WWYD! Monkey in the office

[kp78]

So, business is not in a good place. The department in particular is literally at breaking point with change and poor service and a Management team who have a poor reputation. Today I walk in to a life size life like chimpanzee sat on a pedestal wearing a company hat. I discussed with Director who was not in office and he arranged for it to be taken down by one of his Managers. Turned out one of the Sr Managers thought it would 'lighten the mood'. I am offended, my colleague was more offended due to years of racist comments made to her and we have requested a formal investigation . Are we overreacting?

What?

A chimp is an ape not a monkey. Just thought you should know

Eh?

Sounds like someone was trying to have a bit of fun to be honest. Unless anyone from the company or your colleagues have ever been racist towards the person in question, then it's highly likely to be entirely unrelated.

Formal investigation......really?!

What's it got to do with racism?

They were just monkeying around OP...please do try to untwist your knickers 🙄

Utterly ridiculous

Wait so everyone is stressed and a senior manager decided to get a giant monkey for the office?

Who has been making the racist comments? Was it the same guy who brought in the monkey? Are you sure that was racist move?

Massive overreaction from you and your colleague. Why is it racist?

I think the years of sustained racism is a better starting point for an investigation than a soft toy in a baseball cap. What has stopped you speaking up before?

We have a giant cow in our office (plastic, not real).

What offended you, it's just a stuffed animal. It would be a bit of an over reaction to demand a formal investigation, hasn't the person who put it there already said it was just for a bit of light hearted fun, why didn't you just put it somewhere else if you didn't like it. I'd find the hat quite funny. If it was a different animal would you still be offended.

I am sorry but I laughed at how sad this sounds. Is he David Brent? Business in trouble? Low staff morale? Racism at work?
GET A GIANT CHIMPANZEE and all your problems will vanish

If the "racist comments" involve your colleague or others being referred to as monkeys or apes then YANBU.

You need to explain more. Why were you offended? Why was it racist?

Eh?

totally ridiculous, a formal investigation into a soft toy being in your office....really?
and why was the racism not dealt with straight away?
are you and your colleague always offended by monkeys?

Yes I think YABU. There is a saying "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys", it's not a racist term. I understand the racial connotations but it doesn't sound like there was anything racist about the motivations, the manager would have used any animal I think, just happened to have a monkey.

Sometimes I forget how I am now much older than many other posters.

There were people on another thread who didn’t know the word ‘spade’ as racist. Now people don’t understand why a monkey could be seen as racist.

In this case however I don’t think it was.

Please get a life OP. Fast.

Racist office puts up a toy chimpanzee knowing it will be seen by a member of staff who has suffered years of racist shit. No wonder she was offended. Fucking morons.

For the love of litle fish.

No wonder the company is struggling.

Isn't someone making a jibe at Management?

Unless the management are black, I don't see this as a racist incident.

However, years of racist comments is unacceptable and definitely should be reported.

The garden centre in my wee town has a giant gorilla statue outside. At Christmas, he gets a Santa hat and a snow shovel. During the year he has a wee sign board with different funny messaged on it from time to time. Are they racist?

It's just a bit of fun. But everything is racist. If they stuck a name tag on it with the name of any black person in the office, then that would be racist.