Why do assholes at work even bosses know the laws about discrimination and harassment yet do it anyway?

[Chadgiga8384]

In one moment my boss was telling me to feel free to let him know if i ever feel uncomfortable or harassed and in the next moment he's literally making religion based jokes, race based jokes (he's a white old atheist male), and jokes about little girls being sex slaves in other countries.

I kid you not. I thought my previous workplace was bad but they at least respected peoples religion. In my old job almost everyone was a minority so the race jokes if any were more about whites but the sexism was off the charts. The men all over would sexually harass women like that was part of the job description.

I can't compare apples to oranges because these were two different environments, department sizes, etc. So i dont wanna have to pick which is worse. I will say the atheist humor just reminds me of the idiotic college teachers i had to put up with for years. I couldnt wait to get out that hellhole they call university. What an absolute joke.

The funny thing is in college you have everyone on their toes triggered by everything remotely criticizing any woman or homosexual. But then you go to work and you're lucky if you as a woman can find a job where men aren't sexually harassing you every waking minute in one way or another.

[KelleyNice]

Did you ever take him up on his offer and tell him that his jokes make you uncomfortable?

If people don't know what they are doing makes someone feel harassed or uncomfortable, they will never stop. If you don't tell him, he may believe you like his jokes. If you tell him are afraid you will be punished by being reassigned to less desirable work, not given a raise, or possibly laid off?

[Dontcare678]

I am afraid i will be forced to leave. I just started the job and my 90 days is like a probation and he could make some fake excuse to not keep me once 90 days hits. You never know. I am poor i need the job. They pay more than pretty mh anywhere else i can get rfht now

[KelleyNice]

@Dontcare678 Since working and hearing jokes you don't is better silence and not working, I sounds like you don't have much choice except to politely listen and try to tune it out.

[laurieluvsit]

Because the 80,000,000 laws on the books include everything.

I think to maintain legal conformity they would have to have handcuffs on, duct tape over their mouths and maybe blindfolds on so they don't look in the wrong place. And even then, there'd probably be some law they'd be in violation of.

I wish I could put... lol... but unfortunately, I'm not kidding!

[MikeInHawaii]

Some employers think the law doesn’t apply to them. My previous employer thought he could take the full cost of my health insurance out of my pay, rather than the 1.5% of my pay allowed by Hawaii law. I got this from the Department of Labor. They made him give me my back pay, but didn’t audit his books to pay tens of thousands he has stolen from others.