American flag found on floor after emigrant complains

When an office supervisor hung and American flag in the office, and one of her office-mates filed a complaint (yes, really), upper management took the flag down. They later reversed themselves and let her put the flag back up.

What should the manager's response have been?

"Grow a thicker skin."

There, problem solved.

If someone doesn't like something that's completely normal and not the least bit offensive, then it's their problem, not the flag-owner's problem.

Suppose someone had said they don't like the color blue (or insert your own color here). Then when a colleague comes to work wearing a blue shirt and pants, the whiner insists that that color "offends him" and demands the the worker never wear blue again in the office.

The reply would be obvious: There's nothing offensive about the color, and you're the one with the problem, not the guy wearing blue. Quit acting like an idiot.

Putting an American flag in an office, is just as inoffensive as wearing a blue shirt and pants, regardless of what some whiner says. Why isn't the reply the same?

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http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/US-Flag-Found-on-Floor-After-Emigrant-Complains.html

U.S. Flag Found on Floor After Emigrant Complains

Employee invited to rehang flag

By FRANK HEINZ
Updated 11:15 AM CDT, Wed, May 27, 2009

An Arlington woman has now been invited to rehang her U.S. flag after first being told to remove it following a coworker's complaint.

Debbie McLucas, a hospital supervisor at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield, hung a 3x5-foot U.S. flag in the office she shares with three other supervisors just before Memorial Day.

The timely display of U.S. patriotism was not welcomed by one of McLucas' office mates and she was told it had to come down, CBS 11 reported.

The coworker, who emigrated to America from Africa 14 years ago, was apparently so bothered by the timely display that a complaint was filed with upper management. When McLucas, whose daughter is serving in Iraq as a combat medic, was told of the "infraction," she was stunned.

McLucas said her supervisor removed the flag for her and placed it on the floor -- an egregious breach of flag etiquette, aside from being an offensive gesture to most Americans. McLucas was then told that the flag flying outside of the building would have to satisfy her patriotic needs.

Susan Moss, vice president with Kindred Healthcare, said in a statement Wednesday that the issue was with the size of the flag and not what it symbolized.

"We have invited the employee to put the flag back up. We share their love of country and we appreciate the service of their family members as well as all members of the armed forces," Moss said. "This was an isolated incident between two employees that we are working to resolve amicably."

 

wow thats a huge story, someone was asked to take down something off there office...but now can have it back up....world shattering stuff. next, office ges new staplers.......news at 11

 

It was big enough to get you to respond to it.

Nice try.

 

not sure when that ment something was important, but you go ahead and think that still.

 

Twice, even!

 

have 3,

 

Sounds like the whole situation is being blown out of proportion. The last part of the OP mentions that it was the size of the flag, not that it was a flag itself.
Now many of us have probably been in a situation where we are in cramped office space. Introducing a 3x5foot flag might not have been considerate of her office mates.

I guess the way to test my theory would be to bring in a different decoration that is the same size or bigger (6x4') and see what is said.

 

Of course. It was blown out of proportion when the "offended" employee decided she was "offended" by a completely innocuous object: an American flag. Doesn't matter if it was the size, or the colors, or the fact that it represented a nation, or whatever. It's a flag.

Then it got further blown out of proportion, when she filed an official complaint rather than simply asking her office mate to put it somewhere else... or, better yet, she could have simply decided the "offensive" American flag wasn't worth the hassle of making a fuss over.

Then it got even further blown out of proportion, when the upper management person she filed the complaint with, did NOT tell her simply to get a life and quit whining about innocuous things like flags which obviously did no harm at all.

That's the whole point of the article.

My guess is, the whiner is one of those chronically-unhappy people who spends most of her time trying to find things to be offended by. And she should have been told to stick it, and ushered out of the manager's office. But that's just a guess, based on the small amount of info in the article. I can't prove it.

 

Acorn,
I dont disagree with your sentiments, there is not enough information to draw any solid conclusions. Makes me wonder what might have happened, had the person from Africa decided to display the flag of thier own country.

 

What could have happened? It's a flag, it's properly treated, big deal.

The question is, are there any (other) people in the room who are nutty enough to try to make something out of nothing?

 

Lots of people like to make something out of nothing. I think they get their jollies off doing so. When I grew up, I was an atheist, but I had to lead the class prayers once a month or so, in the morning, because they rotated it among the other students. I did it and never said a word about it. Some other people might have made a fuss. Was it better or worse not to have made a fuss?

 

and that is why I am against school prayer . I personaly feel that its offensive to me to even fake that I am of there faith, and if made to act like I was, I would feel I was offending them and feel very uncomfortable....or I can say no I am not like you and set myself apart and take the ripping kids who stand out in school often do....or I could stand up and make my prayer ...a athiest one saying there is not god, and that evryone who thinks so if a fool.....( im not realy athiest though...I am agnostic)

I never understood why it was so hard to say a prayer yourself , that you need to have someone lead you , from teh school or something.

 

This is the problem when we let just anyone in the country. In the old days we let in immigrants who actually wanted to be American and were proud of America. Now we have immigrants who are offended by the American flag, its dangerous.

 

He was offended by size?

if size was the issue why was she told she can put the flag back up and not a smaller flag
and how do you be offended by size?

 

Apparently "big enough to be seen by anyone" is offenive. You need one the size of a pin head that can't be seen without a maginfying glass to not be "offensive".