Farts are pretty funny. Let’s just admit that right now. But, of course, only when you’re the one ripping ’em.
When someone else lets one go in your presence, it’s disgusting.
If it’s someone you know, you have a variety of options. You can hit them back with a smelly retaliation. You can tell them what a gross, disgusting, inconsiderate pig they are. Or you can simply leave.
However, what if you were trapped in a room with someone? And they kept farting? At what point does it become a form of harassment?
Thanks to a court in Australia, we still don’t know the answer because they recently ruled that repeatedly farting in the same workspace as your co-worker is not bullying.
I’ve had some co-workers who shamelessly fill the air with their fragrance (you know who you are), but it never got to a point where I thought about taking legal action.
Now, sure, if you were to grab your co-workers head, force it down to your butt and cut one loose on their head, that could be considered bullying. Funny, but also possibly assault.
Lighting farts on fire? Hilarious at Christmas parties. Although not specifically mentioned in most employer’s handbooks, generally considered a violation against personal conduct policies.
But David Hingst says he was forced to share a windowless office with a co-worker who would allegedly let the smelly ducks he was smuggling in his pants quack all day long.
Hingst tried to escape.
Hingst says he moved to another office, but the odoriferous offender would come into his new office and crop-dust him several times a day.
“He would fart behind me and walk away. He would do this five or six times a day. He thrusted his bum at me while he was at work,” Hingst told local media.
Hingst even tried spraying the farter with deodorant to counter the farts. Which, if it was Axe Body Spray, well we can all agree that’s worse than actual farts, right?
You can only push a man so far before he pushes back. But rather than go home and eat a bunch of garlic and baked beans to arm himself for the next day (like a normal person would do), Hingst filed a lawsuit instead. A $1.8 million AUD ($1.2 million American Dollars) lawsuit.
Hingst claimed the non-stop butt jazz a form of bullying.
The court did not agree and ruled the alleged farter was not bullying Hingst, nor was the construction company where they worked negligently. Adding “whoever smelt it, dealt it.”
Hingst came back with a “nah uh, whoever supplied it denied it!”
Ok, that last part didn’t happen. But it should’ve.
The accused claimed he never recalled farting in Hingst’s office but did say it could’ve happened “once or twice.”
This all took place more than 13 years ago, too. Hingst was let go from his job back in 2006. He claims it was because of the fart bullying. The company says it was because of a “downturn in the construction industry.”
At any rate, fart away at work. It’s not bullying. And for a little inspiration, here’s some video of people farting in public through the eyes of The Predator. (Yeah, the video is fake, but still… even digitally inserted gas clouds are funny.)
Cory Howard 