13 January 2000

No, I didn't write an entry yesterday. I think it's because writing an entry isn't a scheduled part of my day anymore. I just didn't think about it until after I'd gotten home, and by then I didn't really want to slap something out just to get something up.

I think I'm going to go back to forcing myself to write the journal entry first thing in the morning. I just won't be able to post it until evening.

Actually, I'd like to automate this a little better. The layout and stuff doesn't really change from day to day; I could just put the text of each entry in a database, but then.... Oh, well. I'll keep thinking about it.

We had an all-hands staff meeting this morning, and for about an hour and a half we got sensitivity training. This was reactionary, on the part of the management - apparently, around Thanksgiving, someone said something extremely offensive - I got the impression that it was something along the lines of "I wish all [race]s would just die." This person said it in a semi-public area on company ground, on company time. It didn't get reported to management until just before Christmas, and it didn't make it to the top of the company chain until the beginning of January.

Calling the whole company in to a meeting to tell us not to be offensive wasn't the right move, though. I think they should have disciplined the person who made the comment and then sent out an e-mail or memo from the head manager's desk reminding people to maintain professional behavior, and to report unprofessional behavior right away - I think the primary reason a meeting was called was that the head manager was upset that it took so long for him to hear about it.

So now there are little pockets of friends all over, purposely "offending" and "sexually harrassing" each other, as a sort of reaction against overreaction, I think.

I was actually mildly offended during the meeting - the head manager told us a story about how he'd served a long time in the army, and seen minority soldiers die in his arms... This was slightly overdramatic, in my opinion, but not too bad. Then a bit later, he told us that he believed in God, and felt that God had not given him the right to harm anyone else. That, too, in and of itself, wasn't especially offensive. But to combine it with the thought that this man without the right to harm anyone else had made a career in the army - and in combat, since he'd seen men die and he's not a doctor - that offended me. Shifting his moral high ground to make whatever point he wanted to make at the time was offensive. Pick your ground and stick with it! But then, expedience has always been a primary advantage of Christianity.

(To be fair, this manager is a good person and a superb manager. And I suppose he could've come to his anti-harm conclusions after he left the military. But I wasn't thinking about it at the time, so I thought it was slightly obnoxious. I don't like double standards.)

On a funny note, just as he was reminding us about the freedoms we have - like flex-time - Mike and a couple of other people came in to the meeting, late.

I realized last night that, with MarsCon this weekend, we're not going to have much time to get my Dad a birthday present before we have his birthday dinner on Sunday. In fact, the only good time we have to get him anything is... tonight!

Hm... Guess I'd better think of something quick.