We all go to prison. 
Back to the original subject. I can’t imagine someone getting into serious trouble for having a sense of humor. It’s still legal, right?
Unless the lawyer can prove that a person goofed off all the time and did not do their job, we are safe.
Too many attorneys, not enough important things for them to do…
You got that right Sheldon!!
Back to the original subject. I can’t imagine someone getting into serious trouble for having a sense of humor.
Now John, you can only tell Sven and Ole jokes in Seattle or Minneapolis. that subtle Scandinavian humor simply doesn’t translate to other parts of the country. (and thankfully, neither does lutefisk)
Us last surviving Mesopotameans ain’t too amused, either!!!
How dare you insult my beloved Mesopotamian ancestors! (kidding)
It seems to me that just about any joke can be interpreted as insulting to someone or something. There are overly insensitive jokesters, but there are also hypersensitive listeners. There seems to be a huge bias against light bulb changers and people who go to bars. I have no desire to offend anyone, yet there are people who are constantly on the lookout for something to complain about. I once casually and jokingly remarked that if something didnt stop I was going to kill myself. A person at the table suddenly jumped down my throat because they knew someone who had contemplated suicide. I am not biased against suicidal people.
At one extreme, we have people living in fear lest they should make some off-hand remark that somebody might find offensive. At the other extreme we have people stomping on feelings and sensitivities everywhere they go, thus disrupting the work environment and spreading discontent. It seems to me that there has to be a middle ground between slavery to the easily offended and suffering at the words of the insensitive. Most insensitive remarks are not malicious bigotry so much as ignorance of how others think. There are thousands of social groups that I do not belong to and whose perspective I generally cannot, therefore fully comprehend. A person should try hard to overcome that ignorance, but at the same time a person should try hard to understand that ignorance in others. After all, we all suffer from it.
A CCS, a CCPR and a CCCA walk into a bar…
A young friend, a computer science major, and his colleagues in the computer lab at college would, when someone new walked into the room, start to speak “0111, 100011000, 000111100, 010, 101…” and then laugh hysterically. I wonder who was offended at that?
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those that understand binary, and those that don’t.
From a policy perspective, my sense is that the issue, at least as far as emailed jokes is concerned, is fairly pragmatic. As everyone is aware, email takes on a life of its own, and, should litigation arise email is subject to discovery.
Imagine the plaintiff’s attorney finding ethnic jokes disparaging towards the plaintiff’s ethnic background or the ethnic background of the plaintiff’s principle consultant or employee. Or finding jokes at the expense of one’s own consultants or employees. While each may be innocent enough individually, when the plaintiff’s attorney is fitting the facts and compiles them into a group they may well create a negative impression that could easily overshadow however competent or professional your organization’s behavior has been. A picture could easily be painted showing how you were prejudiced against the plaintiff and your actions were guided, at least in part, by that prejudice.
And if this seems unfair from our side of the table, I certainly expect my counsel to be subjecting my opponents emails to the same level of scrutiny.
How come there are never any Presbyterian jokes?
(I get all my good Jewish jokes from my Jewish friends and all my good Catholic jokes from my Catholic friends.)
Is smiling allowed in the workplace? Or will it be interpreted as an unwanted sexual advance or smart alek smirk or some other nefarious purpose?
(Disclaimer: It’s just a smile. That’s all it is. It means nothing more than a physical facial expression of amusement and happiness.)
Let me answer as an ordained elder in the PCUSA;
It’s because predestination spoils all the punchlines.
I’m so afraid of being politically incorrect that I no longer call my dog a “dog”…due to the bad connotation. I call him a “Canine American”!
(I think George Carlin told this joke.)
Because presbyterians just arn’t very funny.
I was raised presbyterian but “left” in 9th grade never to return. It was shortly after that event that I discovered I had a sense of humor.
why is no one ordained as a “younger”?
A joke can grow legs and haunt you. I think the statute of limitations on one of my crimes has expired, so I can tell you about it.
Several years ago, I took the following definition:
2.1 TOPSOIL
A. Use topsoil that is fertile, friable, natural loam, surface soil, reasonably free of subsoil, clay lumps, brush, weeds and other litter, and free of roots, stumps, stones larger than 2 inches in any dimension, and other extraneous or toxic matter harmful to plant growth.
(This should be attributed to MASTERSPEC)
I wanted to see if the PA really read the specs, so, to the brief list of objectionable materials, I added “Skoal cans, bottles, excrement, and severed limbs…”. She caught the joke, but asked me to take it out before we issued it to the owner.
Well, I forgot to take it out, of course, and it caused a big scene in our office. Not surprisingly, neither the Owner nor the Contractor ever discovered it, so it is in the records of a public entity.
Lesson learned: Humor is great, but one is better off sticking to the spoken word in conveying it. It has something to do with plausible deniability.
OH, GOOD LORD-- AND I APPEARED ON THE SAME SEMINAR PROGRAM AS WYATT!!!
We did the same sort of thing early in my career - but it was to see if the bidding contractors were really reading the specs - we called for the rebar for the concrete to be gold. Yep - no one caught it - the successful contractor was a little perplexed when we asked him where he was getting his rebar and we responded to his answer by saying we didn’t know they supplied gold rebar!