Hello everyone. First I should introduce my self. I am a 27 year old IT engineer, working in mainly first and second line user support. One way or another I have found myself working quite a few contract roles, and enjoyed the benefits of contracting. I'm sorry to spring such a deep question in my first ever post on this forum, but it is a forum I have read many times as a guest and think this might be a good spot for some advice.
I am currently working for a large public sector organisation in Oxfordshire. I have been working there for approximately 6 months now and coming to the end of my contract. Largely, I have enjoyed working for this organisation and it been rewarding. I have got on well with almost all the team. There is a lot of banter which flies back and forth through the small room we work in. I love nothing more than a good bit of banter at work. I think it's great fun if noone is getting hurt and the work is done; I think it can be team building. I am not sensitive to humour. I find a lot of Jimmy Carr syle humour quite funny, although he does over-step the mark for me sometimes.
For the purpose of this post, I will call the bloke concerned "Shellam". Shellam is very animated and always cracking jokes left right and centre. At his best, he can be a pleasure to talk to and have a bit of a laugh with. I think he possibly suffers Tourettes because he seems to have certain ticks and not be able to shut up for more than one minute without making a multitude of sounds! The problem is, many times he has made some very very crude and frankly inappropriate jokes. He often makes jokes about rape and make random "joking" sexual references to children (in general, there are no kids on site). A lot of this stuff I have cringed at but sort of let it go over my head.
There are many times Shellam is very difficult to work with. I find him quite obstructive when I need to know things in order to do the job. Sure, I don't expect anyone to teach me how to support EYE-TEE's, but I find as a contractor, there are always new things to learn about certain procedures and rules in the organisation. Sometimes I will have a customer on hold and I'm trying get some vital piece of information out of him and he just cocks around telling me to look at incomplete documentation and just trying to make me look silly, pretty much backed up by his pathetic side kick who giggles inanely at anything he says.
Today however, hit a new watershed. He was making comments to the effect of "oh a woman can't be raped, she must be asking for it", in such a serious voice, it's sent chills down my spine, although because of the tone he says things in, you can't always tell if he's joking. "Joking" or not, I was absolutely disgusted by what he said today and I'm pretty sure I am going to report him to the manager tomorrow; I wonder what she will think of his views on a womans' human rights? I told him "my sister was raped, so do you mind?" (I don't even have a sister, but the point stands). To which he just giggled like a ten year old and said "oooh we can't joke about rape any more". I finish in three weeks, but I think this is something quite serious and totally unacceptable for a workplace or anywhere in civilised society.
Have any of you been in a situation like this? How did you deal with it?
Sorry it's so deep and ranty, but I've had to get this off my chest, and get some opinions.
I am currently working for a large public sector organisation in Oxfordshire. I have been working there for approximately 6 months now and coming to the end of my contract. Largely, I have enjoyed working for this organisation and it been rewarding. I have got on well with almost all the team. There is a lot of banter which flies back and forth through the small room we work in. I love nothing more than a good bit of banter at work. I think it's great fun if noone is getting hurt and the work is done; I think it can be team building. I am not sensitive to humour. I find a lot of Jimmy Carr syle humour quite funny, although he does over-step the mark for me sometimes.
For the purpose of this post, I will call the bloke concerned "Shellam". Shellam is very animated and always cracking jokes left right and centre. At his best, he can be a pleasure to talk to and have a bit of a laugh with. I think he possibly suffers Tourettes because he seems to have certain ticks and not be able to shut up for more than one minute without making a multitude of sounds! The problem is, many times he has made some very very crude and frankly inappropriate jokes. He often makes jokes about rape and make random "joking" sexual references to children (in general, there are no kids on site). A lot of this stuff I have cringed at but sort of let it go over my head.
There are many times Shellam is very difficult to work with. I find him quite obstructive when I need to know things in order to do the job. Sure, I don't expect anyone to teach me how to support EYE-TEE's, but I find as a contractor, there are always new things to learn about certain procedures and rules in the organisation. Sometimes I will have a customer on hold and I'm trying get some vital piece of information out of him and he just cocks around telling me to look at incomplete documentation and just trying to make me look silly, pretty much backed up by his pathetic side kick who giggles inanely at anything he says.
Today however, hit a new watershed. He was making comments to the effect of "oh a woman can't be raped, she must be asking for it", in such a serious voice, it's sent chills down my spine, although because of the tone he says things in, you can't always tell if he's joking. "Joking" or not, I was absolutely disgusted by what he said today and I'm pretty sure I am going to report him to the manager tomorrow; I wonder what she will think of his views on a womans' human rights? I told him "my sister was raped, so do you mind?" (I don't even have a sister, but the point stands). To which he just giggled like a ten year old and said "oooh we can't joke about rape any more". I finish in three weeks, but I think this is something quite serious and totally unacceptable for a workplace or anywhere in civilised society.
Have any of you been in a situation like this? How did you deal with it?
Sorry it's so deep and ranty, but I've had to get this off my chest, and get some opinions.
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