One key difference: once the PR woman realized she’d tweeted something that people found horribly offensive she didn’t repeatedly insist that it was actually really funny. Maybe I’d feel more charitable toward the guys in this video if they’d responded with an “oh, sorry” after being confronted about their shameful behavior.
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I definitely concede that point.
But I still think it’s important to remember that people sometimes do uncharacteristic things, particularly when they’re drunk and in groups. And even if it’s not uncharacteristic I still don’t like the idea of ruining their lives because of all the other misogynist guys we can’t punish.
People who are old enough and smart enough to make 6 figures are old enough and smart enough to know better.
If there’s a thing as Karma, a deserving junior woman from his team will now be promoted to fill the position.
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I hope he’s having a sense of humor about it; I mean, it IS fucking hilarious.
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That certainly has more a-peel.
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Oh Canada.
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As the reporter said on the video, this is something that happens to her multiple times every single day. Civilized people are getting sick and tired of this sort of behavior being explained away all the time because the perpetrators are “just ordinary guys”.
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I could maybe say okay to that, if the people in question were 18. In their thirties? Fuck 'em. No sympathy if you can be aiming toward middle age and still be an arse.
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I’ll be honest here: I wouldn’t hire someone like him.
First of all, I don’t want anyone working for me who would make or has made such comments. To me it suggest a somewhat chauvinistic attitude which could potentially cause friction in the workplace. Second, having such an individual associated with my company (especially after publicly being recorded making such comments) would reflect poorly on the firm itself in the eyes of the public.
I appreciate **aluchko’**s comment about these being “just ordinary guys who just did something really awful and stupid.” But, in my view, if they were drunk, it merely means that they were not bright enough to know how much liquor they could hold; and why would I employ such irresponsible idiots?
So frankly, I can’t really blame his company for letting him go.
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Is it bad that I wish she whipped out a Taser?
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Exactly. I recently went from working for a very small business owned by two people, where I’d like to think that since we were so small, and often fairly inappropriate when clients weren’t around, that the context of firing me for saying something douchey wouldn’t exist. Now, I work for a VERY large company where “Brand Image” is extremely important. We have a code of conduct, part of which is that if I do something as a representative of the company, or even in my free time, that makes the company look bad, and works to the detriment of the image of the company, I can be ass-canned with barely a blink of the eyes. I know this, and I have to assume, so did Mr. Six-Figure-Douche. Part of the employment contract is usually that you avoid making your employers look like ass-hats by association.
Doesn’t matter if I’m drunk. Doesn’t matter if I’m surrounded by douches. I’m fundamentally responsible for safeguarding the image of the company, as was Mr. Douche I suspect…
The lesson may be “If you’re going to be a misogynist ass, don’t do it where you are recognizable by the masses”. Better yet, just don’t.
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I’m not saying the behaviour should be ignored, I’m saying the video should go viral and there should be a public consensus that what they did is absolutely awful.
But my point is that ordinary guys are often absolutely awful, and they are lead by other ordinary guys to believe that their behaviour is fine. The guys in the video are literally oblivious to the fact their behaviour is unacceptable, I don’t think trying to ruin their lives is an appropriate punishment. I think it’s sufficient to make it very clear that their behaviour is unacceptable, it also keeps the discussion on topic and avoids discussions of overreactions.
What if they were already working for you? If he was already a disruptive misogynist in the workplace then go ahead. But if you hadn’t had a problem already then there’s no reason to think that will change. People can compartmentalize fairly easily and I like the idea that people’s can keep their work and private lives separate.
I get this happens but I don’t really agree with it.
It’s easy to condemn these guys because they did something we all disagree with. But what if they’re a peaceful but radical Muslim? What if they’re into BDSM? If they’re a former porn actor/actress or stripper? Or simply a particularly flaming homosexual?
I think we need a bit of a cultural consensus that no one represents the views of a company except spokespeople or high ranking executives. Nor is it the business of the company to discipline people for doing bad things in their private lives.
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I wish him luck explaining to his wife or girlfriend why he lost his job, too. And to the unemployment benefits folks when he applies.
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The fact that it happens frequently and gets explained away as the perps being “just ordinary guys” is why terms like “rape culture” were invented.
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I hope that’s a shower cap.
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Not sure if his firing allows unemployment benefits–not familiar with Ontario labour laws. But it wouldn’t follow under wrongful firing if worded properly. And if that’s the case I don’t think he gets any benefits.
He’s union worker to what I can gather.
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In my experience, for what it’s worth, drunkeness brings out the “real person” in a lot of cases. If a drunk dude turns into a raving misogynist when he’s had too many, it’s a sure bet that’s how he feels/thinks most of the time, and it’s just his conscious keeping it in check.
YMMV
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Fuck your privilege (can’t believe I’m saying these words)
People like me have to work with assholes like that. I think it’s awesome that a guy like that is exposed, he was catcalling and offending women in public on the belief that nothing would happen to him. It’s not like a bad twit. This guy wasn’t nearly drunk enough to not be held responsible for his behavior. And if he was falling on the sidewalk drunk he would be fired too, because he would have a problem with knowing his limits.
Enough. No more. The guy that is the asshole in the streets is the guy that talks shit at work and every woman around him has to pretend that she didn’t hear that.
Maybe he can reflect about his life, not put himself in an eternal oh woe is me mindset, learn something and grow the fuck up.
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When that happens, those videos go viral and these good old boys get fired due to that, then I welcome that discussion. Playing the “What If” game is fun for a while but tiring ad-nauseum.
Thankfully we have here a concrete example. These good old boys who were just out having a good time not causing no one no harm, are being misjudged by the actual actions they took, the actual things they did, caught on camera for posterity. Oops.
People being judged (in the public eye and by peers) is a thing we as societies do. Freedom of speech, not freedom from consequences.
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Strawman. All these things are consensual. Religion and sexuality are private matters. Being an harassing bully douche is definitely non consensual.
Believe me when I say that I haven’t known a six figure machist male that hasn’t felt safe and entitled enough to demonstrate it at work. I have 20 years of experience and never ever ever saw something like a closeted misogynist. Ever.
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