Lede
Respect gets printed on posters. Contempt shows up at the meeting table.

What does not make sense

• Diversity slides at town halls, while racists still sit in corner offices.
• Preaching tolerance, but promoting the loudest bully in the room.
• Rules about respect that only punish the weak, never the boss.
• Pretending competence comes with skin colour, surname, or swagger.
• The quiet ones carrying the work, while the spitfire clowns carry the title.

Sense check

Respect is not a slogan. It is daily proof: in tone, in pay, in listening. If someone cannot respect colleagues, they do not deserve leadership. Competence without character rots culture. And character is not tested by how you treat equals, but how you treat the ones you think cannot push back.

The sketch

• Scene one: HR poster: “Respect for all.”
• Scene two: Manager sneers at a junior’s accent, colleagues glance away.
• Scene three: The “top boss” stumbles through a chart he does not understand, while the real work sits silent in the back row.

What to watch, not the show

• “Unconscious bias” workshops that never reach the conscious bullies.
• Promotion by loudness, not by skill.
• Respect tested only when cameras are off.
• Workplaces that brand “inclusion” but punish dissent.

The Hermit take

Respect is not owed to the title. It is owed to the human. Lose that, and no chart or logo saves you.

Keep or toss

Toss the posters. Keep the proof.