Coming Out In Corporate America Gays are making huge strides everywhere,...

Business Week ^ | DECEMBER 15, 2003

[narses]

Gays are making huge strides everywhere, but in the executive suite.

One chilly fall day last year, Gary Osifchin trooped into a mandatory training session at S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. The privately held company, located in Racine, Wis., which was voted 2003's "all-American city" by the National Civic League, manufactures Raid insecticide and Glade air fresheners. It's the kind of place where factory workers ride to the assembly line on Harley-Davidsons, dine on local bratwurst, and chase it down with Milwaukee beer.

[sinkspur]

You've asked this Tridentine Catholic (do you call him names. or does he attend a Chapel you approve of?) about this, or are you just assuming?

Actually he's SSPX; I was being nice.

No, I've never asked him about it, but he covers everybody in the company, so I assume he doesn't care whether someone is gay or not.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I feel the same way. My company does provide benefits for gay partners. Looking around at a recent national meeting I see they also provide benefits for the obese, smokers, pregnant women, etc. It never occurred to me to wonder what this cost me.

Most smokers work and die an early death on the job from heart attacks or lung cancer. Fat people die young. I don't get the jab about pregnant women; It's nature.

I would complain about gay couple benefits. Gays don't procreate. They should not have adopted or artificially inseminated children as they will screw up many young minds. Children need to experience the intimate dynamic interplay between men and women. Denying children this experience is akin to selfish parents who bring up a lonely, only child. I met so many only children who feel left out because they don't have a brother or sister.

Gays are extremely promiscuous, so much so that the hard to acquire AIDS disease is pandemic among them. They just stand out as a big liability.

What really bothers me is most gays are childless. Why does one partner get benefits for the couple? I would think both are working. Is the other just a layabout flower? I thought gays tooted their own horn on how productive they are. The need for domestic benefits is a rouse.

[sinkspur]

BTW, does your employer allow smoking? Are smokers encouraged to quit?

Employees smoke, outside the headquarters building. He doesn't say anything, one way or another.

[narses]

"..., so I assume he doesn't care whether someone is gay or not."

The truth, at last.

Why do companies discourage hiring smokers and encourage employees who smoke to quit?

[duckworth]

Lemme tell ya something about gaze in the workplace. Employers LOVE 'em. No kids to distract 'em. A compulsion about money so they can buy stylish junk, and this leads to job loyalty. A certain fastidiousness that makes them oh, so conscientious about detail. They put in their 25 or 30 years and then die when they're 49 of hepatitus or AIDS or something. Buh Bye! Next worker drone?

[sinkspur]

Why do companies discourage hiring smokers and encourage employees who smoke to quit?

I dunno. Smokers die earlier and help keep Social Security solvent.

[narses]

Here's a hint "deacon":

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management supports and encourages agency authorized programs aimed at health promotion and disease prevention, including smoking cessation programs. According to reports issued by the Surgeon General, smoking is the chief avoidable cause of death in our society. Programs designed to help employees stop smoking are in the best health interests of those Federal employees who smoke and those who do not smoke. These programs may also contribute to improved organizational performance and productivity.

http://www.opm.gov/ehs/Smoking1.asp

[tbird5]

Why stop at benefits for gay partners? Why not a friend, a brother or sister, a lover, a dog or cat? A gay partner is not a family member by way of marriage. They should have no more rights then a neighbor. Until gays are allowed to be married, they should have no special claims.

[sinkspur]

I don't care whether someone smokes or not. I don't.

[teldon30]

If you want to move up the ladder at CocaCola corp......just come out of the closet...i know this from close sources.

[Jorge]

So? I could care less. If they contribute to the welfare and profitability of the company, they deserve the same benefits I do.

Exactly.
But I expect this debate will lead to complaints about how our insurance premiums are helping to pay for meds for gays who have AIDS and really deserve to die because they might have done something wrong to catch it etc. etc.

Excuse me if this hasn't come up already. I haven't read all the posts.

[narses]

That's another point. Does having a "gay" suppport group create a "gay" affirmative action environment? Does "gay" sensitivity training create a hostile environment for those who feel that sexual deviancy is sinful and wrong?

[narses]

Smoking and even more dangerous behavior, such as sexual deviancy doesn't concern you, right "deacon"? But you say, "Adopt a shelter dog or cat! You'll save one life, and maybe two!)"

So your brother, you don't care about, his cat you'll save? How "Catholic" of you.

[WackyKat]

What "bigotry"?

Well, for starters, it's the attitude that people are immoral simply because they don't share the irrational prejudices that are taught by your particular religious sect.

[sinkspur]

Smoking and even more dangerous behavior, such as sexual deviancy doesn't concern you, right "deacon"?

I don't make it a practice to rebuke other people for their vices. Maybe you do.

If you objected to my three glasses of wine every night, I'd tell you to mind your own business.

So your brother, you don't care about, his cat you'll save?

I care about "my brother," but I don't butt into his personal decisions. And, yes, I'll take his cat off his hands if he doesn't want it.

[narses]

Well, for starters, it's the attitude that people are immoral simply because they don't share the irrational prejudices that are taught by your particular religious sect.

So to believe what the Catholic Church believes is to be a BIGOT?

[narses]

Three glasses of wine doesn't make a mortal sin "Deacon". You seem to ignore your fraternal obligations in the real world while finding it easy to rebuke others here on the 'net. What a great example you set.

[sinkspur]

You seem to ignore your fraternal obligations in the real world while finding it easy to rebuke others here on the 'net. What a great example you set.

Smoking's not a mortal sin, either.

And, do you make a practice of niggling gay people?

What gives you the right?

How weird.

[Romulus]

Actually, my company subsidises the health insurance of married people -- or rather, it forces singles in its health plan to subsidise marrieds, shifting the preponderance of recent premium increases to the former.

[narses]

You have a real problem with answering question and with logic. While neither drinking in moderation nor smoking are sins, open sexual deviancy is. All three have health issues. Smoking is DISCOURAGED to help employers save money, sexual deviancy is encouraged and you wash your hands. When are you a Catholic "deacon"? Just on Sunday?