Jester, the Gay Gordons, Nasreddin and being Politically Correct

I very briefly mentioned the Gay Gordons in my last blog. It was the briefest of introductions and it really does not do them justice. They are a gay couple and both have the same given name (hence the Gay Gordons). They have been in the Complaints Department for roughly the same time and they are two of the nicest men I know (and Gordon H is likely to read this so I'm telling the truth, Gordon, you are!) I refer to Gordon H as my Gay Lover because when we went to our former colleague's retirement do, Gordon snogged me after a slight misunderstanding. I'm pretty certain Gordon B was watching at the time but he never seemed put out at the time. He's always been an absolute sweetie to me too.

Gordon H sits next to Goodwill Gary and they're currently learning Urdu from a number of "teachers", including Jessina. They are actually doing a good job of it too. I'm quite impressed by their fluency. They do seem to be interested in words for body parts though. They are constantly laughing and joking, which is generally frowned upon in the Dark Satanic Mill, but they really liven the place up. Nowadays, frequently in Urdu.

I was at lunch with the Gay Gordons, Mr Grumpy, Jeannie, Jessica and various other Jesters when the first incident of political correctness occurred. Mr Grumpy put a slice of cucumber over each eye (he was eating a salad at the time). He took them off and ate them and then turned to his fellow diners and asked "What do they do, anyway?" He was referring to the cucumber slices so I said "They reduce puffiness. Don't give them to Gordon." Gordon was amused. Gordon B was relieved. We really couldn't do with Gordon's puffiness being reduced after all.

The second coup for Political Correctness was when I told Nasreddin a joke. Nasreddin is fantastic. He works from 4pm to 8pm because he has to care for his chronically ill wife. He looks just like the Hood from Thunderbirds (the puppet, not Ben Kingsley from the live action film) and doesn't seem to mind me telling him so. I should also stress that he is an Indian Muslim. On Thursday, I told him I was going to take a risk and tell him a joke. I said he was entitled to report me to HR if he was offended. At that point, he started smiling. I told him a joke that had caused a great deal of controversy a few months ago. The one about suicide bombers.

Nasreddin has a great sense of humour and the main butt of his jokes are himself, Indians and Asians in general. Still, I was slightly worried. It's a calculated risk but I shouldn't have been so concerned. He roared with laughter and then said "Oh yes, I am going to HR about that one!" I don't think he did because there have been no repercussions.

My point is to be truly inclusive you have to take risks. True friendship has firm foundations and taking the piss or telling slightly risky jokes will not shake them. I hope that I have proved that the Gay Gordons and Nasreddin are true friends. I feel very lucky when I hear the banter going on around me between Straights, Whites, Asians, Gays (sorry, Gay men and Lesbians) and any other "group" you can think of. We are a reasonably close knit group in our Department and I'm happy to be part of it.

Jester and the Jokes

A long time ago a grizzled and wise old policeman announced to a group of his colleagues: "The problem here is too many people treat this joke as a job." Actually, it was a few years ago, my husband was present and the policeman in question is not much older than my husband and not at all grizzled but the saying is continually springing to my mind at the moment.

I may have mentioned it once or twice: I work in a complaints department. The emphasis is on closing complaints by phone - it's quicker and adds the personal touch. However, we are unable to force our customers to make complaints by phone, they do frequently insist on writing in and we often have to respond in writing, although we prefer not to.

All of their letters are scanned onto our computer system and there is a useful little window where you can see the scanned image of the letter. There is an even more useful button in the window with a picture of a printer on it, which you can use to print off the images so you can read the letter and scribble notes on it. This is great when it works but at the moment it doesn't. Well, it does for a few. Well, part of it does for a few and all it does for even fewer.

On Tuesday and yesterday, I was one of the few people - about 5 or 6 - in the department (we number about 40 people at present) who could see the images. I was also one of the elite who could see the images and had the computer hooked up to a printer that works. We have three printers in the department; all Science Museum material: two of them work but only one of them is reliable. So I was very popular indeed.

Yesterday, they took one of our servers down for maintenance. I logged onto one of the other 3. Well, on the third attempt I did, anyway, and I could now no longer view images. I can still print, so I can write letters but I can't see my customers' letters. Oh and I can't attach my own letters to the complaint log. It transpires that view customers' letters and attaching ours run off the same piece of faulty software. We have to attach our letters to be FSA compliant.

So we, temporarily at least, had a complaints department where we were unable to see our customers' letters or, in the majority of cases, print our own. Which brings me back to the grizzled old policeman. I really do have to agree with him when it comes to the Dark Satanic Mill: Too many people treat this joke as a job.

One last laugh. Our hardware may date from ante-diluvian times and our software may be rubbish but at least we don't the laughable computer systems my husband has to work with. Yet again, the police beats the insurance industry to first place in the god-awful employers stakes.