Talking about sport in the workplace should be limited because it can leave women feeling excluded, a management body has warned. According to Ann Francke, head of the Chartered Management Institute, discussing activities such as football or cricket in the office could also lead to “laddish behaviour” or harmful banter between colleagues.
“A lot of women, in particular, feel left out,” Francke told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “They don’t follow those sports and they don’t like either being forced to talk about them or not being included in the conversation.”
Francke said discussions surrounding the merits of video assistant refereeing (VAR) could be particularly exclusionary if people don’t know what that is. “It’s a gateway to more laddish behaviour and – if it just goes unchecked – it’s a signal of a more laddish culture,” she continued.“It’s very easy for it to escalate from VAR talk and chat to slapping each other on the back and talking about their conquests at the weekend.”
>slapping each other on the back and talking about their conquests at the weekend
This only further cements my view that dedicated fisherfolk like these are genuinely just the mirror counterpart of the chronic masturbators and MRAs.
I've genuinely never met any lads who do behave that way, especially not at work around the water cooler. Most LADlads I know are fiercely private about what they do at weekends, because they don't want their boss to know about all the drugs it involves.
Frankly it just comes off as one of those myopic assumptions people make about the behaviour of groups they have spent very little time around; the exact same way you see posts from bitter men generalising wildly about female behaviour.
People have different interests. Women in the office talk about fashion, for example. Some dudes are also into talking about that and know a fair amount, much like some women are massive football fans. I recently moved into an office with two guys who literally only talked about football, and sometimes boxing.
Instead of letting myself feel alienated, I made jokes about how Pele was doing, Beckham and Seaman etc. I joined the Fantasy Football league at the start of the season and 20+ weeks in I can have decent chats about the game.
If you give a shit about getting on with coworkers (and some people don't which is totally fair) and there is a particular topic they focus on, just make the effort. They might actually enjoy it.
Also I see this as incompatible with the normalisation of talking about stuff like periods.
This is something I want to be angry about but currently lack the cogency to do so without feeling like I'm some sort of -ist. But I don't think this is men vs women, it's about integrating with subcultures that may be more prevalent in certain environments.
Also is that link dead now or just something with my browser fucking up?
That's me being a massive sexist then I suppose. I spent 10 minutes talking about how shite Harry Maguire is since he can only play well against League 1 opposition.
>>8867 As a Bi-lad I am offended by women thinking that only they're allowed to be offended by men and lesbians talking about football.
>>8875 In a healthy office culture you have a balance of men and women, it stops being a problem, the men talk about football and the women talk about love island or soaps or whatever and they all banter with each other quite happily.
It becomes a problem when you have one or two women in an office full of men, and also when you have one or two men in an office full of women.
Banning people from talking about sports in the office is just sticking a plaster over the underlying problem.
>>8882 >It becomes a problem when you have one or two women in an office full of men, and also when you have one or two men in an office full of women.
I mean, this is just a nightmare scenario either way. I used to travel a lot doing IT work out of a bunch of different offices and the most unpleasant/dysfunctional were always one extreme or the other.
On topic, this woman is stupid and her suggestions are unhelpful. You can't stop people from talking about their hobbies, and any attempt to do so would have a profoundly negative effect on most workplaces.
