Way too ironic

[Liz57]

I'll try to make this as short as possible. Twice a month before working night shift we come in early and have a safety meeting. This was just too ironic not to share. I'll preface by saying that I joined this forum a couple of weeks ago and since joining practically all I've thought about is cross dressing.

The handout at our meeting that was read aloud: "Robert Caparanis' coworkers at Fords Ohio assembly plant decided he wasn't manly enough. Robert didn't like to drink, hunt or fish.." it goes on but at this point myself and a coworker both said they were talking about me cuz I don't fish or hunt. Continuing the sentence on the handout, "and wore feminine style clothes. (Whoa, did not see that coming) His coworkers played pranks on him, made sexual comments and gestures and called him offensive names." It goes on to tell about him suing them after being fired.

My point is, I've never seen this kind of thing in a safety meeting before and the timing was just way too ironic considering how much the topic of cross dressing has been on my mind lately.

Of course I was sitting there wearing thigh highs, some very pretty shorty panties, black with green print and lace. Had been wearing a bra for most of the day so the imprints would have been noticeable if my shirt was pulled up.

Liz57:battingeyelashes:

[Allisa]

Ironic?, maybe spooky, but now I want to know what happened to "Robert Caparanis's" law suit, I'm sure he belonged to the union and what stance they took on the abuse to their "brother" member. And to think I have been a FORD user, buyer and advocate all these years, maybe I'll have to rethink my stance with FORD products. Oh yeah CDing does weight on your mind, just like the desire to dress never really goes away.

[AllieSF]

That's cool. As someone mentioned in another thread, part of industries' interest in diversity, including LGBT, is being pressured to make it work rather than deciding that it is the correct thing to do. Ford Motor Company apparently got sued over harassment on the job, as I understand your referenced incident, and now your company is covering their asses by introducing that topic into their safety meetings. It would be nice that it was voluntary versus reactionary, but at least they are proactively addressing the potential issue. Hats off to your company. And, yes, ironic that you were there under dressed enjoying the surprising moment. May there be many other moments like that in all the rest of the companies out there both big and small.

[AndreaCalifCD]

searching for "Robert Caparanis lawsuit ford" returns a bunch of results, the upshot of which -

The court found in Caparanis' favor, stating that the evidence of the vulgar acts directed toward him, taken as a whole, created a hostile work environment due to sexual stereotyping.

[Dana44]

Liz, it is spooky but came in time for yourself to reflect on it. Looks like it is a hard male area to work in. But enjoy yourself and don't push it at work.

[pamela7]

it reveals the perfection inherent in every moment, niice

[Liz57]

Actually, I don't think my company is reacting to an incident in particular. Our HR department is all over any kind of thing that could be construed as discrimination or harassment.

I'm a Ford girl too. Please don't let the actions of a few idiots change your mind. Even bigots can make a good car.

As the meeting was just starting the fellow said something about diversity and I almost made a comment about it being good to work for a company that pushed diversity. Little did I know the direction it was about to go.

I should have mentioned that our meetings are just our crew and they are pretty informal, thus the two of us interrupting with our comments. We do kid each other a lot and not much is sacred with our bunch but it is just kidding and these guys would do almost anything for each other.

Liz57:battingeyelashes:

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, I just have to mention this cuz I find it interesting in weird sort of way. I was reflecting about this post and my comments and previous comments in other posts. I find myself about to explain things from the male perspective since I'm posting to women and then I think, "wait, these are almost exclusively guys to begin with." And it shocks me to realize that my mind has embraced all of you as women. That's a good thing but it still really surprises me.

Liz57:eek:

[phylis anne]

There is a lot of change coming down the pike, I am a former risk manager for denali nat. park this is a seasonal employee venue and what has been mentioned and more ran rampant there,The key to companies who allow any form of harrassment is to gird your loins for battle as it were and fight back .I moved to the lower 48 to caretake my wife and run the machine shop for an apple slicing plant ,it is staffed predominantly hispanic with a spattering of "others" .One of the real problems here for quite awhile was the illegal poulation there not that they were bad mind you but the managers who were just as illegal abusing their people like they would in their home country . If anyone spoke up they were fired on trumped up issues (washington is one of 32-34 at will work states) they treated americans the same way ,however I got tired of a lot of it and spoke to our local labor dept as the regulations were worded differently from alaska and very quietly got the ball rolling ,soon after ins showed up and audited them to the loss of over 30 people , a new hr dept was established and we statred to move forward ,most of the people who left got their papers in order and returned and those previous managers who returned were given definitive marching orders we have a long way to go though , There recently was an issue with t/g's there but it was settled both parties were advised that 1.the complaining partty was told the t/g' had a legal right to work there ,and 2. the t/g's were told to behave better in public especially arround those that were not so it went both ways on this which was good
hugs phylis anne

[Robin414]

I'm not a Ford fan myself but until reading this, I seriously thought about it...you lose Ford! 😂 yah, some of 'us' are C suite and social media matters these days 😛

[Melissa73]

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-ohnd-1_13-cv-00926/pdf/USCOURTS-ohnd-1_13-cv-00926-0.pdf

[Steve]

I too am a Ford user.
Recently i came out to my HR manager at one of the major supper markets in the uk. The response was very supportive and was handed a policy on transgender. I was a bit supprised that this policy even excisted. So i read it and was a little dissapointed in it tbh. It was written to cover those of us that wish to make the full transition. Well me being me couldnt let this go so off went an email to the HR director of the company. I got a response which said that she has taken on board my conserns over the policy. And has acknowledged that because the term transgender is an umbrella term the policy will be revised to include any for of non binary gender expressions to be protected aswell. Small win but it feels great

[phylis anne]

Steve ,
small wins win major battles good for you to challenge the policy not as a protest but about a better definition of how things would be handled under the umbrella good luckk on your journey
hugs phylis anne

[Teresa]

Liz57,
I'm intrigued to know why it was read out ?
Was it to make the example that TGs now have rights and bullying of minority groups had to stop .
I 'd hate to think that it was read out to support the outing of minority groups to make them feel unwelcome . Lets face it that law suit should never have happened today.
I guess the alternative was to take off your drab clothes in support of Robert Caparanis, obviously still a risky thing to do !"

[CONSUELO]

It was read out for several reasons. Firstly companies want to remind their employees that mistreatment of the sort described to the shift team is completely unacceptable in the workplace, or anywhere for that matter. Secondly they want to send the message that there are legal consequences for the company and that in turn could mean consequences for supervisors or managers who condoned or turned away from dealing with this sort of behavior.

My PA in a large US corporation told me of the mistreatment of women that was routine in the 1970's. Things such as snapping a woman's bra straps and so on. By the 1990's this sort of nonsense had been almost completely eliminated but amazingly there was still the odd individual who just didn't get it. I hope that over the next decade the treatment of LGBT people will improve to the point that young people who are used to the new environment will shake their heads in disbelief at the stories of ill treatment that was commonplace just a decade or so earlier.

[Hell on Heels]

Hell-o Liz,
I worked as a service tech at a busy Ford dealership for 12 years. ('93 -'05)
At some point it became mandatory that my employer provided, and each
employee attend, a sexual harassment meeting (our OSHA safety meetings were
a separate meeting).
I don't recall there being anything mentioned about gender issues during these meetings,
but I'd be interested to see how that's changed.

What I do remember is going back to the shop after the meetings, a few of the comments
made were exactly the type of stuff that we were just trained NOT to say!
As Consuelo said "some just don't get it!"
Much Love,
Kristyn

[Liz57]

Consuelo, thanks for sharing your insight on this thread. I think you hit it right on the head and explained it much better than I could have. I am fairly new to this company as they bought out the one I worked for for 35 years (what a surprise that was) While still trying to get used to the way things now work I have to admit they are pretty progressive. This seems to me to be a conscious effort to make the work place non-combatative, non-discriminative and equal for all. Are they concerned about law suits and is that at least part of the driving force behind these policies? Probably. I like working for a company that knows how to protect themselves. The future looks promising to me, one just has to be patient. There are plenty of places in the world where they would love to have our rules and policies to abide by.

That's a little off the topic of this thread but I'm glad we all had this discussion. I still am blown away by the happenstance of the safety meeting topic two weeks after joining this forum and having the subject on my mind almost continually.

Liz57:battingeyelashes:

[Andrea_cd]

I am a plant supervisor for a company , any type of harassment is dealt with instant dismissal it is a very serious subject .

[bimini1]

You meet in life the exact reproduction of your own thoughts. This ain't nothing but the Universe bringing that same energy back to you. As you mover further into yourself be prepared for this kind of stuff to start happening more and more. Don't be threatened by it, receive it.