England rugby players and lewd comments to hotel worker

[Gigondas]

Link here apology for lewd comments

Assuming this is true (assumption here I know) , the elements of bullying , sexual harassment are really unpleasant. Thought about posting this in feminism but something about this makes me feel deeply depressed as a rugby fan.

[GypsyMoth]

Rugby? Well makes a change, its usually football!

[Scootergrrrl]

Horrid behaviour.
Although if she was so concerned the incident would be made public, why has she talked to the Mirror ?

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Sports team larks about in puerile fashion on tour and goes too far... is a hardy perennial. They've got egg on their faces and apologised. She's embarassed but OK with all the details being in the national press. I think you'd struggle to interpret this as bullying.

[EdithWeston]

Actually, I think the duty manager is also at fault for sending her into the room in the first place.

Of course this doesn't absolve the players. But intelligent management action could have avoided the whole incident.

[SoupDragon]

I think it was just stupid juvenile behaviour on the part of the players. it appears it was only verbal banter, albeit crude, and no one tried to force her to do anything or physically harass her.

Personally I would have left the radio and got my manager to retrieve it and tel the players to back off.

Not entirely sure why lawyers were involved.

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

"why does she have to leave her job".. reading the article it looks as though the hotel wanted her to accept the apology from the team and moved her onto other duties, she doesn't think an apology is adequate compensation (mentions that the England team has plenty of money), and that she doesn't think her employer has been on her side. If she goes after the hotel for constructive dismissal, I wouldn't be surprised.

[ImpYCelyn]

I don't understand why people look for money in these instances. If it was me I would want a proper apology and ideally an indication that the players had been disciplined and something was being done to ensure it doesn't happen again.

What possible good can getting cash off them do, except be an easy way to make cash? I think you lose the moral high ground a bit at that point.

[purits]

Why has it only come to light now, just when we have qualified from the Group stage. It's the NZ press trying to derail us.

It was silly banter and she should have been able to cope with tricky customers - that's her job.

[scarlettsmummy2]

Hardly surprising in light of their captains recent behaviour.

[MmeLindor.]

It is not her job to cope with behaviour like that.

It is her job to serve snacks and assist the team.

Not to spend time tracking down her walkie talkie, because the oh-so-hilarious childish players kept stealing it.

Saying that, she should have went to her boss the first time it happened, and they should have been told to lay off. It seems like it was tolerated for too long.

The hotel should have dealt with it better.

[Gigondas]

I think if it was just banter when she was out and about in reception, restaurant etc , I'd agree that it would be complain and be done with it (if you work in a hotel/hospitality , they can't be the first drunken twits you have come across).

However allegedly she was invited/told to go to their room to pick up the missing radio was the issue (Agree edith, soupdragon that prob shouldnt have gone)-that was the bit I found ott (ie it was beyond stupid banter) .

yes -the press is going to town on england (I do wonder how interesting to the press the tindall thing would be if his wife wasn't related to the queen).

[TeamDamon]

A very odd story: she definitely seems to be after something. What on earth did she involve a lawyer for? - massive overreaction. I can't help feeling that had this just been a group of anonymous men on a conference or something, she wouldn't have made so much of it. It seems that she is looking for more than an apology (the reference to how much money England has left a bad taste in my mouth).

TBH, I would have either left the walkie-talkie where it was or - since it was so obviously taken to lure the woman up to the room, simply sent a male colleague up to get it for me.

[Honeydragon]

This depresses me. How will people learn that this sort of behaviour is not on unless it is across the board, the cynic in me says that if it was last year and a generic Rugby team on a lads holiday and this had happened as reported a lawyer would not have been involved.

They should have been told off and made to apologise, and if they didn't mean it reprimanded.

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

As an aside... does anyone actually use the word 'lewd' in regular conversation or, like 'tryst' and 'boffin', is it one only used in newspaper articles?

[Gigondas]

No

[Gigondas]

I think it is mainly tabloid speak

[Runoutofideas]

If she was genuinely upset by the initial banter she would not have gone to the room herself to retrieve the walkie-talkie. She should have reported the fact that they had taken it to the manager and got him/her to retrieve it and give the guys a warning about their behaviour. The fact that she did go and get it herself shows to me that she didn't feel the slightest bit intimidated and is now after whatever she can get from the incident. Their behaviour was abhorrent but my sympathy for the girl involved is nil.

[slug]

See, this is NZ. The first place in the world to give women the vote. The country with the longest serving female head of state in the Western world. Despite the blokey sterotype, NZ is a good place to be a woman. Your average kiwi woman will put up with a lot less of the sort of sexist shit than is the norm in the UK. She may have refused to show she was intimidated, but that does not mean she should have to, nor would she expect to have to put up with that sort of behaviour.

I find her reaction entirely consistent with someone who has been brought up to expect to be treated with respect. I also find her behavior consistent with someone who had a job to do and needed a vital piece of equipment to do it.

I suspect the money comment was about the disparity between professional sports players and a lowly paid hotel worker who couldn't afford to lose her job because the guests were making it impossible to do it.

[begonyabampot]

Reading many of these comments, what hope have women got not to be treated like this as part of their everyday life - if even women stick the boot in, never mind the idiot guys that act like this. Wouldn't it be nice if your daughters didn't have to put up with this crap now and in the future. Or, should we just be expected to deal with it and toughen up.

[JimmyS]

So their response to a formal demand for an apology was to buy some flowers and start sniffing her?

If their decision making on the field is half this bad they're coming home next weekend.

"The country with the longest serving female head of state in the Western world."

I think we're familiar with her.

[MmeLindor.]

"Banter" seems to be a way of playing down the actions of the players.

"oh, don't make a fuss, little woman. It was just some banter, couple of guys having fun..."

Perhaps she decided to take it further when she received the shit 'apology' which was in fact just more of the same "banter"