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The Policing of ‘Microaggressions’ in the Work Place Must End

by C.J. Strachan
22 August 2024 1:23 PM

If you have ever visited the North East of England and interacted with any inhabitants of that area, the chances are, never mind your gender or age, that you will have been called ‘pet’.

If you have ever visited London or the south east, and interacted with any inhabitants then the chances are, never mind your gender or age, that you have been called ‘love or darlin’.

If you have ever visited Edinburgh or Glasgow it’s ‘hen’ or ‘hennie’. Liverpool ‘chook’. There are too many to list..

These terms of endearment are a feature of the English language in all its rich tapestry of regional diversity and can be found from the plains of the USA to the slums of Glasgow. They are especially prevalent in the British Isles where regional accents and dialects are extremely distinct. I’m typing this 20 miles south of the border in Northumberland, here it is ‘pet’ 21 miles north, ‘hen’.

This phenomenon has been studied. In fact, dozens of academic studies exist on this unique cultural diversity. These studies also tell us how these words are used. Firstly, they are not gender-specific and tend not to be age-specific. Secondly, they are most prevalent in service interactions between strangers; in fact, they are seen as a polite and welcoming way of interacting in such circumstances. They are also, as mentioned, a feature of regional dialects and contribute to the keen sense of identity in communities. They are most commonly used by what is referred to as ‘non-academics’ – i.e., those who did not attend a university. They are universal in the working class of an urban area, but in rural areas, their use crosses classes. They are as unique to a region as a stottie cake is to a Geordie or a deep-fried haggis is to an Edinburger, forming part of our identity, diversity as a nation, society and heritage.

So why is my alma mata, the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne instructing its staff to avoid using ‘Pet’? 

The 13 member-strong Diversity and Inclusion team (yes, 13 of them) at the University has issued a 7-page guide with 44 words and phrases listed that should be avoided as problematic. “Avoid patronising or gendered terms, such as girls, pet or ladies,” says the advice. Now, let’s put aside why an academic institution is so keen to police the speech of its staff and students by dictating what is ‘unacceptable’. We have already established, as they would have if they had actually researched the use of ‘pet’, that it is never used in a patronising manner and is not gender-specific. Had they checked the extensive amount of research, freely available with a five-minute Google search, they would not have jumped to this erroneous conclusion and would not now be in the headlines.

There are those who have been quick to agree. In the Telegraph, Eleanor Mills thunders that the University is “right to ban ‘pet’ – it’s so patronising”. She says she is “all for endearments” but claims that it is inappropriate when used to address young women. Oddly enough, she seems to like being called “my loverrrr” by red-faced West Country yokel types, but apparently Geordies don’t qualify for this tolerance.

Now, I don’t know where Ms. Mills is from, and I don’t know if she has ever spent any time in Newcastle or rural Northumberland. She sounds very ‘educated class’; like me, she speaks with an ‘RP’ accent, and RP is one of the very few dialects in British English that doesn’t use endearments in this way. I can’t think that she has spent any time up here, because if she had, she would know that ‘pet’ is never used exclusively to address young women; it is never used to patronise or uniquely in a sexist manner. As already described, ‘pet’, along with its equivalents, is in fact part of the rich micro-diachronic variation in British English. We can evidence that from the multiple studies carried out, and indeed, anyone who actually gets off their backside and travels to the regions to speak to the ‘plebs sordida’ can confirm this. 

There’s a nasty whiff of classism here, that the working classes need to be morally corrected: what they eat, their politics, their relationships, their pastimes, their dress sense and their language must all be policed by those-who-know-what-is-in-their-best-interests. It doesn’t surprise me that a university EDI team has come out with this, and it doesn’t surprise me that Eleanor Mills has decided to chime in. The great unwashed must be tamed.

There is something else going on here, though. Such glossaries of ‘verboten’ words are becoming increasingly common, chosen and promulgated by these ‘experts’ in EDI and HR departments across our green and pleasant land. The idea that language must be policed comes from the assumption that all human interactions are, at their base, a conflict about power – gaining power over your interlocutor. If you speak to any modern academic versed in Critical Theory, this is front and centre of their worldview. The idea that an employee and an employer could have a relationship and a friendship based on mutual benefit is dismissed. The only dynamic in such a relationship is exploitation: the exploitation of the worker by the employer. It takes a distinctly negative view of humanity, assuming that humans are incapable of good intent towards one another and would only ever display good intent or generosity for personal gain – to manipulate. You won’t be surprised to hear that the most recent influential figure to promulgate this cynical and warped view of humanity was Vladimir Lenin, who based it on some of Nietzsche’s ideas. To Lenin, all relationships were about power, and the prerogative was to interact with others with your metaphorical foot on their necks.

Given how Marxist-Leninism has become the basis of so much of our academic effort over the last 50 years, it is hardly surprising that this dystopian view of humanity has eventually escaped from the Social Studies faculties and is now pervasive in society as a whole, where it is coming up sharply against 2,000 years of Christian thinking. This thinking holds that people are not inherently driven by power and exploitation, and that concepts such as generosity and charity are virtuous and should never be pursued for personal gain.

When HR departments take it upon themselves to inflict this view of the world on their employees, it usually backfires. In fact, we have the figures: EDI training has backfired spectacularly, with 63% of those trained experiencing major issues with it. Who would have thought that telling your employees they were incorrigible, unreconstructed Sidney Smutts from Viz – racists, bigots and homophobes to boot – who all need re-educating, wouldn’t go down well with those employees?

‘Microaggressions’, the idea that language needs to be micromanaged, is a dead end for society, and it is extraordinary that the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD, the self-appointed boyars of the Human Resources industry in the U.K.) has adopted the theory so enthusiastically. The notion that normal, healthy human interactions and language must be policed by employers is a major problem. Firstly, it infantilises the employee; it removes their personal responsibility for their own behaviour and hands it over to the HR team. Issuing lists of ‘forbidden’ words or ‘microaggressions’ that might conceivably upset someone can never be comprehensive. “But that word wasn’t on the list, so it must be OK!” Furthermore, language relies on context; ‘lists’ remove context, and we have seen ‘microaggression’ policies devolve into a charter for empowering bullies in the workplace. In June 2024, the London City-based law firm Hogan Lovells announced that it was introducing a reporting service where employees could anonymously report colleagues for ‘microaggressions’, presumably so the HR team could then intervene and ‘take corrective action’. This was reported in the CIPD’s magazine, People Management, where they collected quotes from a variety of HR professionals, all of whom enthusiastically endorsed the idea. Not one critic was asked for their opinion (incidentally, those quotes supporting the measure, as you might expect, all seem to benefit directly from such a measure being introduced, e.g. ‘Inclusivity Consultants’).

There’s a historical point here which may come as a surprise to these HR people, so convinced that they are right to be doing this for the employee’s own good. Here’s the thing: the Popes and Kings who initiated the Inquisition didn’t set out to burn and terrorise their own populations. The mediaeval mindset was that the afterlife was very real and eternal, and that if you sinned or committed heresy in this life, your torment would be eternal. So a bit of physical pain on this side of death to persuade a heretic to reform his or her ways was entirely morally justified, because they were utterly convinced that if they did not, their souls would be in torment for eternity. It was for the heretic’s own good.

Another: East Germany was one of the most notorious surveillance states in history (although there are a few modern states which may have taken that crown). The Secret Police, the STASI, developed an informant network that encompassed one in every five of the entire population. The suppression of dissent and unapproved opinions and politics was extremely intrusive and frequently resulted in imprisonment. Unlike the collapse of many totalitarian regimes, we were able to interview and study those who thought this was a good idea. Universally, they were committed Marxist-Leninists who genuinely believed Communism was the only civilised way for people to live. Those who didn’t understand this needed to be re-educated for their own good. The STASI, the prisons and the informer networks all existed for the population’s own good. This is one of the reasons why periodically delinquent dissidents – those who had not responded to ‘re-education’ or the short, sharp shock of imprisonment; those who had resisted the zersetzung – literally the decomposition of your life, the 24/7 police and state harassment and intimidation – were deported to the West. They were incorrigible and wouldn’t respond to ‘re-education’. The ‘civilised’ approach was to throw them over the wall to their fellow capitalists. They gave up on them, but only after trying very hard to ‘fix’ them.

Does any of this sound familiar? In Britain, and indeed across the West, we have developed a managerial class that has taken upon itself the mantle of moral superiority and equates its politics with morality. It has convinced itself that its role is to make the world a better place by ‘addressing injustices’, whether they are current or historical. Any dissent is seen as coming from those who are obviously unenlightened and morally degenerate. These people need to be ‘re-educated’.

Now, for some reason that I have been unable to get an answer for, our institutions and companies seem to think that this needs to be done in the workplace as well as in schools, academies and universities. Apparently, getting a load of city lawyers to avoid ‘microaggressions’ is a worthwhile activity and ‘addresses injustices’. Really? Does it? Or does it actually demoralise those who are being policed? Does it create an atmosphere of treading on eggshells, where everyone is terrified to speak to others and trust no longer exists?

Put the lawyers aside for a moment. This week, Harry Miller from Fair Cop shared an anecdote in an interview. He mentioned that he had heard of two police officers who had been having a conversation in their squad car. The conversation was about DEI training. One of the officers, a Christian, said that he thought this was a waste of time and didn’t believe men could become women and vice versa, or words to that effect. When they returned to the station, his colleague reported him to HR. Why? Because HR apparently periodically checks the voice recordings of events in police cars to ensure that behaviour is appropriate. So, HR dragged the Christian officer in for questioning. He told them where to stick it and that he would sue if they disciplined him, because his opinion, both as a gender realist and a Christian, is protected under the Equality Act. Consequently, HR stepped down. However, the issue here, as Harry rightly pointed out, is that trust between employees is crucial everywhere; in the police, it can literally be a matter of life or death. Yet this policy undermines that trust by creating an atmosphere of suspicion, mistrust, and a culture of denunciation.

Need I point out that during The Great Purge in the USSR in the 1930s, people would denounce their own friends, family and colleagues because they thought that if they didn’t, they would be punished for not doing so, and they were right.

Is this really the society we want to live in?

Well, Newcastle University seems to think so, and they are keen to reassure people that these are ‘recommendations’ and ‘not compulsory’. Well, I am sorry if I call that out as utter nonsense, because we know damn fine that they don’t need to be compulsory to create an atmosphere of treading on eggshells around people, an idea that those who use such words are moral delinquents. Repeatedly, we see these ‘recommendations’ becoming mandates by default.

It is time for HR departments to take a long, hard look at themselves and wind back this nonsense before it causes irreparable damage to our workplaces and our society. It is not their job to micromanage human relationships.

C.J. Strachan is the pseudonym of a concerned Scot who worked for 30 years as a Human Resources executive in some of the U.K.’s leading organisations. This article was first published on his Substack which you can subscribe to here. He is a founder of Fair Job, an accreditation and support service for small businesses to help them navigate the minefields of DEI and HR.

Tags: Free SpeechHuman ResourcesLanguage PolicingMicroaggressionsNewcastle UniversityWoke Gobbledegook

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31 Comments
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Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 months ago

Things that go Trump in the Night 
Tuesday Morning A329 & A322 Downshire Way  
Bracknell

101
Last edited 3 months ago by Lockdown Sceptic
7
0
Monro
Monro
3 months ago

Donald Trump reinstates Winston Churchill bust in Oval Office

“Telegram from the Admiralty, sir!’

‘Winston is back!’

Last edited 3 months ago by Monro
4
0
Monro
Monro
3 months ago

Oxfam ‘weaponising history’ with claim Britain owes India £52 trillion

The British rule in India lasted from the mid-18th century until 1947.

Benefits:

Infrastructure Development:

The British established a vast network of railways, roads, and ports, which facilitated trade and movement across the subcontinent. The Indian Railways, in particular, became one of the largest railway networks in the world.

Education System:

The British introduced a formal education system, including universities and colleges, which laid the foundation for modern education in India. English became a medium of instruction, which helped create a class of educated Indians who later played crucial roles in the independence movement. There are now 88 million pupils in India enjoying a private education because it is a great deal better than that provided by the State.

Legal and Administrative Reforms:

The British established a structured legal system and administrative framework, including codified laws and a judiciary. This helped in standardizing laws and promoting a sense of order and governance.

Economic Changes:

Britain integrated India into the global economy. The introduction of cash crops and new agricultural practices changed the economic landscape, leading to increased agricultural productivity in some regions.

Public Health Initiatives:

Britain implemented public health measures in India, including the establishment of hospitals and vaccination programs, which improved health standards in some areas. This included efforts to combat diseases like cholera and smallpox.

Transport and Communication:

Britain improved communication systems by introducing telegraphs and postal services, which connected different parts of the country and facilitated faster communication.

Cultural Exchange:

Britain led a cultural exchange that influenced art, literature, and architecture. The fusion of British and Indian styles produced unique forms of art and architecture, such as Indo-Saracenic architecture.

Social Reform Movements:

Britain also sparked social reform movements within India. Reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and others advocated for social changes, such as the abolition of sati (the practice of widow immolation) and child marriage, influenced by Western ideas of rights and freedoms.

Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, Bangalore

Government Museum, Madras

Hodson’s Horse

The Lahore Hunt

The Kadir Cup

Etc., etc…..and so on and so forth

Using the future value formula is FV=PV*(1+r)^n, where PV is the present value of the investment, r is the annual interest rate, and n is the number of years the money is invested, that comes out at approximately…….a great deal more than ‘£52 dillions’

When may we expect our money back?

Last edited 3 months ago by Monro
7
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
3 months ago
Reply to  Monro

On the downside we let the subcontinent partition itself again.

2
0
Monro
Monro
3 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

‘The question of a division of India, as proposed by the Muslim League, is based on the fundamental fact that there are two nations- Hindus and Muslims- and the underlying principle is that we want a national home and a national state in our homelands which are predominately Muslim and compromise the six units of the Punjab, the N.W.F.P., Sind, Baluchistan, Bengal and Assam. This will give the Hindus their national home and a national state of Hindustan, which means three-fourths of British India.’

Muhammad Jinnah, 04 May 1947

Quite so, but I don’t believe that a united ‘Greater India’ was, by that stage, any longer in our gift.

3
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
3 months ago
Reply to  Monro

Totally agree. ‘We’ had made a right hash of abandoning Empire well before partition.

That said: I’ve briefly visited many countries on business trips (though not India or Pakistan) and it strikes me that ‘we’ left behind better functioning bureaucracies than other European ‘powers’.

4
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
3 months ago
Reply to  Monro

So Muslims wanted their own Muslim state, and yet we accused of racism for wanting a Christian or secular state. Shame on them.

2
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
3 months ago
Reply to  Monro

Why bother to argue these issues. The UK is broke. No money.

4
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
3 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Worse than broke – in hock.

2
0
Sepulchrave
Sepulchrave
3 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Indeed, and I now believe that the UK will continue to worsen and this condition will persist for decades if not permanently.

0
0
Monro
Monro
3 months ago
Reply to  Monro

My apologies. The Lahore Hunt is, of course, now in Pakistan. I think they still exist. The PVH is still going.

https://m.facebook.com/pvhpak/

Last edited 3 months ago by Monro
0
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
3 months ago

“Wanted – a politically and economically viable path to low emissions”

I read the opening paragraph and decided the rest could wait until I have nothing better to do.

No serious person doubts that CO2 is a greenhouse gas or that human emissions of it have contributed to our changing climate.

Know your enemy.

7
0
Mrs Bunty
Mrs Bunty
3 months ago

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/21/british-left-has-to-take-feminism-lessons-donald-trump/

Julie Bindel has had an undeserved rough time and bravo for her to be still standing. I’m of a generation out of time with the mores of today but let’s not fall for the media version of Trump she outlines:

”He doesn’t like gender ideology in exactly the same way as other misogynists don’t like it – because women should be in the kitchen, barefoot, preferably pregnant, and men are men and women are women, in the most traditional and regressive way.”

Traditional doesn’t mean regressive. I worked then when I had our children Mr B worked while I stayed home with our children, that’s not regressive and I certainly wasn’t subjugated, we were and are still equal partners. I’ve worked with tradesmen who could curse and catcall with the best of them who when they swore in front of me they apologised, they were who would be called misogynists today but were just normal men. Trump doesn’t talk down to them.

Trump has stayed on good terms with his wives and his children respect him and work with him. He wasn’t the most articulate of people but seems to have calmed more listening to his inauguration.

Broad brushes don’t help anyone and the left seem to have the broadest brushes to tar people with.

6
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
3 months ago
Reply to  Mrs Bunty

Indeed. How on earth does Bindel presume to know that Trump thinks women should be barefoot in the kitchen? Where is her evidence for this? There’s some evidence that one way Trump sees women is as sex objects. Breaking news – that’s not uncommon (biology) but it doesn’t mean that is the ONLY way he sees them. I have the impression it’s not uncommon for women to sometimes view men as sex objects.

3
0
Mrs Bunty
Mrs Bunty
3 months ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Exactly, but it’s typical nowadays. It puzzles me how people are absolutely certain of their viewpoint and won’t believe or listen to alternatives. I admit I have bias myself (being a Conservative) but if someone showed me that my viewpoint on anything was wrong without stooping to emotions I’m open to changing my mind, these people aren’t.

Are they’re not teaching critical thinking nowadays but motivated reasoning, appealing to feelings and emotions? Is education just indoctrination of the herd?

3
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
3 months ago

So the elites want us to believe that if this bloke had been told by Amazon “you’re too young to buy a knife” he would instead have gone back to his homework.

He wouldn’t have used the same ingenuity that he applied to manufacture ricin or travel to Southport or get the terrorist training manuals.

Meanwhile, Labour want to give him the vote.

6
0
NickR
NickR
3 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Or, walked down to kitchen, open the cutlery drawer & take out a knife. Is there a home in Britain that doesn’t have carving knives, bread knives, vegetable knives, chisels, craft knives?

5
0
Sepulchrave
Sepulchrave
3 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Classic misdirection by Yvette Cooper.

1
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
3 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Indeed, what a crock of crap. Problem-reaction-solution. Import violent people, then stop everyone buying knives online.

1
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
3 months ago

Ed Miliband warns Trump that Net Zero is ‘unstoppable’”

Trump: ‘Who?’

8
0
Andy A
Andy A
3 months ago

‘Disgrace’ that Axel Rudakubana could buy a knife on Amazon’ says the brain dead Home Secretary. I wonder what conclusion she have come to if he’d gone into his parents kitchen and grabbed a knife from the cutlery draw?

6
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
3 months ago

Biden has done a great job confirming the guilt of all the crooks by pardoning them.

6
0
Mrs Bunty
Mrs Bunty
3 months ago

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/01/20/her-name-is-emily-damari/ The left will never live down the shame of staying silent on the racist kidnapping of a British Jew, writes Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.

Silly Brendan hasn’t he learned? The left don’t feel shame.

2
0

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