That makes more sense, actually. I haven't heard a person use the term "Oriental" for a group of people in several decades. Makes sense that it's from an old (and stupid) joke.
Much more common outside the US, where it's not seen as a slur at all. It's commonly used to differentiate the "Far East" (China, Japan, etc) from the rest of Asia (India, etc).
It does technically mean "from the east", after all.
But yeah, you'll see it everywhere in the U.K. for example
I guess if your only metric is what people are willing to say in front of you then it probably works but you know what they say about metrics...
In general, going for the passive aggressive nuclear option and involving some external authority as your first step is almost never* the right thing to do if you want to actually solve the problem.
In the context of things that shouldn't be said in the workplace doing that creates distrust that prevents people from speaking freely which inevitably works its way into everywhere and affects performance.
A recent 60 Minutes episode focused on employees in IT that were replaced H1-B Visa contractors. What the reporter failed to notice, or mention, is that every terminated employee was over 50 (my estimate based on appearance).