Putting your hands on women: Pathetic. Got to be compulsive behavior.
That’s not to excuse it, but just identify it.
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Yes, coincidence. The California recall is coming from the right wingers who don’t want to wear a mask or anything. The New York anti-Cuomo stuff is coming from the left and has nothing to do with COVID.
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I read old school as in “Italian old school, where one is greeted with a kiss or a hug”.
But it doesn’t ring true to me, maybe because I’ve never worked in an office setting. Seeing the same people everyday, hearing the same stories, and though retail is hard-customers, at least I had my choice of music listen to, or books to peruse. Not sure if it was pointed out in this story or another but the people who worked for/with Cuomo were paid with tax dollars, and there are rules and training that he either never attended or paid attention to.
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If the recall election were held today it would fail according to 538.
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I’m still wondering if Blake Farenthold R-TX ( pajama boy, and I’ll spare everyone for posting the pix) ever paid back the $30,000 that was awarded to a woman who worked on his staff who claimed he created a hostile work environment. Without going back to the reporting I believe she took her complaint to the House Ethics Committee which investigated and awarded her damages. But the kicker for me was that it was tax payer’s money and not Blake’s.
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My first boss in my first real job had a habit of coming into my cube, walking softly and with soft-soled shoes. I’d generally be coding, in a programming trance, and nearly jump out of my skin when I realized he was there.
No sex; just standard masculine domination tactics. And he’s dead now.
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New York magazine has a really good article on Cuomo, not just the sexual harassment angle but the big picture of his administrative style. It’s maybe not available to non-subscribers but I can’t tell.
It seems he’s basically the boss from hell who destroys many of the people working for him, and more.
People generally act like their parents, who act like their grandparents. His grandparents came from Sicily (you know, home of the Mafia) and southern Italy (similar). Ever known people from those cultures? I have. I’m not saying it’s all of them, or that totally toxic destructive bosses of all backgrounds don’t exist. I’ve seen others. How truly terrible people often end up in a position of power, even at far lower levels of management and in all kinds of organizations, is a question that I’m guessing has been written about.
I’m wondering if Andrew’s more sainted father was the same way and it just didn’t get talked about.
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There’s a guy i kinda know who i work with very remotely who also works in IT His desk is situated in a similar manner as what you described. To solve the unexpected rear approach from people walking into his cubicle, he’s placed a series of very old, out-dated 12" laser discs on his walls that reflect back to him who it is that just entered his space. He’s made any rear approach virtually impossible. Quite smart and ingenious. He’s found a very good use for old technology, too.
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Between the guv and QB Watson…they could create their very own Conga lines…
When I was a kid, my mother purposely seated her oldest child [boy] next to her youngest [girl] so the former would eat off the latter’s plate to reduce leftovers. The latter didn’t like it, but mom let it happen.
Fast forward to adulthood. Bro regularly ate off the plates of his three daughters, even when they said no, even eating food they had bought themselves and put in the fridge marked as theirs. The aforementioned youngest sister is still a target, and refuses to have meal with him unless seated far apart.
He wasn’t born that way. But once got away with for so long, it put him in a position of power and now he feels entitled.
Cuomo seems like that to me.
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If every man that ever tried to clumsily check the “water” with a younger woman was to leave his job in shame, not many men would be employed today.
I had the same problem - the one being hit on, but none of my co-workers believed me.
(sigh)
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Bad – incompetent or toxic or both – mgrs are a dime a dozen. “Dark side” personalities abound in mgmt at all levels. I’ve had maybe two bosses who were truly competent and free of personality defects. The others were Peter principled and/or toxic or both.
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In highly charged political climates where opponents and friends alike are constantly maneuvering for leverage…if it’s happening, somebody’s talking about it…
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We are socialized by adults telling us not to do this or that. “Would you like someone do that to you?” Permissiveness produces monsters. Some people never seem to learn this.
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I had the same experience, but with a twist. My office was long and narrow, with a desk at the end of one long wall length. So, if I turned my head to the right, I would see the door. But, if I were engrossed in my computer work, doing data entry, analysis, formulas, graphing, or writing (these activities comprised most of my office work), I would be oblivious to all else. Being hard-of-hearing didn’t help, either. There was one person who was so quiet and shy (she was a junior faculty member) and she would stand there, and suddenly I would turn, and was a foot away. It freaked me out every time. (I am a she myself.)
I hung a high-quality gong at the entrance of my office (right inside the door), with a wool-headed mallet. Never had another problem. She “gonged” very quietly as well. But at least I could hear it. It was an object of much amusement.
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A very good article, no subscription required. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you for your story. I find it explains a lot of what we see in Cuomo and a lot of other people in positions of power in a straightforward and easily understandable way.
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Not much to wonder about. Cuomo didn’t pick up his tactics all by himself.
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In the late 1970s I lived in Boston and interacted a lot with city and state government officials, and men of Italian descent were numerous.
I’m older than Cuomo and was a lot younger than most of the men I interacted with at City Hall and the Statehouse, Even back then, being greeted with a kiss or hug was not something co-workers, regular associates, etc. would do.
Cuomo’s lawyer isn’t doing him any favors.
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Some people never seem to learn this.
Watched so many managers (grown men in bad marriages) get “handy” with younger female workers. Hard to watch. Women really hated it.
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