“I was talking to my boss once and she commented that another female employee had a “very pretty figure”. I would have been sent to HR for that.”
My final defense contractor job had a multipage document we had to sign. It was called an “ethics” statement. But it had nothing to do with ethics. It dictated what, when, where and the content of conversations. For example, no jokes, not ever. Nothing to do with religion. Never. No politics. The only acceptable conversation had to revolve around business topics. Late on a Friday I asked a coworker what he had planned for the weekend. He stood above the cube walls and pretended to stretch while he looked in all directions, including over the edge at the adjoining cubes. He whispered, “I’m taking Peggy and Brian fishing this weekend.” It wasn’t until then that I realized how serious they all took the conversation requirements. We all hated it, but if you wanted a highly compensated job in Bay county your options were limited.
Incidentally, the top guys all talked about sports in meetings but the rest of us were hesitant to join in. Sauce for thee and not for me.
When I worked for a Fortune 70, “politics”(off limits) was defined as “anything that isn’t liberal”. You could talk about supporting Planned Parenthood but not opposing it. You really had to play the game. Management was completely blind to the hypocrisy to the point where it became a joke.