The first comment was for your exboss- the second for today’s idjuts.
Sorry for the confusion
1 Like
Ah, ok.
Yes, I agree that it was a dick move.
I feel like you’re having an argument about something very personal to you, and not something particularly appropriate to this particular instance. This guy didn’t post something online, under his real name or otherwise. He was identified by his face. He was on camera. I’m pretty sure it would not be too hard to dig up people who lost their jobs because of hateful shit they said in vox pops on TV long before the internet made it into people’s homes.
13 Likes
Exactly. Saying you are into cannibalism (wasn’t there a case of that in like Germany or something recently?) is beyond human norms. Like child molestation or declarations of intended murder or jihad (the bad kind). Outrageous comments may be legal, but you have to live with the repercussions of yelling “FIRE!” in the theater (assuming there is no fire ahem).
There are shades of grey as to acceptability in places and times and cultures and so on, but respect and good fellowship and understanding should be the goals, not a over-the-top-racist rant (on camera!) If you are too stupid to avoid saying that crap straight to the camera, then you are going to have to accept others imposing consequences on you, sorry [not much, not really, christ what an asshole!])
On the other hand, Trump seems to be able to spin that garbage into gold, so wtf do I know.
7 Likes
Maybe the lesson is “don’t repeatedly bring up your employment status as proof of your social worth during a public racist tirade if you don’t want your employer to weigh in on your behavior.”
13 Likes
So you think the linchpin here is he mentioned he had a job repeatedly and if he hadn’t, his employer wouldn’t have fired him?
1 Like
The lesson is the same lesson we’ve always had: That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.
Pretty simple, really.
3 Likes
Maybe. In the very least I think it would have been less likely that said behavior would have been brought to the attention of his employer.
2 Likes
So if I go to a street protest, like the Occupy ones that we had here in Oakland, and my employer finds out about it because I wind up in a youtube video of it, it’s cool if they fire me?
That’s basically what people are justifying here.
Yes, this guy is a grade a asshole. That isn’t in question. What I’m questioning is whether getting caught being a grade a asshole on your own time doing things unrelated to your work makes it acceptable to fire you. The collective answer here seems to be “hell, yes.”
Part of the problem is that not everything that one does that people don’t like is clearly as assholish as this. There are a lot of gray line out there, hence my mention of the Leather Association (or Occupy).
And, yeah, I know people who have gotten fired from work because of having the wrong politics and the company owner didn’t like it. That wasn’t cool either.
9 Likes
That’s possibly true.
It’s less about his doing it on his own time than the place he chose to do it. If this guy had kept his racist BS with his family and friends and in comment sections it wouldn’t have cost him his job.
Instead he decided to take his trolling out amongst his opponents and forgot that saying “n*gger” in public (especially with cameras present, as they always are) is different than posting it in a chat room or bloviating at his regular bar. No company wants to be associated with a racist viral sensation.
The only thing that might have saved his job was union membership, but I’d be willing to wager he’s likely the sort of blue collar shmoe who votes GOP and who think unions are evil.
9 Likes
No, the rule of thumb is don’t do it in front of a camera that can stream your stupid, unpopular or arsehole things to millions of people. Which basically means don’t do it in public.
1 Like
I wonder if it’s just the whole package, but he probably would have been fine if he had just yelled at the protestors about getting a job, etc. But staying there so long, continuing with racist epithets and monkey noises over and over, a minor physical assault of the camera man (it’s a public road, you can’t expect privacy in public, sir). It goes on and on and on. ugh like those comments… shivers. Then he tells the Mom to raise her kid with morals. Like he evidently lacked. I didn’t understand her reply, but I bet it was something like “I am. That is why we are here protesting and trying to keep kids safe from fracking.”
He’ll be on FoxNEWS before new years and may get a coveted time slot for his new show “FREEDUM FITERS!” If you feel bad for him, I’m sure he’ll collect a handsome gofundme page ransom from like-minded folks.
5 Likes
Exactly. Personally I think one should mostly separate work from personal life as far as if you should be employed or not. If you behave properly at work, you should be able to keep your job. Though one’s position at work does affect how much they can get away with outside of work and not face consequences. For example a Hooter’s waitress could get drunk on the weekend and flash her boobs and no one would really care. If one of the Executives with the company did that, there might be back lash.
But while we can agree that being a racist schmuck for the most part is bad, there are a lot of less-worse things where a line gets fuzzy. What if your boss was Mormon and didn’t approve of your drinking off hours? Or your boss was a Republican and didn’t like your Hillary sticker? Or your boss was Democrat and didn’t like your Trump sticker? Or as albill suggested, you took part in Occupy or some other progressive movement and your boss didn’t like it for some reason. Or maybe you just write porn with Mario World characters. Or you like getting tied up and spanked. What ever. I am sure ALL of us do something that SOMEONE in your office doesn’t approve of. But it shouldn’t be an issue as long as you are not bringing those things into work.
4 Likes
It is protected speech. What right-wing morons like this guy always forget is that protected speech can still have consequences.
7 Likes
True story: one of my exes writes massive amounts of slash as a hobby. I mean, massive amounts. Some really weird shit too.
Luckily, she worked for Microsoft and they could not give two fucks about that sort of thing.
4 Likes
California is an at-will employment state, so while firing you may not be cool, it’s probably legal.
Yes, if you speak and act in a way that jeopardizes your employer’s business, you should expect to be fired. John Pirone clearly doesn’t understand the landscaping company for which he worked relies heavily on good client relationships, client satisfaction, referrals, and word-of-mouth advertising for both existing and future business. Whether he liked it or not, John Pirone was part of the public face of the company for which he worked, and he jeopardized all of that–not to mention exposing the company to litigation–when he decided to use racial epithets and harass a group of peaceful protestors.
5 Likes
and if it doesn’t jeopardize their business?
Let me answer for you: You should expect to be fired.
The question is whether it is right and to be celebrated. I don’t think it is.
2 Likes
It’s been awhile and I haven’t played the new games, is that Bowser?
3 Likes
Pseudoanonymity hasn’t gone away, except on privacy-unfriendly sites like Facebook. For sites that are difficult to moderate and prone to attracting racists and sexists (mostly large media properties) the trend seems to be toward shutting down comment sections entirely or on select topics while reviving a “letter to the editor” format.
Respect for privacy, like respect for free speech, has among its drawbacks the acceptance that some people’s nasty speech won’t change behind closed doors. This dope didn’t even respect his own privacy.
