Politically correct nonsense!

[Steve Roberts]

I'd like to express my irritatation about having to be overly concerned by the PC brigade who are more worried about political correctness rather than pragmatic business advice and the sharing of ideas, problems and solutions.

Apparently, it offends people if the word "handicapped" is used - I'm told I should use the term disabled and that my "attitude is apalling" . I employ 90 people, including a blind lady, a severeley dyslexic chap, a guy who uses a wheelchair, and a bloke who's almost completely deaf. And I also employ some black and Asian staff as well. I like them all and they all like me. I do not have any differentiation - I judge them accoring to their attitude and ability. I have 5% staff turnover, so I can't be all bad!

What really gets my goat though, is that I come onto a forum like UKBF to ask for advice with a particular client and someone who seems to have have a large chip on their shoulder is preaching to me about my attitude.

My point to this thread is that if I continually get stick from pople saying I'm being politically incorrect, I simply won't bother posting on UKBF, because it won't be worth the hassle!

 

[bwglaw]

Steve

Clearly you are referring to my post where I said

Just FYI, it is politically incorrect to use 'physically handicapped'

I said 'Just FYI' for a reason, just to raise awareness, which you took offence to be as if I was correcting you, and I worded it in a way to be polite and not to interfere with your thread.

Yes, I did find your reply to be appalling in attitude and it was not really necessary. You did not have to reply in such an aggressive way.

The mere fact that you employ 90 people does not demonstrate in any way that you understand them. Would you call a black person '******'? No, why not?

The replies were all deleted. Rob also replied to insult my intelligence by implying I have been out of the UK for too long and then goes on to say that it is quite common to refer disabled people as 'physically handicapped' because the Goverment uses it too! The Government use '******' so its OK?

I was merely trying to raise awareness and as an employer it is good to know these issues.

I replied to Rob's post that I have only been out of the UK for 3 months and I have in fact worked for 3 or 4 disability-related charities, worked with and advised disabled people and more to the point, I consider myself to be disabled.

At this point Rob THEN deleted all the posts and said it was off-topic. He knew full well it was off-topic when HE replied! Maybe because I said I considered myself to be disabled he was embarassed.

It is wrong for a Moderator to contribute to posts that already appear off-topic and when someone makes a reply, the posts are declared off-topic. He is either a Moderator or a Contributor and switching hats is what I object to and this is what is making me more annoyed.

So Steve, you should not take my original post to heart and I was merely pointing it out and I certainly was not attacking you in any way.

Jonathan

 

[Rob Holmes]

Rob also replied to insult my intelligence by implying I have been out of the UK for too long and then goes on to say that it is quite common to refer disabled people as 'physically handicapped' because the Goverment uses it too!

I said I was unsure of how long you had been out of the country - no assumptions there Jonathan. And I certainly didn't try to insult your intelligence - I just found your off topic post strange and totally unnecessary.

The Government use '******' so its OK?

Really? I've never seen that in any government stuff but if you say so.

I replied to Rob's post that I have only been out of the UK for 3 months and I have in fact worked for 3 or 4 disability-related charities, worked with and advised disabled people and more to the point, I consider myself to be disabled.

At this point Rob THEN deleted all the posts and said it was off-topic. He knew full well it was off-topic when HE replied! Maybe because I said I considered myself to be disabled he was embarassed.

It went off topic - so I deleted them - thats my job. 1 post off topic is not strictly going massively off topic 2 maybe (but the second one was me trying to get it back on topic) 3 definately - Steve and I posted at the same time and then you posted - thats 4 posts in my books that took it off topic so I deleted them all. And I certainly wasn't embarassed. There is no reason why I should be embarrassed that you are disabled. I don't discriminate or think worse of anyone because they are disabled - Let me be clear, please don't think or subtly imply to others that I do.

It is wrong for a Moderator to contribute to posts that already appear off-topic and when someone makes a reply, the posts are declared off-topic.

If I had deleted the 1st post I would have been accused of over moderating , my post you refer to above tried to take it back on topic - but I'll only give it 1 chance to go back on topic - you've seen from previous threads things can get out of hand very quickly and this looked like it was going this way. You have accused mods in the past of under-moderating - it's VERY easy to critisise others Jonathan especially when you have no responsibility yourself. Feedback has generally been that the mods do a good job on these forums. Try some other business forums - I think it's hard to beat them (and that is definately not down to just moderators but a good membership contribution too) Steve posted at the same time and then yours so thats too many off topic posts cumulating on what is a good thread. Thats why they got deleted. Period.

I have to say that the very fact that this thread was started proves that emotions were running high in the other thread and I made 100% the right decision to delete all the posts that took it off topic. It was clear that there was no way the off topic bit was going to be dropped!

He is either a Moderator or a Contributor and switching hats is what I object to and this is what is making me more annoyed.

There is no rule to say moderators can't contribute lol - I don't think a silent person in the background deleting or editing threads without contribution is the UKBF way - you can get forums like this but they are not here.

When you join a forum like this Jonathan the moderators are part and parcel for it and unless they don't do their job properly (which is not for you to say by the way) you just have to accept that sometimes your posts will be moderated to keep them on thread. No-one likes having their posts moderated but I try and do it in a sensitive manner.

So I'm locking this thread - everyones had a chance to explain themselves and vent a bit - now can we just get on with something more productive please.

Please do not raise this issue in any other threads.

Rob