Unprofessional professor - more info post 31, 144.

[Moray]

The professor was fine to call Deena on it, but could have done it in private, and made a more general announcement to the class later about using respectful language.

"The professor stopped Deena and told her that it was not an appropriate term to use. She apologized and continued the presentation"

I think it should have ended right here. It's up to the Professor to run his classroom not Deena. Waiting to address it later is an extra chore and may be some of the students wouldn't be present.

Exactly. It doesn't even sound like he "chastised" her or anything in class. He made a polite correction and if she hadn't brought it up again in an email, he probably wouldn't have said another word about it. I really think that without the actual emails from both Deena and the professor, we can't possibly know if his follow up was out of line. He may have been perfectly polite and it just wasn't what she wanted to hear, or he may have raked her over the coals. We just don't know.

The only thing we can say for certain is that she shouldn't be soliciting support from other, non-involved students and stirring up drama. It just doesn't reflect well on her as a professional.

She's not "soliciting support from uninvolved students". She's sharing an event that was distressing to her with her friends. We all do that. Sh has not reason to not share this with her friends just because they're also classmates.

She may be taking the class, but if she, as someone with years of experience in the field, is gunning for a directorship for this particular department, she needs to hold herself to a higher standard. Part of that standard is not ragging on other professionals who may be your future colleagues. Passing around his email is inappropriate.

If she truly feels that what the professor said (either his previous remarks in class or his correction of her) or wrote to her was inappropriate, then yes, she should absolutely report it.

[June24]

The professor was fine to call Deena on it, but could have done it in private, and made a more general announcement to the class later about using respectful language.

"The professor stopped Deena and told her that it was not an appropriate term to use. She apologized and continued the presentation"

I think it should have ended right here. It's up to the Professor to run his classroom not Deena. Waiting to address it later is an extra chore and may be some of the students wouldn't be present.

Exactly. It doesn't even sound like he "chastised" her or anything in class. He made a polite correction and if she hadn't brought it up again in an email, he probably wouldn't have said another word about it. I really think that without the actual emails from both Deena and the professor, we can't possibly know if his follow up was out of line. He may have been perfectly polite and it just wasn't what she wanted to hear, or he may have raked her over the coals. We just don't know.

The only thing we can say for certain is that she shouldn't be soliciting support from other, non-involved students and stirring up drama. It just doesn't reflect well on her as a professional.

She's not "soliciting support from uninvolved students". She's sharing an event that was distressing to her with her friends. We all do that. Sh has not reason to not share this with her friends just because they're also classmates.

She may be taking the class, but if she, as someone with years of experience in the field, is gunning for a directorship for this particular department, she needs to hold herself to a higher standard. Part of that standard is not ragging on other professionals who may be your future colleagues. Passing around his email is inappropriate.

If she truly feels that what the professor said (either his previous remarks in class or his correction of her) or wrote to her was inappropriate, then yes, she should absolutely report it.

I guess we're not going to agree. I think that even professionals discuss events in their lives with their friends. If her close friends happen to also be in the same class, I think that has no bearing on the situation.

[Moray]

I guess we're not going to agree. I think that even professionals discuss events in their lives with their friends. If her close friends happen to also be in the same class, I think that has no bearing on the situation.

I suspect you're correct on that point, but I'm glad that we can discuss it in a civil manner

[June24]

I guess we're not going to agree. I think that even professionals discuss events in their lives with their friends. If her close friends happen to also be in the same class, I think that has no bearing on the situation.

I suspect you're correct on that point, but I'm glad that we can discuss it in a civil manner

Me too. 

[snowdragon]

  MY bestfriend's brother is an above the knee amputee as a result of a motorcycle accident. He often complains of his amputated leg itching and feeling sweat roll down it after hours on his feet in the hot kitchen of a restaurant.
   If a professional counselor referred to him or other's like him in such a dismissive and demeaning manner, we would all be livid and complaining. The thing about saying things like this in a classroom environment, is that you never know the background of the people listening to you. There could have been someone in the class who has a dear one who suffered an amputation, or who has a history of mental illness or any number of disabilities that would make such a "joke" way inappropriate - the professor himself might have one of the above circumstances - you just never know.
  If he's making people uncomfortable, go on and talk to him about it first. If the reporting him to a superior is just because someone is upset about being taken to task for the scenario in the OP...then leave it lie.

[Sharnita]

  MY bestfriend's brother is an above the knee amputee as a result of a motorcycle accident. He often complains of his amputated leg itching and feeling sweat roll down it after hours on his feet in the hot kitchen of a restaurant.
   If a professional counselor referred to him or other's like him in such a dismissive and demeaning manner, we would all be livid and complaining. The thing about saying things like this in a classroom environment, is that you never know the background of the people listening to you. There could have been someone in the class who has a dear one who suffered an amputation, or who has a history of mental illness or any number of disabilities that would make such a "joke" way inappropriate - the professor himself might have one of the above circumstances - you just never know.
  If he's making people uncomfortable, go on and talk to him about it first. If the reporting him to a superior is just because someone is upset about being taken to task for the scenario in the OP...then leave it lie.

I don't think that is the case at all.  I think OP is sayin there are ways of measuring whether that is really going on or somebody is feigning it to get drugs.  So he wouldn't be referred to that way but the guy who pretended to have the same symptoms but proved to be drug seeking would be jokingly called "crazy".

[Bob Ducca]

There are some things that should never be said in a professional setting (if at all), no matter how "joking" the tone.  A colleague of mine once treated me to a 10-minute diatribe on how her job was being ruined by the large number of clients of a certain ethnicity.  We were not in front of clients and were in an area off-limits to anyone except staff so the odds of being overheard were low, but it was still terribly unprofessional and it permanently altered my opinion of this colleague.  Since the OP's friend seems to have established herself as an authority a step above the other students (or even the professor), she should be more professional than required, not less.

[CharlieBraun]

I'd  be interested to see what happens should Deena bring this up with the powers that be.  I think she's be very foolish to do.

[Mental Magpie]

There are some things that should never be said in a professional setting (if at all), no matter how "joking" the tone.  A colleague of mine once treated me to a 10-minute diatribe on how her job was being ruined by the large number of clients of a certain ethnicity.  We were not in front of clients and were in an area off-limits to anyone except staff so the odds of being overheard were low, but it was still terribly unprofessional and it permanently altered my opinion of this colleague.  Since the OP's friend seems to have established herself as an authority a step above the other students (or even the professor), she should be more professional than required, not less.

A ten minute diatribe is completely different than a five second comment.

[Bob Ducca]

There are some things that should never be said in a professional setting (if at all), no matter how "joking" the tone.  A colleague of mine once treated me to a 10-minute diatribe on how her job was being ruined by the large number of clients of a certain ethnicity.  We were not in front of clients and were in an area off-limits to anyone except staff so the odds of being overheard were low, but it was still terribly unprofessional and it permanently altered my opinion of this colleague.  Since the OP's friend seems to have established herself as an authority a step above the other students (or even the professor), she should be more professional than required, not less.

A ten minute diatribe is completely different than a five second comment.

And a conversation in the lounge is completely different than a presentation in front of colleagues.  Are we no longer allowed to use illustrative examples unless they are 100% identical to the OP's situation?

[Corvid]

As several of my health care brethren and sistren have already mentioned, yes, gallows humor abounds as a coping mechanism in what can be emotionally draining if not outright soul-lacerating work.  As the old saying goes, if we weren't all crazy we would go insane.

However, it's generally understood that you keep a tight lid on that stuff.  I don't think Deena using the term "nut job" was a big deal in itself, but I do think using it in a classroom was pretty stupid.

Deena made an error of judgment and got called on it.  From the information given it seems the wisest course for her would have been to stand up and own her error, learn from it, and drop it.  Instead she seems to want some sort of absolution for it so she keeps escalating the situation by pushing to find someone who will tell her she didn't do anything so very bad, it's simply a case of this professor being a big old meany poopy-head.  Now she wants to take it to his bosses?  Really?  She needs to sit down and think about what this is really about.  We all make mistakes and accepting that we do and taking responsibility is part of our growth as human beings.  This is a pretty minor one as things go.

[Mental Magpie]

There are some things that should never be said in a professional setting (if at all), no matter how "joking" the tone.  A colleague of mine once treated me to a 10-minute diatribe on how her job was being ruined by the large number of clients of a certain ethnicity.  We were not in front of clients and were in an area off-limits to anyone except staff so the odds of being overheard were low, but it was still terribly unprofessional and it permanently altered my opinion of this colleague.  Since the OP's friend seems to have established herself as an authority a step above the other students (or even the professor), she should be more professional than required, not less.

A ten minute diatribe is completely different than a five second comment.

And a conversation in the lounge is completely different than a presentation in front of colleagues.  Are we no longer allowed to use illustrative examples unless they are 100% identical to the OP's situation?

At what point did I say that?  I was pointing out that a ten minute diatribe is annoying whether it's an inappropriate topic or not.  A five second comment doesn't take up ten minutes of your time and you can go back to what you were doing rather than being sidetracked by the constant chattering of someone who is just going on and on and on.  A ten minute diatribe also has the potential of offending over and over while the five second comment only offends for that five seconds it was said (not saying you may not be offended later by the five second comment, just that hearing the offensive word once is different than hearing it a hundred times).

[Marbles]

If I had received an email from a student saying she was sick, with no specifics, for the class after she had made a flub, I would assume that the illness was mental, not physical, and that she was still embarrassed. As such, I probably would not comment on her health, either.

[Bob Ducca]

There are some things that should never be said in a professional setting (if at all), no matter how "joking" the tone.  A colleague of mine once treated me to a 10-minute diatribe on how her job was being ruined by the large number of clients of a certain ethnicity.  We were not in front of clients and were in an area off-limits to anyone except staff so the odds of being overheard were low, but it was still terribly unprofessional and it permanently altered my opinion of this colleague.  Since the OP's friend seems to have established herself as an authority a step above the other students (or even the professor), she should be more professional than required, not less.

A ten minute diatribe is completely different than a five second comment.

And a conversation in the lounge is completely different than a presentation in front of colleagues.  Are we no longer allowed to use illustrative examples unless they are 100% identical to the OP's situation?

At what point did I say that?  I was pointing out that a ten minute diatribe is annoying whether it's an inappropriate topic or not.  A five second comment doesn't take up ten minutes of your time and you can go back to what you were doing rather than being sidetracked by the constant chattering of someone who is just going on and on and on.  A ten minute diatribe also has the potential of offending over and over while the five second comment only offends for that five seconds it was said (not saying you may not be offended later by the five second comment, just that hearing the offensive word once is different than hearing it a hundred times).

Okay.  My point still stands.  I will concede that 10 minutes and 5 seconds are different values of time, but my main point is that there are some thing that should never, ever be said in a professional setting.  If my co-worker had expressed an extremely racist view in passing (say, 3 seconds), it would be no less unprofessional than the monologue I actually heard.  Unless your point is that professionals are allowed to use insulting, derogatory terms toward the people they are supposed to serve as long as those comments take less than 10 seconds to state, I'm not sure what you are getting at.  Is your argument that a statement's offensiveness is based on the amount of time it takes to express it?

[Mental Magpie]

There are some things that should never be said in a professional setting (if at all), no matter how "joking" the tone.  A colleague of mine once treated me to a 10-minute diatribe on how her job was being ruined by the large number of clients of a certain ethnicity.  We were not in front of clients and were in an area off-limits to anyone except staff so the odds of being overheard were low, but it was still terribly unprofessional and it permanently altered my opinion of this colleague.  Since the OP's friend seems to have established herself as an authority a step above the other students (or even the professor), she should be more professional than required, not less.

A ten minute diatribe is completely different than a five second comment.

And a conversation in the lounge is completely different than a presentation in front of colleagues.  Are we no longer allowed to use illustrative examples unless they are 100% identical to the OP's situation?

At what point did I say that?  I was pointing out that a ten minute diatribe is annoying whether it's an inappropriate topic or not.  A five second comment doesn't take up ten minutes of your time and you can go back to what you were doing rather than being sidetracked by the constant chattering of someone who is just going on and on and on.  A ten minute diatribe also has the potential of offending over and over while the five second comment only offends for that five seconds it was said (not saying you may not be offended later by the five second comment, just that hearing the offensive word once is different than hearing it a hundred times).

Okay.  My point still stands.  I will concede that 10 minutes and 5 seconds are different values of time, but my main point is that there are some thing that should never, ever be said in a professional setting.  If my co-worker had expressed an extremely racist view in passing (say, 3 seconds), it would be no less unprofessional than the monologue I actually heard.  Unless your point is that professionals are allowed to use insulting, derogatory terms toward the people they are supposed to serve as long as those comments take less than 10 seconds to state, I'm not sure what you are getting at.  Is your argument that a statement's offensiveness is based on the amount of time it takes to express it?

No, my argument is that hearing it once (ie for five seconds) is not quite a bad as hearing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over a ten minute period of time as far as the amount of time I am offended.  I hear the term once in five seconds, I can overlook it even if it is incredibly offensive.  I hear it more than 80% of of the time in a ten minute period, I'm going to be much more annoyed/angry/offended than I would after hearing it just once.  Let's take away "offensive" and make it just "annoying".  I hear something annoying just once all day, I'm not as nearly annoyed as I would be if I heard it 1000 times in a ten minute period.  The more I hear it, the more annoyed I am, and the less I can tolerate it.  Professionals shouldn't use offensive terms, but someone who says it once seems misdirected; someone who says it a ton of times over a ten minute period obviously has conviction.