On an email with my manager I described a coworker I only worked with once as a small, thin woman that was either born in an East Asian country or has East Asian parents. I don’t know this person’s name. I don’t see a better way to describe her all things considered.

The managers answer: it is disrespectful to describe people according to ethnic background or physical appearance.

My next question for this manager: dear manager, how should I describe this person then?

I don’t know if I’m being genuinely disrespectful or this is a very thin skinned manager. Either way, I had to work with another coworker I didn’t know either. This conversation with manager B ensued:

manager B: ‘today you’re working with mike’

me: ‘who’s mike?’

manager B: ‘that fat guy’

make it make sense.

  • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    16·
    4 hours ago

    In the last few decades we’ve noticed that we’ve been treating each other like shit. We’ve used race, skin colour, ethnicity, weight, etc to insult others and reduce their social standing.

    We’re trying to fix that. As such, calling out those specific differences is frowned on, even if we aren’t using them negatively.

    Is this inconvenient? Yes. It’s pretty easy to point out the only black/fat/disabled person in a work place. But we’re really trying to avoid any conversations that could turn into insults or attacks.

    So we now have an unwritten social rule that we avoid using those identifiers when talking about individuals.