The thought police are on the prowl again – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51261999
It would be handy if we could have a list of topics that are acceptable in the workplace, just so we’re all on the same wavelength!

No football chat sounds fully awesome – almost giddy at the thought!

Chartered Management Institute head Ann Francke said sports banter can exclude women and lead to laddish behaviour such as chat about sexual conquests.

What? Is she suggesting women don’t like football or cricket? Is she still in the 70s?

I think if the men stop talking about football then the women should stop talking about love island, it makes me feel so isolated….!

‘Do you know the result of last nights game?’
‘3-1’
‘Cool. I had a threesome last night’

– every football chat, ever.

I think if the men stop talking about football then the women should stop talking about love island, it makes me feel so isolated….!

The obvious answer is to have the contestants on Love Island play football for  90 mins each episode.

Then we can all talk to each other.

Maybe the day should start with determining a mutually agreeable topic list, along with an acceptable duration for the discussion of.
Football/cricket – 5 mins combined
Love Island – min 30 mins
Bikes – remainder of day?

every football chat, ever.

“I see Rooney scored last night”

“Yeah….your Gran is really fit”

The thing about Arsenal is…

I’m not usually one for the “IzpOliTiCalkorExNeSsGaRnMad” gang but surely it is ridiculous hand-wringing nonsense to suggest that people can’t talk about things that interest them just because others are not interested.

I don’t follow football and don’t give a chuff about it.

Yes, I am excluded when people talk about football.

So what?

They might be excluded if I talked about cycling or rugby or snowboarding or gaming..

“It’s very easy for it to escalate from VAR talk and chat to slapping each other on the back and talking about their conquests at the weekend.”

Happens all the time in my office, and when I say “all the time”… I mean never. But there’s nothing quite like hyperbole to turn a non-topic into Click-bait…

“I have nothing against sports enthusiasts or cricket fans…”

I’m glad she made the distinction…

I think if the men stop talking about football then the women should stop talking about love island, it makes me feel so isolated….!

TBF that’s not a Gender divided topic in my workplace, but it does tend to be an under 30’s topic… of course without it I wouldn’t have the opportunity to shake my head, tut and say “kids these days” So I don’t really know if my right to inclusion is being infringed or not…

Honestly, this sort of nonsense makes me want to give up on life! Is this genuine? It beggars belief, it really does.

Edit. We should be calling for this woman to resign for spouting such ridiculous sexist nonsense.

What Graham said. Non-article and her argument has more logical fallacies than the “Your Logical Fallacy Is…” website.

I’m no fan of football and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been cornered in the kitchen at work say, someone’s asked me about the game last night (what game?), I’ve explained that I don’t follow football and they’ve gone “oh, right” and then proceeded to talk at me about it for the next 20 minutes.

But banning people talking about it is an utterly ludicrous notion. If nothing else, I think like in the example I just gave, some people simply have nothing else to talk about. Papping on about football might be excluding “women” (the 1970s are on the phone) or indeed people like me, but not being allowed to do so is potentially completely isolating those who have no other social interests.

The beatings will continue until morale improves?

Is this genuine?

A woman called Ann Francke, today of all days, telling people not to chat.

I have my doubts.

(Apologies if the above causes offence, none intended, please remove if so)

This is the worst side of the “Liberal Left”.

This is the very opposite of actual Liberalism and is exactly the kind of bollocks that makes people dismiss liberals as whiny triggered snowflakes.

(Apologies if the above causes offence, none intended, please remove if so)

Struggling to tell if this part is also for a laugh, if so, I like it!

This is the worst side of the “Liberal Left”.
This is the very opposite of actual Liberalism and is exactly the kind of bollocks that makes people dismiss liberals as whiny triggered snowflakes.

This

I’m not into football at all, never really felt left out by discussions about it. I like hearing about different interests colleagues have, it’s one of the upsides of going to work. I’d always rather be stuck in a office with folk that have interests whatever they were. I’ve learned quite a bit about motorspeedway, motorbikes, knitting, triathlon, cooking and medievel battle re-enactment in recent years from colleagues. Stuff I have almost no knowledge of but enjoyed hearing about.

What does my wife (who is a PE teacher) talk about at work then?

She’s going to be quite conflicted by this 🙂

“It’s very easy for it to escalate from VAR talk and chat to slapping each other on the back and talking about their conquests at the weekend.”

*insert gag about going down inside the box*

She seems a bit, erm, imaginative.

Fully support the banning of cricket chat though.

Who’s your money on – the Chiefs or the 49ers?

I see that article has been up for about 2 hours and generated over 2000 comments. Probably some gems buried in there somewhere.

eg.

Completely agree with Ms Francke here. As a man I am so unevolved that I cannot hear the word ‘football’ without objectifying my female colleagues and trying to predict their cup size. It’s so bad that I often end the day making photocopies of my backside and leaving them on everyone’s desks.

The BBC is constantly pushing these type of articles these days.

It’s best to avoid them as a news source these days Imo

I have to add, that if this had been a male head of the CMI calling for chat about make-up to be banned as it excluded men, and quickly escalates into talk of how many times they had got their knickers off at the weekend, his head would already be on a spike by now.