.. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

[X]

put away any prejudice and be as objective as you can..

You organize office (team building and professional development) events, but a certain group of people do not support it, YET they some of them claim that you have been excluding them .

The senario:
You keep an event earlier this year. It was kept on a Friday as we all know, in the general western world, friday is considered the day to decompress..
That group did not support the event. Senior directors from that (religious) group came, but the general body did not come. You then get a complain from the leadership of that very clannish group that “you excluded us by keeping the event on a Friday which is a day we go to prayers”

Nevermind that a member of our event planning team is religiously affliated to that group and a known leader for that faith in a major Canadian city. He did not sound any objection during the planning that the Friday was bad. Infact he went silent just after I announced a board and he wasn’t on that board.

Anyhow, learning “politics”, I didn’t tell them what came to mind, which was, <span style="font-style: italic"> “you can pull this entitlement business on the white man, but don’t try that sh—t on me </span>.
Instead, I arranged yet another event.. this time a professional development event and offered refreshments for those who came out to support the event.
This included pizzas.
Discussed with the member of that community who is also on the planning and now a member of the board (I decided to take a chance on him and bring him in.. I know he’s in it only to advance his career, but sometimes no matter the reasons, it’s the results that matter)
We decide to keep the event on a mid weekday as he said he doesn’t come into the office of Fridays, AND more importantly, we wanted to avoid the prayer day altogether. This was the members of this group could attend the event.
I spoke to the obvious leader of that group. (The one they all seem to gravitate around as the all go for lunch, meet and lyme with daily.. no joke, the bredren a carbon copy of a younger Bin Laden, same beard, same build, same slow deliberate mannerisms), and he said he would come out and support the event.
I spoke with individuals of the group, who actually work on my team, they said they would come to support.

So event setup. Pizzas ordered for 60 people, told the pizza dude , mix it up and make sure to bring a couple veggie pizzas.

[X]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

Event about to start, the member of the community who is the main reason we keeping the event on that day, text message me to say he cant make the event.. He has to take his mom to doctor.
I respond back “Sorry to hear that. No worries, hope your Mom feels better. I’ll keep you posted.” (My Jamaican response would have been.. yuh boombo c-lart lyad ole fart! )..
Anyhow, event started, only the SAME senior directors from that religious group attend. NOT A SOUL else from that religious group that we planned the event around.
FORTUNATELY, the Canadians came out, the Chinese came out, the (one other &amp;#61514; ) black man came out… oh and the Christian Indian came out..
The event was a rousing success. As we had it teleconferenced, people all over the globe it seems was surprisingly impressed and blown away by the event. I got emails of people being brought to tears, one person wrote that the speak was like a skilled verbal sniper.. another ( from Scotland) said, “not one word was wasted, <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">EVERY</span> SINGLE WORD </span> spoken had its individual power”
People were asking “when again!”

[RichD]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??



why the boycott?

[X]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

So.. Event done.. Pizza breaks out..
I walk the speaker out the building, (as I always do when I invite guest to the office)..
I come back up, the pizza boxes have been raided.. a few meat lovers slices and crumbs left..
The one other black man calls me aside and say “hey xKs I saved a few slices for you”

I walk to my office, a good-hearted Canadian hombre comes to me “the event was an amazing success, BUT you excluded that group again! They came by after the event and there was no veggie pizzas left! We gotta do something about that, how many veggie pizzas did you order? Did you order halal pizza??!”

I look at him, and said.. “the event was a success, right? “
He goes “yes”
I goes “ then anything else “I don’t give a f---k”

Two-twos, I see the leader dude, so I pre-empt him, I go “How comes you didn’t come out to support the event??!”
He starts making excuse about being busy, and if I could take his work load, then he could make the event.. (go figure)
I play it off. “No worries man, hopefully u make the next one.”
He then goes, ‘Did you order the pizzas?”
I go “yes”
He goes” So how many veggie pizza did you order?”
I go “dude I’m a engineer not a .. I dunno, I told the guy to mix them up”
He goes ‘then it’s the guys fault for not bringing enough veggie pizzas for us then..” he then starts to explain to me about what they can and cannot eat, so I say “hey I get dietary restrictions due to religion.. Actually You may not know this, but in Jamaica we have a faith called Rastafarianism and they have strick dietary rules, like no pork… “
he goes, “we can eat meat, but has to be halal”..
I go, no worries, let me see what I can do, maybe see about buying u guys some veggie and halal pizza someday..
My bad for missing that one..


Anyhow as I see this as just one aspect of the entitlement attitude, the gimmie, gimmie attitude.
No concern for the person who does not practice YOUR religion.. ..

How would you interpret this?
I guess I’m wrong to see it this way? Maybe prejudice?

[RichD]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

so dem nuh come but dem get report bout how much pizza come and getting incensed about it too ?

i think dem mussi used to people bending over to accommodated them. entitlement attitude


if i go meeting and i don't eat what them have then i don't eat simple as dat.

[Wahalla]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

<span style="color: #CC0000">You keep an event earlier this year. It was kept on a Friday as we all know, in the general western world, friday is considered the day to decompress.</span>

The company I contract for, fridays is considered half days....So nothing entertainment is organised on Friday.. All team building is done on thursday...Be it christmas events company sponsored events....

[X]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

Exactly RichD.
seems the focus is on &quot;accommodate me&quot;.. while &quot;I really dont care about your efforts&quot;

As I explained to the 'caring canuck&quot; the &quot;Event&quot; was the focus, not the food.
So i'm a bit confused as to why people who did not take time out to attend an event, care that there was not enough of their kind of food left-over ??

[RichD]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

did they participate in the pizza raid after it was over?

[X]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

yes. After walking the speaker out, I came back in the room, just to see a few from that group scooping up the last remaining veggie pizzas, and one or two dissapointed faces walking out..

[RichD]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

yuh shoulda sey the food was for event participats

[X]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yuh shoulda sey the food was for event participats </div></div>

You'd think they knew that.
Thats the way it is with all other events.
Those who attend get the food.. Those who dont, usually can take what's left (less garbage to throw out)..
Guess i should have made accomodations for those who decide NOT to support the event.

[Tulip]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

Boy oh boy pleXxed, that's a story and a half. I have planned some events at work and know it's impossible to please everybody. However, it takes a special kind of gall to not attend the event and come complaining about the food you tried to scavenge afterwards.

At most, I have just had to accommodate vegetarians and those who don't eat pork or beef. If I were going to have to do kosher or halal, I'd delegate that task to one of the ones who REQUIRES it.

I have to go back to where I almost closed the window down. The mf-er asked you &quot;how many vegetarian pizzas you ordered&quot;? Nerve!

[Tulip]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

I think one thing that people with special dietary requirements don't realize is that those of us who don't will eat your food too.

I'm just as happy eating an all meat pizza as i am eating an all veggie one so I'm going to get a slice of that too and probably going to play with my food until I combine the best of the both on a slice.

I'm going to leff this topic though. Just let me say there is a strong sense of entitlement

[Tulip]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

Looks like I got stuck in here, but I must say you're good though. &quot;How many did you order?&quot; That needed a sidebar conversation starting with something like &quot;Let me tell you one thing...&quot;

For semi-constructive advice, I'll say again let them be over ordering their own food. Set a budget and let them rope off the area and manage it. Then they can discuss any discrepancies amongst themselves. Woo sah!

[X]

Re: .. gimmie, gimmie mentality??

Tulip u response surgical.. chus mi..
Canada teaches us (me) to accomodate and to pick battles. In Ja, we did/say what ever came to mind, but here, I'm learning to be methodic ..

Recently a couple tshirts was shipped to me from a sales contact me made south of the border. They were some cool shirts with the company logo and some witty tag line on the back.
Suh mi gave away the extras to some senior people who looked out for me, and kept one for miself.
Wore it to work one day..
All me hear is from the clan was &quot;xKs where you got that shirt?&quot;
Suh mi seh , Sales hooked mi up.
&quot; How comes you didnt get any for us???&quot;
Suh mi count off how many people on the entire floor and emailed the sale contact a request.
Him fedex a couple boxes to me that would provide one for each person.
As mi a distribute ONE per person.
Hear the hombre dem from the clan as mi gave them &quot;only ONE??!&quot;
Wait before that...
Mi order the shirts say the Monday.. The Tuesday mi walked in to &quot;xKs, are the shirts here as yet??!&quot;

Chus mi.. mi saving the best fi mi book..