This has been posted on www.accountingweb.co.uk, but it has been suggested to me that the members here may be interested in this subject too.

I have a colleague who annually has an FHM girly calendar on his wall. I object to this as being both unprofessional and sexist – but the general consenus among the (entirely male) partners is that he has always done so and will be retiring in a couple of years anyway (which they are looking forward to). Do I really have to put up with this? This month’s is Carmen Electra in a wet t-shirt and skimpy knickers…

The said picture that I find offensive can be found at http://img228.exs.cx/img228/3946/20041106carmen068mf.jpg for those who want to look.

I do object as I find this portrayal of women as sex-objects inappropriate in an office that employs women. I did ask him to buy a different calendar for this year which he promised (views of Tenerife was actually promised) and then he re-bought the FHM. I joined the office mid last-year.

The desk calendar he has is purely seen by him and I have no objection to that. It is the large pictures on the wall that I find so offensive.

Whilst these are freely available in the shops I must say I have never been in WHSmith and found it unavoidable to look at a scantily clad woman in a sexually provocative pose.

I don’t see why my only options are to put up with it until he retires in a couple of years time or walk out of a job I love otherwise.

And no I don’t propose to put up a calendar of sexually provocative young men to deal with the problem as I don’t think that would be appropriate either – and I’m just guessing my mostly male clientele might just make comments, some of which could be very unwelcome….

“Rachel”