Are your Zoom meetings ever like this? Parish Council meeting descends into chaos

[chomalungma]

There is some awful behaviour on here.

It breaks down badly at 4 minutes.

It was appalling behaviour by the chair and vice chair, straightforward attempt at bullying. Fortunately Jackie is made of stern stuff

...and the host of the meeting.

Are these meetings recorded usually? If not, going forward they should be whether in person or virtually to hold councillors to account on their conduct.

It doesn't work in the case of Parliament though.

I think people find the aggression and bullying “funny” because they DON’T win (in this Meeting). Jackie Weaver puts them firmly in their place by removing them. If it had just been the Chair and Vice Chair bullying with no comeuppance then it would have been viewed very differently.

.

I think the reason it was ‘safe’ to laugh was because there was a core of reasonable and sane people there, who when given the opportunity could proceed. That Jackie was so calm, measured and unflappable came from a confidence in her knowledge and experience and meant that she was able to make correct decisions rather than emotionally inflamed decisions.

On the other hand, I have always steered clear of these types of things, due to the types of people who are attracted to them. They don’t see themselves servants but rather as a place to protect their power, through intimidation and shouting.

I'm so glad they made it public, it's about time abusive men like that were exposed rather than carrying on behind closed doors.

Thank goodness this wasnt in person and all hail Jackie!

Did anyone catch what the Vice Chairman said as he went off camera and descended into full on Gollum?

The memes have started:

It's not just men - although some of those on that Zoom were awful.

The worst bully I ever had to deal with on my time on committees was a woman about the same age as me. She was just horrendous. I had been warned about her by another friend who had been on a previous committee with her, she'd flounced out of that one when she couldn't get her own way and left a trail of destruction in her wake.

I still see her occasionally now, 8 years later, and take great pleasure in looking right through her as if she doesn't exist. Really nasty piece of work.

Well I've been watching and taking notes - am acting clerk for a parish council as of a couple of days ago. Wish I'd seen this first! Will most definitely log onto zoom with the moniker 'Britney Spears, Clerk to Handforth Parish Council' at the next zoom meeting.

@Embarrasedaf

I’m so annoyed that this went viral. I was hoping there would be a future one I could tune in to, but now they know that the entire world is watching them they’re obviously going to be more professional next time

Completely agree!

That handforth pc clerk is just like my manager, she behaves like that all the time, shuts you down if you are trying to defend yourself from an unfair accusation and she shouts like the subchair. She is also one of the most respected managers at work (by everyone above her that is).

To add to PP comments that the men’s children and grandchildren being ashamed of them...

Jackie Weaver’s family must be very proud of her!

Our parish council has had some members like this over the years, can't think why they struggle to fill vacancies 🙄
I attended a real life meeting as a rep of the community centre and it was fairly similar but more intimidating as they were in the room with you. I was astonished as I have dealt with council meetings quite a bit as part of my job and thought it would be fairly similar, our elected ward councillor was the worst behaved even though after a long career in local politics she should have known better. To be fair issues with boorish behaviour and rudeness was why I left the community centre committee (brief stint as a favour which I will never repeat), I didn't have the time or energy to deal with the petty backstabbing. Frankly there are some complete arseholes in our village and I think they gravitate to the committees and stay until forced out (mostly retired or semi retired so have time to kill) which is a shame as it fucks with the community.

It's been hilarious following this!

My DD sent it to me yesterday morning and I was ROFL. All hail Jackie Weaver!
Standing up to a load of ignorant jobsworths!

The memes on it are absolutely hilarious!

This is a shining example of what countless women have to deal with on a day-to-day basis when dealing with men who hate women who believe women should only exist to do as their told or STFU.

I'll bet there's not a single one of us who doesn't know multiple men like this.

This would make an excellent training video, followed by role-play exercises where the boot is put firmly on the other foot.

Those men are going to be fuming that their true colours have been exposed.

You can assume that as they are on the PC they like to be seen as upstanding members of the community. They hide their true vileness behind a respect facade.

I feel terribly sorry for anyone on the receiving end of that rage today.

#teamjackiesipad

I’ve encountered dreadful old men like that in local politics. It’s one of the reasons why I gave it up. They could have been written by Roald Dahl.
Reminds me that I encountered a similar old git when I attended a speed awareness course. He was rude and disruptive, continued to deny he had done anything wrong and argued with the very patient course leaders. In the end I lost it and told him to stop it and grow up. He was gobsmacked at this. (The course leader thanked me afterwards.)

Vile men, I laughed because it showed us their true colours.

@Christinaismyperson

Those men are going to be fuming that their true colours have been exposed.

You can assume that as they are on the PC they like to be seen as upstanding members of the community. They hide their true vileness behind a respect facade.

I feel terribly sorry for anyone on the receiving end of that rage today.

I think they will double down and blame her for their own bad behaviour. I do not expect any humility or contrition from them.

@Fckingfuming

Did anyone catch what the Vice Chairman said as he went off camera and descended into full on Gollum?

Perfect description! 😂😂

@Mycatismadeofstringcheese you are completely right, no chance they’ll take responsibility. At the very most a faux apology statement that they dispute until their dying day.

I saw it earlier and thought it was a spoof! I didn't realise it was a genuine meeting!

How embarrassing for those awful men.