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Bill Farquharson

Dirty old man?
August 8, 2007

So, I get a phone call last week from a client on the left coast who was VERY upset. He told me that he’d gotten a phone call from the HR department of a client. He said he felt like a dirty old man. The young woman whom he dealt with was very upset with the language he’d used in addressing her. He was calling me to ask if I knew of any programs where he could learn proper PC language. Sounded reasonable….that is until I asked him what the offensive language was. He said, “I called her ‘kid.’” Kid? Are you f***ing serious? KID? That got him a reprimand from HR? What a crock! It is not as if he grabbed her or was suggestive. I was stunned, and remain so!

The line of “inappropriate” moves and the contrast is amazing. I mean, you can hear some pretty foul language on network TV now (the same networks that once considered the word “pregnant” to be libelous) but “kid” brings a warning? We are getting more and more vile in one medium and less and less tolerant in another. Weird.

I feel for this guy. He is a 50 something sales rep trying to sell to twenty somethings with whom he has nothing in common. It must be like taking a grandkid out to a concert. My advice to him was to get another customer. Calling someone “kid” might not be the best term of endearment and sure, perhaps the client could be offended. But to run to HR instead of speaking to the rep is BS.

In my opinion, she acted like a kid.

Posted by Bill Farquharson on August 8, 2007 | Comments (1)

August 9, 2007
In response to: Dirty old man?
Clete commented:

(Calling to apologize:)
“Hello, may I speak with the print buying wench?”

The political correctness movement is leaving a lot of us behind. I’m one of those who has given up on it. But you should have seen the (Minor League Baseball) Lowell Spinners play on PC Night, August 1. I got a kick out of the video at this website: wbztv.com/local/local_story_213103943.html

“(WBZ) LOWELL The Lowell Spinners took baseball promotions to a whole new level Tuesday night.

The Spinners and the Brooklyn Cyclones played what may be the first ever politically correct baseball game.

That meant renaming some positions - the first, second and third basemen became “base persons,” the batboy was the “bat person” for the night and the shortstop turned into the “vertically challenged stop.”

“It was pretty awkward at first, I asked my buddy next to me, I was like what did he just say?” said Spinners catcher Brett Lewis.

Errors were not announced to the crowd - so they didn’t offend the players who committed them.

The changes didn’t help the Spinners though. Brooklyn won, 9-5.”

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In all seriousness, I feel for your client. How is one supposed to act, or speak, in a climate like this? I have recognized one thing, though. People don’t take offense at being called what they are NOT. Girls of about 17 like to be called “ladies” and when they are older prefer to be called “girls,” as a group. Most do not like to be called “Ma’am” as they feel they are not that old (however old you have to be for that.)

If you know him well enough, you can call a guy almost anything, as long as it’s not late for dinner.

Strangely enough, it’s okay for a salesperson I don’t know to call me sir, but it grates on my nerves when a waiter does it. (See ma’am.) If you do have a relationship built with a guy you probably already have it worked out, and it probably happened early. At some point you’ve called him Mr. Doe and he’s told you, “call me John.” Until then it’s Mr. Doe.
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You’re right, though. She acted like a kid. She was probably self-conscious about being younger than him, took it the wrong way and blew it out of proportion.