Racist idiot fired for comments while filmed outside of work. Will there be more consequences for the company?

[J842P]

Legally, Pennsylvania is an at-will work state. So you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all except a few prescribed by law, things like "race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, sex, national origin or non-job related handicap or disability."

This firing falls right in the wheel house of that menu you just wrote. If the guy is off work and off site, he's got a case.

Uh, no it doesn't. Which item in the menu are you referring to?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I don't think he should have been fired for comments made outside of the workplace. He has the right to speak his mind if he so chooses. But I do think he should have been fired long ago if he made similar comments at work. The stuff he was spouting is toxic, and should not be tolerated in a work environment.

I guess I wouldn't want to be fired if I were being a prick outside work either

I wouldn't want to be a prick outside of work, let alone have a recording of my prickiness immortalized on the interwebs. Being fired for that would just be insult to injury.

but it is pretty common that we are indentured servants until we are old and get retired.

I don't know that analogy really fits. The whole point of indentured servitude is that it eventually ENDS. Wage slaves don't always have that luxury, especially in an age of "No we can't give you a pension because we spent all our tax money on luxury condos, football stadiums and powered assault armor for the riot police."

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Legally, Pennsylvania is an at-will work state. So you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all except a few prescribed by law, things like "race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, sex, national origin or non-job related handicap or disability."

This firing falls right in the wheel house of that menu you just wrote.

No it doesn't. Not even close.

In an "at will" state, your boss could fire you because he thinks you're a space alien and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Such states work from the assumption that you don't actually have a RIGHT to work and he has no legal obligation to hire you; you merely agree to do a job and he agrees to compensate you for said job.

Proving discriminatory firing is exceptionally difficult in such states; you'd pretty much have to be a model employee with a solid work history and your employer would pretty much have to go on record saying "I don't want my new employees to think I'm a nigger lover, so you're fired."

 

[Deepak]

Well space aliens would probably be covered under the race clause.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

and intellectually challenged...

 

[repoman]

This is a commentary about this topic, from the guy whose commentaries really got the Gamergate ball rolling (when he was Internet Aristocrat):

 

[barbos]

I don't think he should have been fired for comments made outside of the workplace. He has the right to speak his mind if he so chooses. But I do think he should have been fired long ago if he made similar comments at work. The stuff he was spouting is toxic, and should not be tolerated in a work environment.

Making your employer look bad is generally a firing offense. If you're going to be an asshole on your time leave your employer completely out of it.

Whistle-blowers make employers look bad too, can they fire them as well?

 

[J842P]

Making your employer look bad is generally a firing offense. If you're going to be an asshole on your time leave your employer completely out of it.

Whistle-blowers make employers look bad too, can they fire them as well?

In such a state you can fire a person for any reason or no reason at all. The law generally makes exceptions for firing people due to race, religion, etc and some states might have whistle-blower laws as well. However, it is hard to ever prove you were fired for those things, so in practice, you can be fired for any reason - good or bad - or no reason at all.

 

[barbos]

Whistle-blowers make employers look bad too, can they fire them as well?

In such a state you can fire a person for any reason or no reason at all. The law generally makes exceptions for firing people due to race, religion, etc and some states might have whistle-blower laws as well. However, it is hard to ever prove you were fired for those things, so in practice, you can be fired for any reason - good or bad - or no reason at all.

I understand, I am just pointing out making employer look bad does not necessarily make you a bad person.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I don't think people should be fired for what they say off company time. I also think that before someone is fired for what they say while representing the company, s/he should be offered the opportunity to convinced the injured parties of the legitimacy of what was said.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

This is a commentary about this topic, from the guy whose commentaries really got the Gamergate ball rolling (when he was Internet Aristocrat):

How do you recognize Social Justice Warriors? And how much more forgiving are Social Injustice Warriors?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Legally, Pennsylvania is an at-will work state. So you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all except a few prescribed by law, things like "race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, sex, national origin or non-job related handicap or disability."

This firing falls right in the wheel house of that menu you just wrote. If the guy is off work and off site, he's got a case.

I live and am employed in PA. Companies do this because they don't want these buffoons on their payroll. It's just bad. To my knowledge they are within their rights. It may be more difficult and more expensive, I suppose, in a unionized environment but it happens regularly.

 

[credoconsolans]

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100 % agree. Work and private life are separate things. Otherwise we are all slaves to our jobs, even in our spare time.

You are free to speak your mind no matter how malignant outside the workplace...as long as you keep it private, just between you and your buds down at the pub.

The second you go on TV or social media with it though...? Suddenly your boss is VERY concerned with your opinions since they employ you and don't want people thinking they share YOUR opinions. Image is very important to companies.

Again, an employer is free to fire you for ANY reason at all, even if it's something you stated in the privacy of your own home and they get wind of it somehow.

Yep. But how often does that happen? Wasn't a problem before social media.

 

[ZiprHead]

Should this be moved to the first world problems thread?

 

[thebeave]

I think it depends on circumstances, but SJWs do go overboard at times. Case in point, Brendan Eich of Mozilla:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich

On March 24, 2014, Eich was promoted to CEO of Mozilla Corporation.[12] Gary Kovacs, John Lilly and Ellen Siminoff resigned from the Mozilla board after the appointment,[13] some expressing disagreements with Eich's strategy and their desire for a CEO with experience in the mobile industry.[14][15] Critics of Eich within Mozilla tweeted to gay activists that he had donated $1,000 to California Proposition 8, leading Eich to say on his blog that he was sorry for “causing pain” and pledged to promote equality at Mozilla.[13][16] Gay activists created an online shaming campaign against Eich, with OkCupid declaring they would block access to the Firefox browser unless he stepped down.[17][18][19] Others at the Mozilla Corporation spoke out on their blogs in his favor.[20][21] Board members wanted him to stay in the company with a different role.[22]

On April 3, 2014, Eich stepped down as CEO and resigned from working at Mozilla.[23][24] In his personal blog, Eich posted that "under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader."[25][26] Andrew Sullivan said of Eich's departure that "there is not a scintilla of evidence that he has ever discriminated against a single gay person at Mozilla"[27] and the episode "should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society."[28][29][30] Conor Friedersdorf argued in The Atlantic that "the general practice of punishing people in business for bygone political donations is most likely to entrench powerful interests and weaken the ability of the powerless to challenge the status quo".[31]

This coming only a couple of years or so after the President Obama himself (Hillary Clinton and others, too) said he was against gay marraige. I guess the lesson here is that when the sheep herd moves left, you must move with it or else suffer the consequences.

 

[Deepak]

- - - Updated - - -

100 % agree. Work and private life are separate things. Otherwise we are all slaves to our jobs, even in our spare time.

You are free to speak your mind no matter how malignant outside the workplace...as long as you keep it private, just between you and your buds down at the pub.

The second you go on TV or social media with it though...? Suddenly your boss is VERY concerned with your opinions since they employ you and don't want people thinking they share YOUR opinions. Image is very important to companies.

Again, an employer is free to fire you for ANY reason at all, even if it's something you stated in the privacy of your own home and they get wind of it somehow.

Yep. But how often does that happen? Wasn't a problem before social media.

The times they are a changin'

The employer could certainly do so prior to social media if someone went onto a public forum such as:
[YOUTUBE]68xSoecsoq0[/YOUTUBE]

What's changed is that social media has provided more people access to a public forum. This guy chose to go up to a video camera and antagonize protesters. Did he assume that video wouldn't go online?

Were it a news crew, or even some protestors with a camcorder in 1987 and some fool did this I'd expect it to make the local news.

I'd certainly have more sympathy for him if he were having a private conversation and the person recording approached him, or if the recording were surreptitious - but in this case it seems that he was the one seeking attention. Which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I think it depends on circumstances, but SJWs do go overboard at times. Case in point, Brendan Eich of Mozilla:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich

On March 24, 2014, Eich was promoted to CEO of Mozilla Corporation.[12] Gary Kovacs, John Lilly and Ellen Siminoff resigned from the Mozilla board after the appointment,[13] some expressing disagreements with Eich's strategy and their desire for a CEO with experience in the mobile industry.[14][15] Critics of Eich within Mozilla tweeted to gay activists that he had donated $1,000 to California Proposition 8, leading Eich to say on his blog that he was sorry for “causing pain” and pledged to promote equality at Mozilla.[13][16] Gay activists created an online shaming campaign against Eich, with OkCupid declaring they would block access to the Firefox browser unless he stepped down.[17][18][19] Others at the Mozilla Corporation spoke out on their blogs in his favor.[20][21] Board members wanted him to stay in the company with a different role.[22]

On April 3, 2014, Eich stepped down as CEO and resigned from working at Mozilla.[23][24] In his personal blog, Eich posted that "under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader."[25][26] Andrew Sullivan said of Eich's departure that "there is not a scintilla of evidence that he has ever discriminated against a single gay person at Mozilla"[27] and the episode "should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society."[28][29][30] Conor Friedersdorf argued in The Atlantic that "the general practice of punishing people in business for bygone political donations is most likely to entrench powerful interests and weaken the ability of the powerless to challenge the status quo".[31]

This coming only a couple of years or so after the President Obama himself (Hillary Clinton and others, too) said he was against gay marraige. I guess the lesson here is that when the sheep herd moves left, you must move with it or else suffer the consequences.

So in nation of over 300,000,000 people with a history of over 400 years, incidents small enough in number to be to documented on message board constitutes an overall societal trend?

In the fiscal year 2014 the EEOC (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) had 88,778 charges filed with them from employees claiming discrimination based on the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information or for acts of retaliation for having filed any of the aforementioned charges. The EEOC in its 50 year history has dealt with tens of thousands of case nearly every year.

How many of CEOs and gentlemen like the one in the OP have been forced into unemployment or mitigation of some sort because of SJW? Just how broad and deep a societal problem is this?

 

[thebeave]

I think it depends on circumstances, but SJWs do go overboard at times. Case in point, Brendan Eich of Mozilla:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich



This coming only a couple of years or so after the President Obama himself (Hillary Clinton and others, too) said he was against gay marraige. I guess the lesson here is that when the sheep herd moves left, you must move with it or else suffer the consequences.

So in nation of over 300,000,000 people with a history of over 400 years, incidents small enough in number to be to documented on message board constitutes an overall societal trend?

In the fiscal year 2014 the EEOC (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) had 88,778 charges filed with them from employees claiming discrimination based on the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information or for acts of retaliation for having filed any of the aforementioned charges. The EEOC in its 50 year history has dealt with tens of thousands of case nearly every year.

How many of CEOs and gentlemen like the one in the OP have been forced into unemployment or mitigation of some sort because of SJW? Just how broad and deep a societal problem is this?

Please point to were I said it was a societal trend. Thanks!

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Am I the only person on this thread who recognizes mental illness when they see it? Seems like.

 

[barbos]

Am I the only person on this thread who recognizes mental illness when they see it? Seems like.

Not enough data for me. The guy is pretty light in head department, for sure, but I think that's about it. At some point in that video he realized that he was running out of "material" and became hesitating, this suggests he is aware and can process reality, mental cases don't do that. I believe he is pretty ordinary american racist, there are probably millions like him.