To think colleagues joke was NOT acceptable?

A désolé ma petite chou 😩🥬

My reading of this was that the colleague involved would have known some of the team members were part French. Although you can always argue about the line between banter and potential bullying, that would make a difference too to how I'd view the event. (Rereading I'm not sure that was the case or whether anyone involved is actually of French origin, as opposed to having relatives who are expats)

You never know people's connections, of course, which is one reason to err on the side of caution when making jokes about other nations or nationalities at work

🤣🤣 do you speak French @LaurenkI
I can promise you the French are very happy to make jokes about other countries in my experience (having lived there).

That was my immediate interpretation of it too. I have family living in France and I just can’t get my head around OP heading straight to HR with a complaint. I like Ricky Gervais’s logical take on what is offensive.

As the OP says she complained about another colleague’s joke in the past I will hazard a guess that the “warning” that colleague received and this one will receive will be very much just to satisfy OP’s complaint but will have done far less damage to the colleagues OP has complained about than it’s done to OP.

You’ve contacted your manager? Jeez, what a complete overreaction. 🙄

My son lives in America - the butt of much angst and jokes with people . I laugh with them.

Some people really do seem to spend their lives looking for something to take offence at. I sometimes wonder how they ever get through a day!

It wasn't a funny joke, but I doubt I would actually really even notice it being said, never mind contort myself to find offence in it. I certainly wouldn't have bothered to pay it any attention.

NRTFT

This is wild - imagine involving your manager in this. Hope this marks her card.

Sounds like he meant to book somewhere safer next time.

You sound like you could lighten up a little. Your poor colleague if you take this comment to heart.

Sorry, my post was in reply to @Nosejobnelly .

Oh my god I cannot believe you emailed your manager about this. Have a word with yourself OP, honestly.

YABVVVVVU

I spoke fluent French then (not now, I’ve hardly spoken it in years sadly), with a good pronunciation, though still with an English accent. So I didn’t get mocked like that. But I remember that, when on holiday in Paris once, I felt a bit fed up when a shopkeeper who insisted on speaking in his very poor English when we could have spoken in French and completed the transaction much more quickly.

I found that French people love joking about all other nationalities. They have ‘les histoires Belges’ (Belgian jokes) and they say that Swiss French speakers speak far too slowly.

I wonder where in France the OP is talking about?

Try being half French half British… British people really hate the French for some reason. I think some of them have encountered rude Parisians (just in the same way Londoners can come across as rude) and think the whole of France is like this.

Zut alors! I'm offended that you are offended!

Christ. You are the reason work isn’t fun anymore and people are scared to say anything or have a sense of humour.

I speak French and lived there for a bit. They give as good as they get.

Also watch Rowan Atkinson’s ‘Hell’ comedy sketch.

Stop looking to be offended.

Allez les rosbifs! I’m fortunate in that my French is good enough for some to assume I’m a …. Belgian. Where that leaves me in this debate…. Vraiement pas d’idée!

Ah the office fun monitor…..

This is just rage bait. Op is bored probably doesn't even have a job

Of course it’s clear.

This thread should be in Classics.

Exactly! I was going to ask if the OP had heard ‘le roast beef!’’ Comments or when you ‘try’ to speak French there they’ll answer you in English cos your accent is so lame (am talking about asking for a baguette in a shop for example). DD and I were talking about in what languages we could ask for a loaf of bread and this was her exact comment (at 23! having been to France twice as a child).
F

So you’ve dobbed your colleague in for making an off the cuff stupid joke. I’m sure we’ve all said idiotic things at work and unless this person has form for being crass it’s a big overreaction on your part. If anything I’d emal the colleague and say it wasn’t acceptable and it upset you a bit - and move on.

An email to the manager would be sufficient. A grievance and all the work that comes with it is OTT.

I am glad retirement is on the horizon

As is your manager I suspect, although probably wishing for more immediacy than ‘horizon’.

Seriously, as a manager, I’d be so pissed to return to such a piece of tripe if someone in my team did this. Whilst I’d ‘have’ to deal with it, I’d be thinking the colleague was either not quite right emotionally, or must be very bored and I’d really be looking at their workload (and no, not retaliatory, just can’t imagine a busy person’s would have time for such shite).

But of course! 😆

Mais non! C’est les CBretangne! (Chere Bretangne)