Trolling TERFs on Twitter

There is one positive thing to say about this:

You know who and what he is and what his behaviour is likely to be, and are not going to be taken by surprise when it shows itself.

So you won't be taken aback or not know what to do, because you will already have a plan for dealing with it.

Sorry to hear you have to put up with this neanderthal. In addition to taking notes, if you ever feel the need to say anything back to him about his misogyny, do it in an email which has the added bonus of validating your time line of events and quote back to him what he has said to you. Good luck.

OP Perhaps you could record the conversations to turn into transcripts and accurately record what is said?

The national bullying helpline says it's a grey area. It will be against company policy to record conversations without express consent. or to share them without consent. But some legal processes (employment tribunals) can choose to permit them as evidence. and if the worse came to the worse, you'd have them as back up.

A ruling in the Punjab National Bank v Gosain Case opened the floodgates when a recording of sexually explicit and shockingly inappropriate comments by a boss were played in the courtroom.

What a pathetic arse. How anyone can brag about being a troll is beyond me but, I guess because it’s hate against women that’s okay, no one gives a shit about us. Anything he does wrong I’d report, even if it’s relatively minor just report, he will fuck himself up and I agree he will come out with some misogynistic comment or sexual harassment soon enough. Twats like him always do.

As others have said, take notes of everything.

Hope he's not in a relationship......guessing he's not

I've already provided feedback to his line manager about a work issue where he behaved poorly, towards a woman. Coincidence?

On its own, that may not have been evidence of much of anything. A solitary incident where a male employee misbehaves towards a female co-worker may be due to any number of reasons, not just misogyny. Coupled with his online bullying of women AND his boasting of that to you? No. Not a coincidence. Massive red flags.

I wouldn't necessarily hardline on everything, especially if that makes your life at work harder, but I wouldn't give that guy the benefit of the doubt.

And good job on taking the E&D project on. We shouldn't have to do that, but clearly, if feminists aren't involved, these policies have too much potential to be harmful to women to leave them to everyone else.

Sad person..anyone who ever felt the need to boast at work about harassing women online in their spare time has obvius issues somewhere. I predict incel, like many of the ultra misogynists tbh

That he also admits to having mltiple accounts to do this, is even sadder.

Given the shite a lot of TRA accounts come out with though, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out a load of them were actually just trolls, with no care at all about trans people or women, or kids..would actually explain a lot, like how TRA types seem to actively despise transsexual people..

It would help a future case with your employer if you could locate any of his accounts on Twitter. I suppose he's unlikely to go by his own name, but you never know.

What a loathsome, bullying toad he is. He must be awful to work with.

I'd play it innocent

"So when you say TERFs... what's a terf?"

"So what is feminism for then?"

"So...not being funny but how does what you're doing help to create a more equal society?"

Or you could go more obvious. Yawn and talk over him about what you saw on telly last night whenever he brings it up.

Say, "do you know what, I'm so bored of politics. Brexit, gender, coronavirus that's all anyone seems to talk about these days. Did anyone see the cricket?"

Not even cognitive dissonance, just misogyny.

There's a weird cognitive dissonance where people who claim to be horrified at doing any mean thing to any set of people suddenly find it OK if the target is supposedly a TERF.

A person I know, a woman, shared a picture once of two smiling trans women carrying a sign that said "TERFs can choke on my girldick". I commented something like "Interesting. Are there other subsets of women who also deserve rape?"

(She deleted my comment.)

I expect you would have been a bit disgusted if he'd bragged about a hobby of trolling any community, political movement or whatever online. You might have felt this more strongly but the principle is the same, it's wrong whoever he's doing it to and it suggests someone who doesn't see people online as people, women in particular maybe. Nasty.

He sounds the sort who will trip himself up soon enough

I would to try to look a little amused at his comments, hopefully to get him to boast and show them to you. When you are at home, screenshot them. You might need them later to back you up if he's a bully at work.

Sorry, not email HIM, email his manager!

He sounds a bit of a sad case if he is bragging about being a twitter troll at work. I am guessing other people may pick up on that even if they are not invested in this subject.

As PPs say, he’s a misogynist.

Don’t engage in debate with him, ignore provocative statements.

Take notes, including any witnesses etc, and ideally email yourself - this will show evidence of dates.

IF you have confidence in the company, email him about things you consider unacceptable. If they’re good they may fire him before he’s entitled to unfair dismissal rights!

IMO talking openly at work about opening troll twitter accounts to troll people, and the term ‘TERF’ are inappropriate for the workplace.

I've just managed to land a project to lead the creation of the companies equality and diversity policy. At least I know it's in safe hands.

Excellent! Best to keep scrupulously professional with this misogynistic bully. He can play puerile games while you do the serious stuff.

Good to hear you will be in charge of this policy

Once again: take notes, keep copies of emails, ask a friendly colleague to witness what you are saying at the time of the incidents.

Could you act all innocent and ask him what a T* is? And then go "Oh so you bully and harass women on Twitter?"

Hardline from the start yes. He boasted about bullying women. It is his hobby! What he described is not debating or disagreement but trolling.

Therefore you are reasonable to grant him no passes.