102.1 - who's listening?

Every morning on the way to work I listen to the Dean Blundell radio show on 102.1 the edge. It is a male dominated morning show that prides itself on being raunchy, disgusting and chauvinistic. It’s mostly harmless and it can be quite funny. Today, they introduced a new female intern onto the show and in their usual banter of inappropriate questions they ran down a list of similarly inappropriate tasks that would be included in their duties, most of which included breaking wind in each other’s offices. This was all well and good until I found out that the intern is a 22 year old girl. As a female listener, I take all of their nonsense with a grain of salt, but something inside of me wonders what will happen when you throw a young girl into the mix. What role will she play? Would she be relentlessly harassed because she was good-looking, young and new to the workplace or is she there to be “one of the boys”? Clearly sensationalism sells listenership. And, freedom of speech.... yes, I get it. Hey, I’m listening! But what accountability does 102.1 have to upholding fair, non-discriminatory workplace and broadcasting practices (and frankly common sense) as it relates to gender. And, through the popularization of misogyny with their dominantly male audience, does this not just serve to build the back room alpha boy banter?

So, I challenge the folks at 102.1 to take our Walk the Talk employee survey launching July 7th at www.marketyourselfsmarter.com . Or, send us a note and tell us where you stand on this.

Walk the Talk Revisited

Well, the 2007 Walk the Talk survey is now open and will be until September 27th. If you have something to say about your employer-- good or bad-- we want to hear from you. If you have a good news story you can nominate your employer today. This year we will be featuring the Walk the Talk survey highlights at our upcoming Think Tank events-- The Ideal Workplace of the Future: The 2007 Employee’s Perspective scheduled for October 18th in Toronto and Nov. 1st in Vancouver.

If you are an Employer, take advantage of this opportunity to give your employees a voice.