listened to very intelligent, nice professors nonchalantly tell me their department would never hire an openly conservative professor. Or nonchalantly speak with pride about a time they ran ROTC out of the same building as the writing center and off campus altogether. I was told by another professor and good friend I should go to graduate school outside of The South, because if I didn’t, I’d never be able to teach anywhere but in The South – which was apparently hell on earth for any thinking person. They speak so openly about such blatant discrimination – because they are so used to everyone around them thinking the same way — and they can’t seem to get it through their thick skulls that discrimination in a work place based on thought is as wrong as that of skin color or sexual orientation.
One reason the news industry is so one-sided is highly likely due to the fact college students learn quickly where their own personal socio-political views are highly not welcome.
We need sites like Big Hollywood across several professions. We need them on campus and in the news industry. We need to work to encourage the freedom to speak out for people being crushed in these important institutions.
Be happy warriors. Covert office mischief is fun! No need to tell anyone in the office your politics (I don’t) but that doesn’t mean you can’t mess with those who do. Slap a conservative cartoon on one of their doors when no one’s around or an I heart Ronald Reagan sign. Even if they yank it down ten minutes later, you know the kind, it will cause them tenfold the amount of misery you deal with every day that you’re exposed to their obnoxious displays. I’ve certainly had my harmless fun with them.
This is AWESOME. I highly endorse it.
And you know what? For every shocked and appalled lefty, you will be shocked at how many secret righties will quietly thank you for it.
My office has a Reagan portrait in it, as well as various icons. I have Mallard Fillmore cartoons on my door. I do my part.
HA! I have a “Support Our Troops” bumper sticker in my cubicle along with a postcard that says “Don’t Mess With America”. The best thing, of course, is my Rick Warren “Purpose Driven Life” calender..GASP! Not a peep from anyone. Of course Arizona is nowhere as near hysterical liberal as California, but we do get our fair share.
“And you know what? For every shocked and appalled lefty, you will be shocked at how many secret righties will quietly thank you for it.”
And you know what? If people would open their damned mouths they’d discover that they didn’t really need to be ’secret’ righties.
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