Patterico's Pontifications

4/5/2011

Your Tuesday Morning Schadenfried*

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 10:47 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

For some time now, New York City has served as a cautionary tale on the rise of nanny-statism, so its more than a little funny to read this item yesterday:

No overbearing perfume. No obscene pictures. And definitely no French fries for work lunches.

That’s the new edict for employees of the same city Health Department that brought you calorie-counting menus and snuffed out smoking on beaches and in parks.

The updated rules – which range from what workers can serve at agency powwows to how loud they can talk in the office – come as the Health Department begins to move into its new Queens digs today.

A set of guidelines for “Life in the Cubicle Village” sent to employees asks them to avoid wearing products with “noticeable odors” or posting “any displays, photos, cartoons, or other personal items that may be offensive.”

They also should avoid eavesdropping.

If they can’t – “at least resist the urge to add your comments,” the cubicle rules recommend.

There is no word on whether they also plan to regulate talking back to the screen in movie theaters.

Read the whole thing–it both gets worse and funnier.

——————–

*Yes, that spelling is intentional.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

69 Responses to “Your Tuesday Morning Schadenfried*”

  1. Let me take a stab at being a contrarian to what I think will be the overall sentiment here: I have no problems with the ban on serving fried food or prohibiting cookies at work lunches. In fact, since this is a taxpayer-supported institution we are talking about, I don’t think there ought to be any work lunches paid for by the taxpayers. This is the sort of extravagance that a budget-conscious agency ought to be cutting in the first place.

    The prohibition on strong perfume does have the whiff (are my puns great, or what?) of soft totalitarianism — especially since the perception of violation is arbitrary — but having worked in an environment where a co-worker smelled like the whole damn cosmetics counter at Macy’s had been dumped on her, I can kind of sympathize.

    And if I can claim that a picture of Obama or Mayor Bloomberg is “offensive,” then I am all for any restrictions in that regard.

    Now, if this department tries to regulate the private eating habits of the department — if it were to try to prohibit or even discourage an after-hours off-site gathering to celebrate an employee’s birthday or promotion just because alcohol or fatty foods would be consumed, then yes, we would have a real problem.

    JVW (615582)

  2. jvw

    actually my point was more to see them suffer for their interference with the private lives of everyone else.

    legally and morally, the government can create whatever conditions it wants for its workers with only a few limitations not implicated here. whether they want to make working for them that less attractive is another matter, but i could care less if they drive away the best and the brightest.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  3. I’m glad the spelling was intentional. Serves ’em right.

    BarSinister (a9e7f6)

  4. If they can’t – “at least resist the urge to add your comments,” the cubicle rules recommend.

    HAHAHAHAHA

    Oh man, I am picturing Robocop in Robocop 2, with this mess of rules that makes it too difficult to function. Imagine what a hassle it is to just do your damn job when you’re dealing with rules on your loud cubicle neighbor who needs his wife to pick up some milk at the store.

    HAHAHAHAHA

    Yes, everything you need to know about life can be learned via Robocop 2. Resist addiction, how to tackle from a Harley, the importance of duty, and the importance of not imposing too many rules over the cubicle villagers.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  5. dustin

    well, the biggest lesson from robocop 2 is… quit while you are ahead.

    as in when you make a classic action movie… don’t make a sequel… quit while you are ahead.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  6. If I were the Daily News, I’d be looking to see if there were bribes from the last remaining producer of hot-air popcorn poppers.

    For celebrations, cake and air-popped popcorn – “popped at the party and served in brown paper lunch bags” – are allowed.

    When was the last time someone used an air popper? Who will monitor the added salt? Is butter allowed?

    carlitos (00428f)

  7. That and the ballet in Houston is actually 150 stories tall.

    Actually, I think Robocop 2 would have been a hit if it has simply had an acceptable soundtrack and deeper villians, but you have to understand that it was important not to distract from the many critical life lessons in Robocop 2 with such lesser things.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  8. dustin

    yeah, the 10 year old gangster was a bit much. i mean i knew alot of it was satire, wrapped in violence. but the 10 year old kid was a bit much. and even as satire, putting a druggie behind the wheel of the second robocop made zero sense. no company would take that kind of risk. their insurance company would cancel the policy!

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  9. No surprise here.

    From a fellow NYer

    DohBiden (984d23)

  10. they are remaking the robocop it is very exciting someone named Jose is going to direct… the studio is MGM though and they can be flaky

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  11. Clearly overreaching, however, what struck me is if the Health Dept. has this much time to devote to creating tedious rules and regs (much of it subjective), then they must not have enough actual *real* work to keep them otherwise occupied, hence it would appear some serious streamlining and curtailing of the entity is in order.

    I can’t wait for the first staff meeting where the one employee with wheat allergies believes himself singled out and discriminated against by the permitted-only offering of whole-wheat bagels, and subsequently files a lawsuit…

    Dana (9f3823)

  12. their insurance company would cancel the policy!

    Indeed, R2 should be required coursework for an MBA, simply because of the insurance implications. I tell ya, it’s got everything. It’s truly the Hamlet of our age. I’m sorry for the threadjackery, but I see this as a legitimate reaction to the problem of people solving every problem in the world by imposing rule after rule after rule.

    It’s totally unserious. Even the people imposing these cubicle rules know they aren’t helpful. They made the rules to glorify themselves, rather than to improve anything. In this economy, the best way to have a good office environment is to make hiring decisions correctly.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  13. the miniseries that ran on Sci Fi, was good though, darker, more sentimental, OCP is pure evil, remember, probably represented by Wolfram & Heart

    narciso (b545d5)

  14. Can anybody imagine putting a french frier next to an air vent of this building, letting the grease scented water vapor permeate the air within the building ?
    Yes, it’s torture. Waterboarding would be more humane.

    Rodan (03e5c2)

  15. How is this nanny-statism? This is regulation of workplace behavior. *Every company I’ve ever worked at* has some set of similar rules. Usually they’re unspoken, but violating them is punishable even if they’re implicit.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  16. How is this nanny-statism? This is regulation of workplace behavior. *Every company I’ve ever worked at* has some set of similar rules.

    It’s not nanny-statism. It’s neener-neener-you-have-to-follow-rules-too-NYS-health-employee-workers-snork-snork.

    Kman (5576bf)

  17. aphrael, I guess you’re right. While this is the government imposing ridiculous nannying, they aren’t doing it to citizens, but rather they are doing it to state workers.

    It’s a great cautionary tale because is shows bureaucrats in the government can be overbearing and ineffective nannies sometimes. I realize there are many such stories. I don’t want these bureaucrats involved in government at all, even if in this case, it’s just other government workers who are living with it.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  18. aph

    its not nanny statism. its what they do to the rest of the world. its laughing at the nanny staters being nannied.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  19. But your right, aph, in suggesting that if these employees go jobs in the private sector, they would probably be subject to many of the same restrictions (thus making the post not exactly scathing in its backhanded criticism of the horrible things that nanny-staters supposedly do)

    Kman (5576bf)

  20. kman

    > they would probably be subject to many of the same restrictions

    ignoring how much nanny-statism makes things that way…

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  21. You gotta love Kman’s complete lack of a sense of humor in his blowhard creepy stalking.

    At least you know this loser is making himself more miserable than he’s making anyone else.

    Say, kman, you insulted the commenters at this blog as constituting an echo chamber. May I please comment at your blog? URL please.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  22. kman

    btw, you went curiously silent on the last thread. care to explain why Dr. King’s family shouldn’t complain about Dr. King’s assassination, given its predictability?

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  23. ignoring how much nanny-statism makes things that way

    Really? Nanny-statism is responsible for workplace restrictions on obnoxious perfumes? On hanging obscene photos in your cubicle? On eavesdropping? You’re going to blame that on nanny-statism?

    Kman (5576bf)

  24. care to explain why Dr. King’s family shouldn’t complain about Dr. King’s assassination, given its predictability?

    No, AW. I don’t “explain” things that I never said or implied. It’s pointless.

    Kman (5576bf)

  25. Kman

    when you write this

    > don’t whine about your free speech when the response is the one you were trying to elicit and/or could foresee in the first place.

    That is precisely what you imply. so basically its okay to kill a person for saying something don’t like. but you whine like a b*tch when we talk about banning you for being a lying stalkerboi. and then you keep dustin out of your site.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  26. kman

    the fact was that you were forced into ever more ridiculous positions because what your real position is, is really: whatever Aaron says, I say the opposite.

    i mean for a week or so you kind of acted human but then yesterday your second personality or something switched on and stalkerboi was back.

    [corrected after the fact. –aaron]

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  27. Is it still inappropriate to compare Mike Bloomberg to a German Fascist Dictator?

    Face it, Bloomberg’s claim to fame is the equivalent of “he made the trains run on time” — the guys has further worsened the living environment in NY with his nonsense and over bearing childishness.

    Bike Lanes
    Outdoor Eating in Times Square.
    Disney on 8th
    Garbage Pickup optional when it snows.
    Snow Removal optional when it snows.
    No salt in restaurants
    No fried foods
    No smoking anywhere
    No rebuild of the WTC with his 10 years in office
    Same crappy schools
    Still bloated budget
    Congesting pricing for traffic
    Increasing crime recently

    … dear god, please Mike, die of a massive clogged artery or hyper tension. Ahhhhhhh, what a personality-less wad this guy is.

    NY will cease being NY by the time he is done. It will be Palm Beach Island but colder — on all fronts.

    Torquemada (fccc6f)

  28. #23 Kman, point is these Navel Gazing imbeciles are worried about naughty posters in the Sanitation Department but not about the rampant fraud plaguing the early retirement racket in NY.

    Please, come back with something more important when Rome is burning then “be nice.”

    Torquemada (fccc6f)

  29. torq

    don’t wish for his death. wish for his electoral defeat.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  30. Yep. Bloomberg is a symptom. He was elected for a reason, and that reason is what needs to be changed. There will always be a long line of potential nannies.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  31. AW:

    the fact was that you were forced into ever more ridiculous positions because what your real position is, is really: whatever Aaron says, I say the opposite.

    That’s kind of arrogant, don’t you think… to think that I actually don’t hold the positions I espouse, but rather, I am choosing instead to automatically “say the opposite” of you?

    Get over yourself. It takes a very special kind of pomposity to think that someone must be engaging in a mechanical ruse to reflexively disagree with you.

    Can your ego possibly handle the possibility that I actually and truly disagree with you on many things, i.e., that my beliefs and opinions, while different that yours, are genuinely held by me? Is that so hard to fathom?

    Kman (5576bf)

  32. Yes, Kman, it is so hard to fathom when its contradicted entirely by the fatuous comments you make, each of which inconsistent with the last and with any actual objective reality.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  33. Actually, considering the times,
    it is more reasonable to expect
    the Dept of Health to exempt itself
    and its staff from the laws it
    imposes on the rest of us.

    Jack (f9fe53)

  34. Yes, Kman, it is so hard to fathom…

    Ah, well, then… let’s rejoice one and all, for the echo chamber is pure…. since I’m only faking my disagreement (apparently).

    Kman (5576bf)

  35. Disagreement? No. You are faking your seriousness.

    And not successfully.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  36. Kman

    > to think that I actually don’t hold the positions I espouse

    That we shouldn’t consider a person a martyr for free speech if their murder is predictable?

    Yeah, i call bullshit on that. NO ONE in a free country believes that. You’re just disagreeing to be disagreeable.

    Look at the video at this link, asshole. Look at it:

    https://patterico.com/2011/03/02/%e2%80%9ci-know-what-is-the-meaning-of-cross%e2%80%9d-a-martyr-speaks-from-beyond-the-grave/

    He knew that speaking out against Pakistan’s blaphemy laws was likely to get him killed. He did it anyway.

    Are you telling me that the family of this man should not lament his murder and say that freedom of speech in pakistan is being suppressed? Really?

    BULLSHIT. no one believes that except actual fascists. you just said it because you wanted to disagree.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  37. That we shouldn’t consider a person a martyr for free speech if their murder is predictable?

    Hahaha. I never said that.

    So basically, you are tying me to positions that I don’t espouse, while telling me that I don’t really hold the positions I do espouse.

    Lame.

    And whoops, here’s another example of that:

    Are you telling me that the family of this man should not lament his murder and say that freedom of speech in pakistan is being suppressed? Really?

    No, AW, I didn’t tell you that. Really. But thanks for at least asking the question.

    At this point, your having an argument with someone in your head.

    Kman (5576bf)

  38. Kman

    and the fact it was bullshit is further illustrated by going to your site and seeing what you said about the giffords shooting. all i have to do is contrast what you said about giffords and what you said about this to prove you are the liar you are.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  39. Kman

    > [me stating that your belief is] we shouldn’t consider a person a martyr for free speech if their murder is predictable?

    > [you] Hahaha. I never said that.

    Liar:

    > don’t whine about your free speech when the response is the one you were trying to elicit and/or could foresee in the first place.

    https://patterico.com/2011/04/04/don%e2%80%99t-burn-the-bible-or-this-kitten-gets-it/#comment-772514

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  40. I remember when I first noted Kman called this blog an echo chamber. He flat denied that too for a while. I don’t know why people lie about their own words on the internet, unless their goal is to seek attention.

    Kman is 1 part Perez Hilton attention whore and 1 part screen licking groupie. What a world we live in!

    Dustin (c16eca)

  41. AW (at #39):

    WTH?!? I’m talking about whining about free speech. That was the subject matter. You’re talking about martyrdom of a person killed.

    Kman (5576bf)

  42. WTH?!? I’m talking about whining about free speech.

    Liar. The topic was murderers who use murder as the ‘predicted outcome’ to speech you were condemning Aaron for ‘whining’ about.

    Anyone can read the thread and see just how unreasonable you were being, and are being again in this thread. Your principle was so absurd that many counterexamples show you were being completely ridiculous, and how you’re the one whining… about an honest application of your maxim. The point is that your maxim was a lie. You didn’t mean it a few hours ago, and that’s why you complain that we associate it with you. You just said that because you wanted Aaron’s attention.

    That’s why you came here to miss Aaron taking humor in a humorous situation involving NY nanny bureaucrats being miserable.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  43. Kman

    oh, so you were saying don’t whine, but you can call him a martyr.

    bwahahahahahahahaha!!!

    Bullshit. Liar.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  44. I have a suit made out of dung and my cubicle-mates never complain about the odor whenever I wear it.

    Birdbath (19803d)

  45. oh, so you were saying don’t whine, but you can call him a martyr.

    Honest to God, I have no idea what you are talking about.

    Let me try it this way: These people that you refer to — they knew what was coming. They knew the risks and possible consequences of their speech. And they spoke anyway, in large part to expose the consequences/risks.

    So it seems disingenuous after the fact to be shocked — shocked! — by the consequences, and whine about them. They knew them — they counted on them.

    Which is NOT to say that it was “their fault” or “they had it coming” or anything like that. It’s just to say that if you speak out to a bully expecting to get punched in order to expose the bully as a bully, and you DO get hit, don’t act surprised by it.

    Kman (5576bf)

  46. I work for a state entity and it is assumed common sense will prevail by the adults who work there. There are no specific-nuts-and-bolts rules for perfume, food, art on the walls, gossiping, etc.

    If issues arise, they are dealt with by the adults and resolution is found. I can count on one hand the number of issues in the last decade.

    What the Health Dept no longer does by this schadenfried is give the adults in the room the benefit of the doubt as adults, but instead assumes they need to have these written rules and closer management in order to function successfully. That is nannying.

    (The food issue is an entirely different matter and as I suggested at #11, they have quite possibly chosen to make things more complicated rather than simple and effective).

    Dana (9f3823)

  47. the terrorists have won and it was so easy

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  48. Kman in this thread:

    Which is NOT to say that it was “their fault” or “they had it coming” or anything like that.

    Kman in the previous thread:

    But if you’re intentionally doing something provocative — like burning a Koran, or a flag, or a cross — don’t whine about your free speech when the response is the one you were trying to elicit and/or could foresee in the first place.

    Sure you aren’t blaming the victim. You are just saying, “what do you expect wearing that short skirt like that? You can’t expect a man to control himself, you know? So don’t come crying to me when it happens.” But you aren’t blaming the victim. Nah, perish the thought!

    seriously, kman, you are not just a liar, but a bad one. you didn’t believe what you wrote the first time, you just disagreed to be disagreeable.

    [prettied up after the fact. -Aaron]

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  49. Sure you aren’t blaming the victim.

    I’m not. That’s why I specifically mentioned the whole thing about intentionally being provocative.

    Was that part lost on you?

    Kman (5576bf)

  50. Kman

    > I’m not [blaming the victim.]

    yes, you are.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  51. I have a (mild, selective) perfume allergy but …

    This is one of the reasons I have been my own boss since 1985.

    nk (db4a41)

  52. “How many fingers?”

    mojo (4e4a98)

  53. Kman, do you suffer from irony poisoning?

    SPQR (26be8b)

  54. My religious beliefs require me to eat french fries and wear strong perfume at work, because it occupies such a large chunk of the day.

    New York City better be making some accomodations or I’ll be suing their azzes for discrimination just like that Muslim waitress sued Mickey World for not letting her wear a head scarf at work, even though they offered her several alternative positions.

    daleyrocks (9b57b3)

  55. Aaron, apparently Kman doesn’t think he’s blaming the victim, because in his mind if someone is being intentionally provocative, he gets what’s coming to him.

    Some chump (4c6c0c)

  56. “Aaron, apparently Kman doesn’t think he’s blaming the victim, because in his mind if someone is being intentionally provocative, he gets what’s coming to him.”

    Some Chump – In Kman’s world, there probably is no victim, even if illegal acts are committed.

    daleyrocks (9b57b3)

  57. The next New York Times bestseller will be “It takes a Cubicle Village to Raise an Idiot”

    Rochf (f3fbb0)

  58. Has Kman condemned the death threats made against Republican legislators in Wisconsin?

    daleyrocks (9b57b3)

  59. #29, if wishing only made it so.

    Torquemada (fccc6f)

  60. rochf

    actually that sounds like a great book. lol

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  61. I can see a reality show with health dept workers voting members out of the cubicle village. Wearing stinky perfume? You’re out of the village. Got French fry breath? Out of the village. Methinks that the health dept just guaranteed jobs for a number of employment litigators.

    Rochf (f3fbb0)

  62. I like how Kman accuses Aaron Worthing of having an overblown ego.

    And I also like how he calls Aaron a narcissist also.

    Two for one irony sell.

    DohBiden (984d23)

  63. Dana: sure, but it’s nanny-employer, not nanny-state.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  64. Banning drugs=Nanny statism

    Banning food=Good for america.

    Explain please?

    I was not referring to people on here but people in general.

    DohBiden (984d23)

  65. What, you mean Robocop 2 isnt a documentary?

    EricPWJohnson (b9728b)

  66. Phillip Roth, had a line, he couldn’t write fiction in the mid 80s, because reality beat him cold.

    narciso (b545d5)

  67. And, if you “brown bag”, that had better be a bag made from recycled paper!
    Plus, let’s not hear about any preservatives in the condiments on that sandwich…what do you mean you don’t make your own “natural” mayo?

    AD-RtR/OS! (5b4a2f)

  68. Actually the smell of melting butter makes me feel sick, especially the intense smell that wafts from a microwave when popcorn is being made in it. But I don’t try to ban popcorn; I just move away from the microwave or leave the room until the smell dissipates.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)


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