Uncivilized Comments

-
Does anyone in cyberspace want to have a civilized discussion anymore? There was an article in the Herald of April 17th about some Monterey and Salinas area McDonald's employees suing their employer for allegedly demanding they work off the clock if they wanted to keep their jobs. Other alleged offenses were changing employee time records and requiring employees to use their vehicles on company business without mileage compensation.

The article mentioned that many McDonald's employees are immigrants who don't know the law all that well and are thus easily intimidated by their employers. That is not at all far-fetched. Heck, I've seen situations where all-American white skinned people with college degrees feel intimidated enough to work off the clock because "company policy does not permit overtime" even though there's more work to do. It does happen.

Several of the reader comments on the Herald's "Topix" forum were nothing short of racist, and others stated that the employees must be stupid. One person wrote:
"Just another ambulance chaser at work. And, the victims....well, they were fortunate to have any job at all. After this lawsuit, any employer would be afraid to hire time.....potential problems."
Yesterday I posted something more thoughtful:
"Businesses hereabouts often do intimidate employees to work off the clock, usually by a manager indicating that overtime is not allowed under company policy but still insisting that work be completed before anyone is allowed to leave. It's more common than you might think.

"According to the article, "The suit says workers were forced to work "off the clock" and had work hours shaved from their time records. It contends that workers were given inadequate time for rest and meals and were not reimbursed for using their cars to deliver supplies between restaurants."

"All of those things are illegal, but apparently that doesn't seem to concern many of you. Instead you assume the workers are illegal just because they're immigrants. I worked with legal immigrants in a local hotel for 12 years, and they were the hardest working and the most conscientious people I've ever worked with. The McDonald's employees have a every right to their day in court."
I checked that forum today and found my comment labeled with two Judge It icons, one for clueless and the other for disagree. Apparently civilized discussion isn't valued anymore.

I've been trying to establish a civilized forum for discussion of local topics. According to my web statistics, there have been numerous visitors, but almost nobody has signed up to participate. I'm beginning to think that civilized debate has gone the way of the dodo, in every sense of the word. Sigh.

Help me build a civilized discussion forum for the Monterey Peninsula at forum.montereypeninsula.info.
Tags:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The problem with Car Week

-
Image
So another Car Week has come to and gone from the Monterey Peninsula. And as usual the community is divided into two camps. On one side we have people who are frustrated with the traffic, crowds, and noise. The other side is telling these folks to stop whining because "it's good for the economy." The second group has no sympathy for the first, and often goes as far as telling them to move away if they don't like special events and the tourists that come along with them. How did this come about? Car week evolved slowly over several decades. The core event is known as the Concours d'Elegance (which is pronounced properly by maybe half of the local population). The Concours began in 1950 as a single Sunday display of classic automobiles. I remember going there as a kid once, after Sunday School. I watched my dad run his hand over a smoothly polished fender, so I did the same. Suddenly a very cranky man came up behind me saying "NO, NO! FINGERPRINTS!" as...
Read more

Calling the police has gotten harder

-
Image
It has gotten harder to call the police. The last few weeks I have made several attempts to report illegal fireworks to Seaside PD. We've always used the non-emergency number 831-394-6811 to do this, and our call would be promptly answered by a dispatcher who would take the information and immediately enter it into the system. Now one must jump through several hoops with no guarantee the system won't disconnect you before the report is made. And I'm getting fed up. Instead of having our calls answered by a human, a machine will answer, much as it does for every business you call these days. First it tells you that this number is not for emergencies, and if you have an emergency you must hang up and call 911. Then they say it again in Spanish.  Next, you are instructed to choose English or Spanish. Next it tells you that they're busy answering emergency 911 calls and implies that your non-emergency concern is an imposition on their important work. Then the voice asks...
Read more

What did you vote for?

-
Image
I have a question for Trump voters. What did you vote for? I'm assuming most of you are fine upstanding citizens who want what is best for our country. You believe in the United States Constitution, and you want to uphold its principles. But from where I sit it looks like you voted, perhaps unwittingly, for something very different. To me it looks like you voted for... A con man,  A narcissist,  A bad businessman, A fascist, A crook, A puppet of Vladimir Putin, A liar, A vulgar man, A sex offender, A convicted white-collar criminal. A bully, I could go on. At the same time you're probably wondering why I voted for Kamala Harris. It's because I saw her as... A strong woman,  An intelligent woman, A competent woman, An honest woman, A woman who can stand up to bullies, both foreign and domestic, like Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump, A compassionate woman, A woman who has a good sense of humor, A woman who knows when to be tough and when to be gentle, A woman who embodies ...
Read more