Wednesday, Nov. 19,2008 10:42 p.m.
It’s a fact of life that supervisors sometimes make their employees
perform menial, pointless tasks. Whether it’s brewing another pot of
coffee or putting cover sheets on reports, employees always like to say
that these things waste their time.
At the University of California at Irvine, a biology professor has
stretched this excuse too far. Alexander McPherson, one of the leading
scientists in
protein research, stands to lose his tenure if he does not agree to
attend sexual harassment prevention training, which is mandated by law
for all public and private businesses with 50 or more employees.
McPherson believes that the training session is a waste of his time and
that it casts suspicion on his character. We think McPherson’s logic is
backward. By not attending the sessions, he only makes himself appear
to be more of a creeper, and by taking such a public stance against
something so simple and straightforward, he is wasting everyone’s time.