https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51261999

FFS !!

What a load of nonsense

Whoever decided it was a good idea to give her airtime?

World’s gone MAD !!!
Are they gonna ban women from talking about Strictly and Love Island as well then ?

excessbee wrote:Whoever decided it was a good idea to give her airtime?

Exactly, it's all about getting her name onto the BBC and they have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Just like with Total Network Solutions.

It looks from this thread as though most people haven't in fact read the article, particularly this section:

Nevertheless, Ms Francke does not think sports chatter should be banned, just moderated. She said that good managers should be inclusive and ensure that everyone in their team feels comfortable.

So no-one's saying it should be banned, it's just a (well-intentioned and not wholly unreasonable) suggestion that people should try to be as inclusive as possible in the workplace with their conversations. Which sounds like the sort of thing that most people manage anyway, to be honest. I've often found myself in the work kitchen talking sport with a colleague, but have moved the conversation on to more universal topics when a non-sports-fan has joined us.

Not "PC gone mad", not "now they want to ban X, Y, Z", just encouraging people to think about others. Which doesn't strike me as remarkable or objectionable.

Look beyond the lurid headlines.

No sorry Ed she's implying that if men talk football they talk sex utter bollox

Yes, but by what stretch of the imagination is it news?

The stupidity is in this person's thought processes leaping from sports banter to talking about sexual conquests. Doesn't the BBC discuss what her angle is before she goes on air?

excessbee wrote:The stupidity is in this person's thought processes leaping from sports banter to talking about sexual conquests. Doesn't the BBC discuss what her angle is before she goes on air?

Having worked with men in steelworks for years it's a load of rubbish about sex talk you would get the odd one or two but you know that anyone that bigs up their sex lives where talking bs

Now I work with mostly women they can make a grown man blush women together are worse than men

excessbee wrote: Doesn't the BBC discuss what her angle is before she goes on air?

They honestly wouldn't care, they get a free soundbite that can be spun into a piece for the website and she gets her name in the "news".

A certain amount of sensationalism on the part of the media, but in fairness this is how it starts. First an idea is put out there. Initially it's ridiculed and meets opposition, then it gets accepted, then tolerated. then favoured, then legislated in favour of, until eventually one day there'll be office managers in court for allowing it to carry on.....and it all starts with putting the nonsense out there in the first place. Needs to be stamped on from the off !

Ann Francke? That's a conversation-starter all on its own.

I caught the tail end of a Radio Wales feature on this. Suggestions for people who find workplace conversations disturb them included "moving to another part of the office where a different conversation might prove more appealing".

I'm in a noisy office almost entirely full of underworked people who yack for most of the day. The noise is staggering, especially the morning after a Liverpool game. I've taken to wearing ear defenders so I can concentrate on my work.

Ahem. As you were.

I read the article. I think Ms Francke is wrong.

Sadly though she is not nearly as wrong as Uptheport in this instance. Jim she has not said that that she wants to ban people talking about football in work. She has said two things.

Firstly that people who talk about football can exclude others, mainly women, from the conversation. She is in my view right. I'm obsessed with Newport County, that's why I come on here, to share my sad obsession with equally pathetic people. I try not to bore the good people of County Leitrim with talk of the County Newport.

Secondly she argues that sports talk can lead to unacceptable laddish behaviour. This is my view is nonsense. I am sure many women find sports talk in the workplace boring. I find talk of other peoples children, the gossip from Walford and Wetherfield, and Jimmy Choo shoes boring. But so what?

But as I always say, she's entitled to her view and it is important that the criticism should be of what she says, not of what she does not say. And she certainly does not say sports talk at work should be banned.

Stan A. Einstein wrote:I'm obsessed with Newport County, that's why I come on here, to share my sad obsession with equally pathetic people.

Guilty as charged, M'lud.