About minute silences at work

[onesupplied]

We had a one minute silence today to recognise the Grenfell tragedy.

We all received an email well in advance about this. Our office manager sets off an alarm at 11am and when the silence is over. We've (sadly) done this a couple of times now in the past month.

There still remain a few colleagues who seem to take no notice. Although not talking they're typing, clicking, scrolling, shuffling papers.

AIBU to think that this is bloody disrespectful and that everyone can afford to take one minute out of their day?

[Mummmy2017]

We were talking about this, and how it's so over used, I was at a fair and no one did it, infact I didn't even know it was today.

I also can't help thinking a quid in jar would do far more help, as I just stand and look around when it happens, now even sure what we are supposed to do for the 60 seconds.

[TinselTwins]

No one's ordering me to be quiet, what an odd thing to say.
um, have you read the OP/thread?

[TinselTwins]

I can't abide those who not content with participating quietly, have to theatrically swivel around and scowl at anybody who isn't. You're supposed to be concentrating on the dead, focusing on them. That's what you said you wanted to do so shut up and get on with it then

I think I have a poster-crush on LyingWitchInTheWardrobe

[Saucery]

Yes thanks, Tinsel. No one is ordering me to be quiet still stands. Sorry if that doesn't fit in with your particular reading of it.

[TalkinPeece]

So, the photocopying took a bit longer.
No good was done.
Just more people felt the need to let flowers wrapped in non biodegradable cellophane rot in the sun.

Its all a maudlin sanctimonious public mourning which has no positive results.

Save money on cut flowers ... spend it on something worthwhile.

Praying in silence does not bring people together. Chatting to them does.

[BuzzKillington]

I was in the loo at work, mid wee, when the alarm went off.

Have to admit, I don't really get these minute silences.

[BurnTheBlackSuit]

Actually, if we were ever going to have a minute's silence, it should have been for this- 79 people died, which is far more than any terror attack on U.K. Soil, including 7/7. The sheer numbers make it a tragedy on a huge scale. taking 60 seconds out of my day to think about and show that we care and are thinking about the victims and their relatives is the least I can do.

[frasersmummy]

The thing is we only hold a minutes silence when an event makes headline news
what about the 200 people who died in housefires in 2015 in the uk ..
or the 17 babies who are stillborn or die within moments of birth in the uk .. every single day
what about the 5 people who die a day on our roads every day

That's a lot of family members left devastated but no-one is stopping to remember their loved ones.. and therefore they don't always want to stop to remember others.

this is why the minute silence should be reserved for November 11

[Misswiggy]

I totally agree with JoshLyman - very good point

[TinselTwins]

Praying in silence does not bring people together. Chatting to them does

A quaker style gathering would be much more emotionally constructive: people who want/need to come together, you can sit and just be together, or you can stand and say something!

Or some sort of task force, coordinating donations or collections or community action/outreach

[Saucery]

I don't leave flowers in cellophane, not even on family graves, so fuck knows how you extrapolated that from me stopping photocopying for one whole minute, Talkin.

Blimey, there's some people determined to be affronted by anyone giving a shit about anything ever.

[BadToTheBone]

I work for a company who employs thousands of phone based roles, CEO authorises the minutes silence, he cuts the calls 2 minutes in advance and authorises our agents to explain they are observing a minute silence and to either offer the customer a call back or for them to observe it too. Not a problem if the company aren't arseholes.

[TalkinPeece]

Saucery
I did not name you in my post.
Only the first paragraph referred to you.

The rest was about the communal competitive grief that started with Diana and really needs to stop soon.
Heaps of rotting flowers are the most environmentally catastrophic aspect.

[TinselTwins]

Blimey, there's some people determined to be affronted by anyone giving a shit about anything ever.

People who don't observe minutes silences generally are the ones who have given enough of a shit to really consider them

The people glaring and judging observing the silence are NOT necessarily the ones that care most about what happened

We're all allowed to consider what we think is the most constructive collective action to a tragedy

[BadToTheBone]

I'm glad it's back to a single minute instead of three minutes that it had seemed to be lately. Entirely up to the person themselves DBC should never be compulsory.

[JamieXeed74]

Its a minutes silence its NOT compulsory.

Who is being disrespected? No one connected to the the Grenfell tragedy will know if some one in some office somewhere in the world scrolled on their mouse at 11 am.

Everyone expresses, or not, their grief/respect differently we dont live in N.Korea.

[MrsPorth]

The call centre at my workplace puts a choke on the calls just before 11am so that agents who wish to observe it, can do so. Agents already on calls are allowed to put the customer on hold for the silence, having explained why first. There is no obligation for agents to do the latter.

[Lostinaseaofbubbles]

I'm not usually the type to complain, but I very nearly did about staff in Sainsbury's during the silence for Manchester. Not because they weren't silent, but they were so aggressive about those who weren't - and in some cases unreasonably so.

So I'm walking around the shop with my three children (all pre-school-age) and the tannoy goes off saying that there will be a silence in 5 minutes. I have to kneel down in the supermarket and explain the whole Manchester bombing thing to my quite sensitive 4 year old - not something I'd planned on doing (the other two are too little to understand)

I stop my shopping and head to the clothing section. The kids know the clothing section well as that's where most of their clothes come from and they're used to hanging about in there whilst I dither about making a decision. As I'm walking I get hissed at by an employee telling me how disrespectful I'm being and what a terrible example I'm setting as I should be being silent. This is before the bell went. I quickly apologise and kneel down so I can reach all 3 of my children and try to keep them quiet. She insists on standing right next to me. Announcement and bell goes. One minutes silence. (And only one very quiet shh from me when 4yo got distracted and said something).

The moment the bell goes for the end of the minute she launches into a loud tirade including expletives about how disrespectful all those shoppers who were still going about their shopping. And no apology for hissing at me rudely. In fact, I presume from her attitude that she felt that she was the only reason I had conformed.

Not only did she pull me up on the silence before it had even started and whilst I was trying to get myself into the best position to be able to be respectful with the kids in tow, but then she treated my children to earfuls of her colourful language.

Minutes' silences are a personal thing. Personally I hate them. But I do abide by them. The most recent London attack one I was in work, and it was completely silent.

I don't mind what other people do, it's none of my business.

[Saucery]

Did you see that many of the flowers from Manchester are being dried and pressed and used for memorial books for the families of the victims, Talkin? And the teddies etc dry cleaned for free and distributed to children in hospital etc?
You did in fact tag on the flowers to 'photocopying tooka little longer' with the use of the connecting phrase 'no good was done...just etc etc' but you know that anyway

You think it's useless and mawkish. Fine. I don't.

[BurnTheBlackSuit]

Heaps of rotting flowers are the most environmentally catastrophic aspect.

Off topic, but there was a lady at the tower block unwrapping the cellophane from all the flowers and putting them all in water

[PenguinOfDoom]

We have the minutes' silences at work and they are announced via email a couple of hours in advance and then by tannoy about five minutes before. Most people abide by it and don't even type during it. However, I work in the middle of a group of client helpdesks and sometimes the clients either won't or can't stop the call so the agents usually just lower their voices and everyone understands.

I still remember the one for 9/11. I was being dropped off in a taxi in the City just as it started and the whole street just stopped moving and was silent. Even all the cars and buses pulled over and stopped. It was eerie but powerful.

[DogStrummer]

AIBU to think that this is bloody disrespectful and that everyone can afford to take one minute out of their day?

No, not at all. It makes my piss boil on Nov 11th, if people are tapping away on their keyboards, taking phone calls etc. Absolutely gives me the rage.

I thought we lived in a free country, being frowned upon for not grieving in the exact prescribed way with a bunch of tosspots that you work with, is soul destroying

But, I can see this POV as well. We've had a minute's silence once every week for the last three weeks now in my workplace. It's becoming meaningless, and depressing. Having said that, I still observe it (take phone off etc.), as for the sake of a minute, it's not worth causing the offence I know I can take in November.

[Squarerouteofsquirrel]

Don't like the forced nature of a work email instructing me how to pay my respects. Perfectly capable of showing my respects in my own way and in my own time, don't need my employer to show me how to do it.

[user1476869312]

If anyone had |told me, in a public place, to be silent, I would have told them to go fuck themselves. Ok, I probably wouldn't start singing Frigging In The Rigging while other people are doing that 'meaningful' face (the ones who aren't desperately looking for someone to shush or tut at), but I'd be getting on with whatever I was doing.

I think this idea of enforcing public grief (but only for selected tragedies) is quite dangerous. Also, anyone who makes a lot of noise about 'respect' generally deserves none.

[user1476869312]

If you're actually offended by someone observing an entirely pointless gesture, than you clearly haven't got enough going on in your life.
If you were directly involved in any such tragedy, you're likely to have way too much to think about to take any notice of what a bunch of strangers might be doing.