Okay, using a different screen name because I am not sure if a couple of triathletes at work lurk around here or not. Anyway here is my post/question whatever. In my ‘place of business’ last week, I was conveying my frustrations at one of the workers because they were not doing their job correctly and neither was one of my coworkers. In the heat of the conversation I told the person in question that I was about to lose my f&*king mind because they wouldn’t do their jobs correctly even though I had this same conversation about what they should or should not do almost every day. Well, someone overheard and reported me to one of my business partners. The ‘board’ shall we say, got together and fined me $2000. Now before they did this and before I even knew they were meeting I had already apologized for the language. I realize it was bad for our business, and even though I didn’t like the hefty fine, I didn’t make much argument about it. Fast forward to today. My wife comes into my place of business and two of the bastards who were most vocal about the whole language thing both insult my wife. To her face. They were basically trying to be cute and make jokes, but both were in poor taste. So here I am getting fined $2000 for saying F&*K out loud yet both of them insinuate that I have been running around on her or talking about her behind her back. One even made a crack about garnishing my pay because she got a bottle of water out of the cooler. I am trying to be civil about this, but it is damn near go time. Have I completely lost my mind or is this hypocrisy to the nth degree? I am trying to resist the urge to just kick the living shit out of them and deal with the consequences later. Not trying to justify my previous action, but the turnabout is almost laughable if the cramp in my wallet didn’t hurt so bad.
And make sure you put the whole situation in writing including your polite declination of paying the fine. possibly cc to an owner or board of directors. Extortion doesn’t play well with labor boards.
under what authority are they fining you? Is this in a contract of some kind? I doubt it is legal unless you agreed to it in a contract and if you are a partner then just tell them no, what can they do?
Why can’t you take the same action and fine those who insulted your wife? Personally, I’d take $2000 out of their ass and call it all square, but that’s just me.
I generally agree with the advice of the others posted above.
And no you have not lost your mind, and yes it is clearly hypocrisy. In my opinion, some guys think they are being funny when they say certain things to women. They are not being funny, they are being crass and offensive. It may not have been your best move to say “fucking” at work, but I think that can be excused the one time.
But, it can not be excused when people treat others inappropriately, especially someone’s spouse.
So, yeah, I’d refuse to pay the fine and tell these assholes to watch themselves – in not-so-nice language. Chivalry is not dead, my friend.
Jeez, what the heck kind of business are you in???
Did you really mean to say $2,000 dollar fine for dropping the F-bomb???
I swear I’ve never in my life heard anything like this. Do you have a contractural agreement with these people that includes the levying of fines for certain offenses? If not, seems arbitrary to me, and way, way out of line.
Now, with respect to you wife…That offense far exceeds the F-word…We would have to have a come to Jesus about that one, with appropriate threats being made, both leagal and physical.
I’d seek counsel and have everything documeted, including a statement from your wife…Just for future reference.