This is the harassment edition.

 Racial harassment is at record levels in the United States, more than doubling since the 1990s, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The cause of the increase is under debate. Options presented in order in no particular order: 1 video games that glorify acts of hate (it’s mentioned in the article); 2 a workplace influx of Gen Y—a generation supposedly less tolerant of mistreatment than Boomers (or Gen X, apparently); 3 a sense that Blacks have achieved “enough” and a backlash against “enough”; and 4 an economy that sucks. (I’d vote for the economy as the likely source here, as people always seem to target others to take out their frustration when the economy sucks, but #3 has some merit too).

Two female former executives with Bell Canada have launched a lawsuit claiming harassment, which included all sorts of inappropriate language, exclusion, and a martial-arts retreat with full body contact. (That sort of typifies why I don’t like workplace retreats. People seem to throw many of the rules for behavior out the window just because they’re in the woods.) Oooh, here’s a lovely detail: one of them had her annual review right after being told she had cancer and was criticized for being “overly emotional.” That sounds a bit familiar.