You mean you aren’t really a 2,000 year old Roman Tribune murdered by the Senate?
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If you’re acting like a raging arsehole in public and become the subject of a viral video then, yes, I have no problem with your employer firing you. If you’re protesting peacefully and your employer sees you on YouTube and fires you for it he’s going to have a harder time making his case, especially when you sue for wrongful dismissal.
There are grey areas, of course. If a company rests its brand on a core commitment to spreading Christian values and you’re videoed at a peaceful atheist rally then they might still have a case for firing you, especially if you work in a public-facing role.
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No, but my brother is.
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At Will employment means there is no wrong dismissal unless it is for being a member of a protected class (AFAIK).
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Ok, then let’s keep it to the opinion of people here. I think many of those you’re debating with here would apply different standards for non-dickish behaviour that doesn’t really harm a company’s reputation than behaviour like this jerk’s. Just because there are grey areas it doesn’t mean that lines can’t be drawn.
[quote=“albill, post:58, topic:71400”]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.[/quote]
Let me ask you a question–if you were the owner of the landscaping company with a culturally diverse pool of clients and employees, how would you have handled this employee?
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Sure but I don’t think one’s employment status should be up to the opinions of the plebes.
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Ignored it unless I saw evidence of issues in the workplace or had a workplace complaint. It isn’t my job to police the behavior of people who work for me outside of work.
(I do manage six employees and a contractor too. I don’t care what they do outside of work unless I get a visit from the cops.)
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When in history has the final say on one’s (non-management) employment status been up to the opinions of the plebes? Bosses are bosses, whether they’re land owners, capitalists, or party members, and they usually have the final say in such matters. As bosses like the Gracchi are well aware, half the job is making sure that the plebes are kept just happy enough that they won’t “fire” the bosses with daggers and guillotines and rifle squads.
It reminds me of when sports teams suspend (or don’t suspend) players after doing something terrible like domestic violence. Should the off-the-clock behavior affect their job status?
It’s likely mostly PR. Companies don’t want to be associated with people who do/say bad things. Letting them keep their job may be viewed as implicitly condoning the action.
Granted, that’s based on what is the “acceptable” thing. Could you be fired for publicly supporting gay marriage? It seems like it comes down to whether or not the “public” is for or against whatever was said or done.
But I think there’s also the possibility that the company fears that such racist behavior may also happen at the workplace, in which case the company may legally be on the hook for any workplace incident that may take place in the future. AKA, “You’re obviously racist, and we’re now scared you’ll be racist at work, which may make our company liable in some lawsuit, so to be safe, we’re getting rid of you.”
But yes, it does suck that there seems to be a rule that you’re not allowed to say something on your own time without the possibility of losing your job if your employer doesn’t agree with your opinion.
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Technically, sure, but the Internet Outrage Machine, if it makes enough noise, causes most bosses to cave due to fears about bad PR. I saw the same exact phenomena with my former CEO. Technically, he quit but it was because of the damage being done to the company by PR and he was under heavy pressure to do so from many sides.
Exactly.
Have you met America?
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I rarely see the corporate overlords cave unless the public or caught-on-video behaviour is so generally unacceptable or goes so obviously against the company’s perceived values that it will damage the brand and/or his ability to do his job effectively. It is about PR, and whether one is a CEO who’s alienating a significant customer segment or some idiot making a racist spectacle of oneself a person has to understand that in America in the early 21st century we live in a PR world.
Phonecams aren’t going away. The Internet isn’t going away. Privacy is still up for grabs, and whether you’re talking about pseudonymous comment sections or your own unmonitored home that’s what we should be fighting for. I have very little sympathy for people who willingly and affirmatively give up their privacy and suffer the consequences, like this moron did.
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No - but sports teams are a sort of different creature because they are selling their “brand” and each player is a face of that “brand”.
But 1) the customer isn’t always right. What if someone called saying they were “uncomfortable” with a black or Hispanic person mowing their yard?
- There are waaaayyyy too many companies that will make you take a drug test (not really needed), but if you don’t work for that sort of place, should they fire some poor black guy because he was busted with some weed? Or what if it was someone else with DUI?
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So it is The Right Thing to live in a panopticon with elephant-grade memory? To suddenly suffer consequences for all the slips people got away with for hundreds years before? To guard one’s mouth at all times, never get angry, never slip, never make a “wrong” joke?
It was said behind the Iron Curtain that the worst kind of censorship is self-censorship.
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It probably wasn’t right that this guy was fired for being a racist asshole off the clock, but that won’t stop me from enjoying it.
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Nobody will ever guess my real name is Norway Maple, bwahahahah.
because being a CEO is a right, and one taken away by whom exactly?
Freedom to associate means I am free to not do business with your company if I think the CEO is a dick. It’s the invisible backhand of the market. Freedom to speak, freedom to be held responsible.
And lets not pretend legal equals ethical and moral. it’s a gray area, a very very very dark gray area.
Not if you know what you’re doing (cough).
My daughter was the only one in her grade who didn’t have to delete/seriously edit her Facebook page in time for college applications. She’s had a seemingly-real, generic, and yet still recognizable (for those who know her) Facebook account since she was 11 or 12.
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First, fracking is fucking awful. It’s been terrible to the entire earth of Oklahoma, of course most people would be scared of it.
Second, protesting fracking is first-amendment to-the-hilt. I <3 those people.
Third, the harassing dude was making monkey-noises to another person. MONKEY NOISES. This is not a man who has political differences with his fellow citizens and/or employees. This is a man that has baseline contempt / hatred for people who he thinks are less evolved than he.
Monkey noises is not civil discourse. I’m ok if the general public decides there should be zero tolerance for abject racists.
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