Political Correctness in Germany? Naaaah!

We all know what constitutes 'sexual harassment' and a 'politically incorrect' comment, right? We think it is important to be extra careful at work, right? Well, not in Germany!

Recently one of the guys in my office (Phelix) moved rooms... so they had cake and a bit of a 'do'. At the beginning point there were only four people in the room - Timo (my team lead), Wibke (my other team lead), Phelix and I. While waiting for people to arrive Timo started scribbling on a white board. He drew a stick-figure and under it he wrote "Wibke" followed by a speech bubble in which he wrote "I like Phelix"... so then everyone started giggling and discussing other possibilities such as "Wibke + Phelix = XXX"... I mean as such it was all funny, but I kept on thinking what if something like this happened at IBM?!

Today during a "whole company"-meeting the CEO was sitting down and one of our higher-up gay managers wheeled his chair to sit nearby. And the CEO jokingly says "Oh no you don't - don't you dare sit next to me - I know you!" :)

This so much reminds me of Russia where terms of 'racism'/'political correctness' basically do not differ from normal communication. As such everyone at work seems to be having fun and not having to think about what you say is almost empowering, but for my Aussie professional-upbringing it comes as a bit of shock.