Wednesday 1 December 2010

Limits on height of staff at work welcomed

Typical disgraceful office seen from the UK Public Sector
New proposals out today seek to restrict the blatant bias in the workplace against small people. In future, in the Public Sector it will not be allowed for the bosses to be more than 20 inches taller than the smallest members of staff.

There are good reasons for this, tall bosses are seen as domineering and can often be found taking the mick from smaller members of staff. Also tall staff can cause disharmony as smaller staff resent their status in life.

Of course, tall staff don't like this idea, as they are tall and often physically stronger they say they more than carry their share of the burden of work and should not be limited in numbers. If anything, this is adding to discrimination where there should be less.

I find it hard to take sides here, clearly Government interference is most welcome on such subjects as nit-picking from the centre always leads to better productivity and performance outcomes; yet somehow I feel that discrimination is unwelcome..what do you think?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this could lead to policy of only hiring people above say 5"5and outsourcing the short people's work to contractors or companies which will probably be excempt from the rules.

So it will probably have little impact infact if it has any impact it will be an adverse impact to the short people, funny how interfering policys have a habit of hurting the people they intend to help

Timbo614 said...

As I see it the tall people will be scurrying around (can tall people scurry?) looking for the shortest person in their organisation so they can buy him/her some Cuban/high heel shoes. Personally at 5'7" I never envied tall people, especially when I used to fly around Europe regularly (legroom - what's your problem?) :)

Old BE said...

Why not just go the whole hog and cut tall people down to size?

Anonymous said...

I think "seen" ought to be "scene"

Bill Quango MP said...

I'm all in favour. In my profession I'd quite like to be paid 20 times the salary of John Bercow.

Jan said...

Since both tall and short people in the public sector don't actually produce anything but rather consume other peoples' taxes then I'm all in favour of restrictions.

Anonymous said...

This is indeed a good thing and long overdue.

There is an inherent gender bias in selecting tall staff - anything that reduces this, and therefore the macho bullying culture prevalent in all works spaces - the better.

Yours

Ms St. Umpy.

Ralph Musgrave said...

I’m 6’3” and am “offended” by the above. Under Harriet Harman’s Equalities Act (2010), anyone who is offended by anything can report the incident to the police, who in turn take action against those responsible for the “offence”. I have duly reported the above article (and my hurt feelings) to the police.

Electro-Kevin said...

Why not just employ a load of Chinese lesbians - then you'll fill an awful lot of quotas in one hit.

They do exist. I used to work with one who refused to wear a bra ...

Wan Hung Lo

Marchanomt said...

Buy shares in Rack makers now!

James Higham said...

Have to keep looking for that "humour tag" on your posts, CUS.

asquith said...

Most people, in the public or private sector, never see the tallest people in their organisations. Generally the more elevated people are in completely different parts of the country, & the people we see who are taller than us are only sort of a bit taller than a dwarf anyway.

In this city, I should imagine in most large towns & cities outside the south, the culture of small & medium companies where you work alongside your boss barely exists. Most people either work in the public sector, at branches/plants owned by large corporations, or don't work at all. That applies to almost everyone I know, apart from 2 people who co-own a bar & can't afford to hire any staff anyway.

Old BE said...

Minimum wage, 48 hours a week = £14,801 a year

20x that = £296,020

The Green party have a "maximum wage" policy. They say it should be set at £250,000.

Mark Wadsworth said...

I can see where it's all going to go wrong - tall bosses can either sack themselves or sack all the short people. Either way, the height-gap is reduced.

As to the multiple of twenty, Will Hutton himself explains his thinking here.

small person said...

I know my place

Elby the Beserk said...

I worked for the same company for 23 years, until made redundant in 2006. In my time, I must have seen off about 10 bosses, at least. Some twunts, some great, but all were OK bosses - which is what matters.

The last one, who was the reason I grabbed redundancy when offered, was about 5 foot nothing. I'm 6'6", and a tad outspoken. So if I thought he was fucking up, I would tell him. This would outrage him, and we would row in the office. I would always stand up, so towered over him. There's something to that Randy Newman song. Midget Steve drove me out of my job. Cunt

Anonymous said...

This happened back in the 70's.
"Apart Height" in Soth Africa... To the barricades mes amis!
(Or was it "The Goodies"!)
TTFN :)