A Downward Trajectory?
I recently relocated from London to a small town in Scotland for work. The move is good for my career – I get to spend time doing practical engineering work as my new role is more field-based. Of course, I knew moving would complicate things in other ways – flying to Bangladesh from this place is a logistical nightmare, and trying to get visas to other parts of the world is even worse. Admittedly, I’ve never actually lived in a small town so part of me has been looking forward to the experience. On the other hand, I knew a place like this would have some downsides compared to the UK’s more cosmopolitan capital. The posts I’ve published on the blog so far have mostly been positive, and thus in a way I’m almost glad to be talking about something negative for a change.
Of course, people in the office are as pleasant as ever. Most of my new team and other co-workers I socialise with know about my male partner, and my sexuality has been a complete non-issue. This includes my boss, who has been happy to give me advice on approaching my career and a long distance relationship. I’ve even tried dropping hints to let them know I’m bisexual (though I’m not 100% sure they’ve understood!). The environment on site, however, has been more complicated. One of the field offices, for example, has a poster up complaining about political correctness and how some people hide behind discrimination all the time. I’ve been witness to small occurrences of racism and homophobia, and a more poignant episode of sexism. None of it was particularly shocking: the racism involved a white co-worker aping a “typical Indian accent” to tease someone about their food choices. He wasn’t making fun of South Asians per se, but I’d argue the imitation was inappropriate nonetheless – laughter at the expense of someone else’s language skills. The homophobia was similarly casual, where one of a group of older white men seemed to be using “shirt-lifter” as a neutral substitute for the word gay. They were discussing a gay man they knew and it seemed to be more a case of ignorance as opposed to directed malice but again: the original term has historically been a homophobic slur.
The sexism was a little more elaborate, and involved a group of reasonably senior men on site discussing the attractiveness of women in the office and detailing what they liked or disliked about several individuals. I don’t expect a male-only team (a sad but common engineering demographic) not to talk about women, but I wouldn’t expect that talk to include women who are colleagues or the conversation to go into such physical minutiae while on the clock. Furthermore, I’ve spent extended periods of time on site before, and I haven’t encountered anything like any of these scenarios on those occasions. Sadly, the trend in the field seems to be something replicated in the town itself. A group of white teenagers decided to have a party at my apartment complex this weekend, and I walked through a bit of “Indian accent” banter on the way to my front door.
Of course, nothing that has happened so far is something that couldn’t happen in London – in fact I’ve heard of people having similar if not worse experiences down there too. But what I describe here is my experience of Scotland as it currently stands, and if I’m being honest I have to say it’s been a mixed experience. Nothing yet has happened that I can’t deal with and I’m hoping it’ll stay that way. In the meantime, perhaps I will be able to tactfully bring up some these episodes at work, and maybe it will bring about a little bit of awareness and positive change.
The sexism was a little more elaborate, and involved a group of reasonably senior men on site discussing the attractiveness of women in the office and detailing what they liked or disliked about several individuals. I don’t expect a male-only team (a sad but common engineering demographic) not to talk about women, but I wouldn’t expect that talk to include women who are colleagues or the conversation to go into such physical minutiae while on the clock. Furthermore, I’ve spent extended periods of time on site before, and I haven’t encountered anything like any of these scenarios on those occasions. Sadly, the trend in the field seems to be something replicated in the town itself. A group of white teenagers decided to have a party at my apartment complex this weekend, and I walked through a bit of “Indian accent” banter on the way to my front door.
Of course, nothing that has happened so far is something that couldn’t happen in London – in fact I’ve heard of people having similar if not worse experiences down there too. But what I describe here is my experience of Scotland as it currently stands, and if I’m being honest I have to say it’s been a mixed experience. Nothing yet has happened that I can’t deal with and I’m hoping it’ll stay that way. In the meantime, perhaps I will be able to tactfully bring up some these episodes at work, and maybe it will bring about a little bit of awareness and positive change.
