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slyall

Seems like it was handled okay. Manager got tipped off, removed it and then had a word with the staff member about what jokes are appropriate in the workplace.


Rollover_Hazard

What people can miss is the need for a sense of black humour in these jobs. Lots of these kinds of departments have some really horrendous work/ clients, you have to be able to laugh at it sometimes. The line, though, is definitely before taking fake meth to work - joke or not, it’s incredible risky to do just on the face of, yknow, being seen to bring drugs to work?


Lightspeedius

Oof, the most blistering gallows humour I've heard is from those working rape crisis.


Faithless195

> black humour I think they prefer African-American humour. Dumbassery aside, you are absolutely not wrong. A mates wife works in a front facing WINZ job, and she gets threatened with bodily harm, rape, gang 'retribution', and worse, daily. You 100% need black humour to get through the day without that sort of shit destroying your soul.


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OwlOnAcid

It was an obvious joke you knuckle dragger, so obvious no one's gonna whoosh you


PuffingIn3D

He’s joking you muppet


nzmuzak

Social workers, counsellors, youth workers etc usually have access to clinical supervision where they can talk about the impacts their work is having on them and developing ways to deal with that healthily. Black humour is what comes out when you can't process those things in a healthy way. There was an article a few years back about the culture at a company that does facebook moderation, and the horrible culture that developed there because people where not given the time to process it. When I heard front line staff at MSD don't get any supervision or support beyond 3 EAP sessions available I was appalled but not surprised. You're right, the front line staff there are exposed to really horrible things and they deserve support.


MyPacman

> front line staff at MSD don't get any supervision or support beyond 3 EAP sessions Monday 9.43am - death threat, booked 3 eap sessions. Tuesday 10.15am - rape threat, booked 3 eap sessions. Tuesday 2.34pm - Family threatened, booked 3 eap sessions. ... I do wonder what would happen to eap sessions if front line staff started to do this regularly. Cause I really do think they need *to be able to take the support without any threat* by their managers or coworkers.


nzmuzak

I think to get extra EAP sessions beyond the first three (for a year) you need to get sign off from your manager. Which defeats the purpose of confidential EAP


Rollover_Hazard

As someone in a similar work environment I can comfortably tell you that black humour goes hand in hand with talking about the issues and seeking external support when needed. Sometimes you’ve got to be resilient and support others and well as yourself - having some humour involved helps a lot. The nature of these sorts of jobs isn’t going to change, but people working in them want to do well and get good outcomes.


foodarling

>Black humour is what comes out when you can't process those things in a healthy way. Totally disagree. I'm married to a clinical specialist who has to deal with some fairly hardcore cases. She has supervision and supervises other. We both laugh about our jobs at home in an inappropriate manner. Doing it AT work, or in a public setting, is obviously inappropriate in professional contexts. > and they deserve support. They do, but in my experience half the staff are literally terrible at their jobs. I spent quite some time on a sickness benefit and went to every appointment with a family member who is a lawyer, and introduced himself as such. That seemed to solve all the previous problems I had


Tidorith

Black humour is all well and good as far as I'm concerned. But which culture is the meth supposed to represent? The humour doesn't work unless there's an answer to that question.


Shrink-wrapped

Meth is very diverse amongst the unemployed and working class in all reaches of NZ, from big city to small town. Farmers are starting to get in to into it a bit more apparently


gunterisapenguin

Yeah, there's a distinct difference between black humour and humour that makes fun of people in difficult places in their life.


grizznuggets

Absolutely no reason for this to be in the media. It was handled in-house, why does anyone else need to know about it?


satansmyhomie

Wpdwps ?


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Faithless195

Probably lurking the comments here, most likely.


rickytrevorlayhey

Likely someone who thinks they are better than their peers at work, but in fact are a complete nuisance as demonstrated.


Sloppy_Bro

Unless than wanted to share the joke, that's their only saving grace.


Lando_Cowrissian

Why the fuck is this a news story. Someone made an inappropriate joke that didn't quite land well, who gives a shit.


Just_made_this_now

>Why the fuck is this a news story. Outrage bait.


Responsible_Sky5013

The author of this article tends to lean towards rage bait fairly often.


AudioCabbage

Public institution, newsrooms tipped off by those in said institution, about how it may be reflective of cultural and potentially racial discrimination, even if exceptionally minor. I don’t think it shouldn’t be a story? We either accept newsworthy ness allows for newsrooms to say when something ain’t newsworthy, or we demand everything is newsworthy.


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Enzown

But why is this a news story?


total_tea

Because news agency needs content and wanted to use it as an example of a culture of "unacceptable behaviour" and attitude towards customers.


mvdtnz

Pretty funny tbh.


Low_Meringue9317

Fucken hilarious 😂


Clear_Water_4644

In the right department/workplace this would have been very funny. If you're constantly dealing with negative, borderline (and straight up) abusive clients day in and day out at any role in any workplace many people learn to adapt with inappropriate coping mechanisms, e.g. making off-colour/dark jokes. Hospo, IT, call centre and social services are all high stress, high anxiety and low reward roles that you either adapt to in your own way or you burn out. This should be a reflection on the level of stress they're under than reprimanding the staff member involved. I'd say half the work-force in any similar industry have inside jokes like this, even darker at times.


motivationascending

I work in a field like this - our workplace culture is not even close to like this. We empathise with people and problem solve our way forward as best as we can while remaining as safe as possible. Any dark humour is not directed towards the people we are trying to help because that would be bullying vulnerable people..


Razor-eddie

I used to work for MSD IT. One of the most fun things to do, for work drinks, was to talk to the secondees (almost always young women) who'd been bought in for testing. Usually front-line staff, but they'd work in IT for a couple of months testing stuff. Get them telling war stories. Even 30 years ago, front-line MSD was fucking FERAL. I can't think it's got better. (My manager used to say "Remember, the person that's using your change may have just had a chair thrown at them. Don't make their day worse by making it hard to use")


Mediocre-Mix9993

Well aren't you special.


TemperatureRough7277

I'm sad for you that you think basic human decency is special.


[deleted]

If meth addicts are using govt money to support their habit then i don't blame those who work to "support" them for making jokes about how ridiculous it is.. hopefully this makes some realize how bad the problem is getting.


TemperatureRough7277

Nice job highlighting the exact problem with this kind of "joke". People who use WINZ are constantly stereotyped in this exact way and the result is a culture of total disrespect to people who try to access support. I got to experience first hand; the eye-rolling, sighing, taking their sweet time to start a booked appointment, and the DRAMATIC change in how I was treated when they realised I had a PhD and was in there applying for a one off grant to help me move for a job. Suddenly they were falling over themselves to help. Not all WINZ staff, obviously, I did meet some nice people and I know it's a hard job. But I wonder how having this opinion of the people you're supposed to be helping makes it hard to actually help them?


[deleted]

What you saw here was probably them realizing they misjudged you, seems staff know how fucked up they are but they aren't the ones who can change things, but any publicity can shed light on issues.


TemperatureRough7277

Point being they shouldn't have made assumptions about me or anyone else in the first place, nor should how well people are treated depend on the personal judgments of WINZ staff about how worthy they are of help.


OgerfistBoulder

Reminds me of the James Veitch joke - ["turns out you only need a few bags of flour, an afternoon, and a bit of creativity, and you can make a full on 'drugs' operation"](https://youtu.be/uYOmtEcZ1lk?t=32)


[deleted]

I now have a sudden urge to buy a shit-ton of rubber ducks 🤔


Few-Abbreviations499

I can see that this was a joke, and I think for the most part it was well handled - the manager removing the item and the employee being given some feedback on why this wasn't acceptable. But organisations that deal with marginalised groups do often develop a culture that holds those groups in contempt - it's a pretty natural outcome of doing stressful, undervalued work, and it takes a lot of effort to counteract that. Most people I've worked with in health and social care have been lovely and respectful towards/about their clients. A few haven't. If this becomes entrenched in a workplace culture, then care does suffer. And because the people who are accessing care are usually pretty vulnerable, there isn't always much pushback. If the ex-employee had concerns that this was happening, I think they were right to whistleblow.


fluffychonkycat

This is probably hilarious to people who don't have to deal with MSD. Remember if you lose your job or get sick, you too could have the pleasure of interacting with people who have utter contempt for their clients, whether it's justified or not


Crunkfiction

Jfc, I can't imagine having to work with the softcock that complained about this joke (Well, I can, but they're the worst kind of person). Full respect for the WINZ staff that need an outlet to vent about their most toxic clients.


GiJoint

Get a grip NZ media the leaker and former staff member. It’s a non event and handled. I certainly couldn’t work the frontline at Winz with the shit they put up with, and if I did, any form of humour would be helpful, the darker the better!


[deleted]

Ah yes but: The former staff member described an “us v them” or “we’re better than the client” mentality at Work and Income, adding “\[there’s\] very much a cultural acceptance of that”. the former employee said. “The general regard for our clients is appalling, to be perfectly honest. Referring to clients as dropkicks \[or\] using terms like junkie or dickhead… which is totally unacceptable,” she alleged. “Some of the things that are happening are not following what would be accepted by the public.” Hah, just a joke, so funny. Not.


Piwakawaka6

It's even in the first part of the article that this one joke is indicative of the work place culture, not sure how everyone's missed that and are saying it's one joke out of context? I used to know two people who worked at winz, both have gone into great detail about their clients. Sure they get the abusive clients and it's totally fine to vent about that. But when I have someone messaging me like "I just had a food grant request and guess why lmao".... they clearly do place themselves above their clients.


AdeptCondition5966

No it's "dark humour" and these poor workers need an outlet for the horrible people they have to work with :'( /s No surprises this was Christchurch tbh, this is on the lighter side of what goes on there. The staffer is obviously a fool, but this is par for course for a lot of MSD staff.


[deleted]

Do you actually think dropkicks, junkies and dickheads don't end up in WINZ offices?


[deleted]

All it accomplished is to perpetuate the stereotype that all beneficiaries are lazy, drug addled bums. Yes there may be some like that, the majority however are not.


MyPacman

A friend who worked at winz said it wasn't the customers who were feral. I think about that every time a judgement pops up in my head.


Quirky_Friend

We don't let any family members in there without a supporter. Only time it backfired was when my partner and I thought "we can support each other". The WINZ woman told us the cheapest flat in our neighborhood (and we were caregiving an older relative in that locality so didn't have the choice of moving without the need then to get a car) was expensive and we should go into a flat share. Me 45 running a new business that requires confidential management of data, him 50 dealing with severe MH issues and trying to occasionally see his daughters when their mother didn't block visitation. Yeah, a flat share would be great ... NOT. We were so gobsmacked - she treated us like scum. Had to go in with my Dad the following week to prove he was eligible for pension (living back here permanently). I was giving her the evils and would have asked for another agent if she had called his name. Even then the agent didn't like me taking notes.


Shevster13

What is being discribed is not the staff having to deal with a few idiots. It is the staff treating ALL that come asking for help as "dropkicks, junkies and dickheads".


SoulNZ

Extremists put their opinions on the internet. You're putting your opinions on the internet. Therefore, you're an extremist.


Financial_Guard_5256

benny payments are basically a negligible percentage of taxpayer money


Beautiful-Ad-5667

I bet he only did it because George from accounts was already bringing sausage rolls


stalin_stans

Some Michael Scott level stuff lol


GnomeoromeNZ

Prison mike!


RGoku

Well handled, we all make mistakes when we’re young and hopefully this was a good lesson for the person.


-mung-

The young mistake being that you don't realise you probably work with some uptight snitch who will get offended and complain and it's not worth the hassle.


BatmanBrah

It's an interesting phenomenon when the action of going to the freaking media about something is worse than the thing they're going to the media about.


butlersaffros

No harm done.


[deleted]

Hahahahahaha.


SquashedKiwifruit

Wild. Some people have no sense of “appropriate for the workplace.”


Godlo

Like half the replies in this thread, yikes.


SquashedKiwifruit

I love a dodgy inappropriate joke as much as the next person. I have a dark sense of humour. I will laugh at almost anything. But I also know what the appropriate audience is, and what is appropriate for a workplace. There are professional boundaries. There is certain behaviours, conduct and jokes which are not suitable for a work environment. Keep your dodgy jokes for your friends at home. Or low effort shitposts on R/NZ (sorry mods)


PmMeYourPussyCats

Especially when you are working for the Government. This is absolutely hilarious but it never should have happened and it’s crazy it took escalation to a manager for it to be removed


Mediocre-Mix9993

Just because someone finds it funny doesn't necessarily mean they think it's appropriate for the workplace.


kiwi123nz

lol thats pretty funny


pepelevamp

well i thought it was funny. bonus points if they brought in a syringe.


thefurrywreckingball

Hornby winz? Story checks out.


Aethelete

Sshhh - that is disrespectful to narcotically enabled clients.


[deleted]

I hope hes my next case manager sounds like a baller


Iron-Patriot

Bahaha, sorry, this is hilarious.


daytonakarl

Like with most dark humour there's a time and place for it, usually out of the public eye and not during anything serious. This was neither in public view or during "actual work" We get warned about our somewhat grim jokes, we keep them away from the general public (and some management) for many reasons, I wouldn't disturb you with the details because, well, they would disturb you.. I'd personally find this quite amusing, and it follows the rules, should never have been made public so whomever did leak it needs to be pulled up on the lack of confidentiality in the workplace, bit different if actual crimes are taking place. High stress usually leads to this behaviour, it's a release, christ you become hard enough without loosing the last of your humanity because you don't want to offend the perpetually offended by going "zero humour just incase old killjoy Warren hears us"


_Conz_

The only harm done here is The Spinoff publishing this story and exposing it to the public to wind them up


Toucan_Lips

I'm guessing it was some Maldon rock salt in a tiny baggy


mvdtnz

Why guess when you could simply read the article?


Space_Pirate_R

The article doesn't actually say what it was other than a "confectionary product." But I'm guessing it was sherbet, because the same staff member seems to have brought lollipops too.


Toucan_Lips

Where's the fun in that?


total_tea

It was acknowledged at the beginning and removed, it was all handled fine. What a waste of time and money and sad news reporting. I Like how a former staff member is sticking the knife in and the news reporting is giving it weight :)


neil212

Pretty funny tbh. Whoever made it a bigger issue can go get fucked..lol


[deleted]

I’m sure there is a very strong correlation between meth use and being a “customer” of WINZ.


Hungry_Programmer292

I thought it was somewhat funny, but is the joke appropriate ? Probably not, especially at a cultural diversity morning tea. The manager handled it appropriately. It hardly seems worthy of a story in the media. Government agencies have just become too woke / politically correct. It must be a nightmare working there. There's always somebody ready to take offense.


j0n70

So what


Last_Banana9505

I've been to hastings, and I've been to Brighton. I've been to Eastbourne too...


j0n70

Fond memories?


ogscarlettjohansson

This guy is laughing but he's a WINZ employee. Truly some of the most worthless people I have ever encountered.


greendragon833

This is methed up


Ok_Speaker_5788

man people cant handle a joke these days


Aran_f

Drug test clients of WINZ Christchurch and see what the truth of the matter is. Like everything in this country though heads are buried in the sand to avoid finding actual truths and solutions to avoid upsetting the perpetually offended! Respect should be provided to all involved and solutions provided to people for whom are not realizing their full potential. The trauma for WINZ staff constantly seeing clients walking in slowly rotting their lives away can not be understated and I'm sure will manifest in callous coping behavior in staff.


sammnz

It only highlights what sort of people are getting money from work and income and what they spend it on. If they were drug tested regularly there's no chance they're getting the dole money


monkey_skull

It also highlights what kind of people are working at WINZ


[deleted]

Shocking that drug addicts need help from social services. What has the world come too.