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This morning, I emailed my motivational posters to the other people who'd been at the meeting that inspired them. This had rather more effect than I had anticipated:
Hopefully, this is the end of the affair. I should clarify, if I haven't already, that the guy in question is an excellent bloke and there was never any suggestion or suspicion that he was in any sense pro-Nazi. The meeting was an informal chat amongst long-term colleagues, and it was only the amusing awfulness of his metaphor that struck me, not any underlying implications. However, I like to think that this stands as a cautionary tale about the use of symbolism and power of satire. Consider yourselves warned.
- I received a couple of 'LOL' emails from the other attendees. One whole-heartedly agreed with my suggestion that we get some posters made of them for the office.
- On the way to the kitchen for tea, the director in question stuck his head round the door and said "Very funny" in a sarcastic tones.
- On the way back from the kitchen, he reappeared looking somewhat worried and asked, "You weren't offended were you? You're not... Jewish, or anything?" I replied assured him that I wasn't neither Jewish nor offended, I was just struck by his choice of role model.
- A few minutes later, he emailed an apology for, clarification of, and hope that no-one was offended by his comments, sent to everyone who was at the meeting (and one person who wasn't, thus confusing them profoundly)
- Immediately afterwards, he emailed me to ask me never to use our email facilities to send stuff like that again. I replied to say that this seemed fair enough under the circumstances. After all, they would be rather hard to justify out of context.
Hopefully, this is the end of the affair. I should clarify, if I haven't already, that the guy in question is an excellent bloke and there was never any suggestion or suspicion that he was in any sense pro-Nazi. The meeting was an informal chat amongst long-term colleagues, and it was only the amusing awfulness of his metaphor that struck me, not any underlying implications. However, I like to think that this stands as a cautionary tale about the use of symbolism and power of satire. Consider yourselves warned.
