Posted on 08/21/2004 7:29:19 PM PDT by crusty codger
A man who heckled US President George Bush at a political rally has been fired from his job at an advertising and design company.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.scotsman.com ...
Absolutely.
Look at it this way: You own the company, and YOUR CLIENT has provided the tickets to this event, and attends along with this person.
He begins to heckle. Your client is offended and embarrassed by your employee. The article doesn't say if the company lost the client's business, but that could easily happen.
Do you keep this employee that has cost you business?
Sure.
That's the missing part of what you posted. The guy embarrassed his business's client. That is what got him fired.
And personally, I'd say the company was in the right for firing him for interfering with their client/business relationship with his antics.
IOW, you think employees have a right to insult customers?
the guy will have his 15 minutes of fame in the coming week. prepare to see him on every left talk show. Bush will be blamed for this too.
Hiring and firing freedom is essential for a growing, healthy business. It's therefore essential for capitalism. Managers should be able to fire someone just because they don't like their looks or their philosophy.
It's not wrong, but it may reflect negatively on the business and make it more difficult for them to hire in the future. That's free enterprise, isn't it?
Sorry, but I disagree.
The heckler was given tickets to the event by a client of the advertising firm for which he worked. He was therefore obliged to comport himself appropriately.
If he had simply purchased the ticket to the event himself, I would agree - he should not be fired for speaking his peace. But the man's presence of the event was related to work.
I have a friend who owns a small company. He comped one of his employees some tickets to a hockey game - seats in a box, the whole "nine yards." Turns out the employee got too drunk, made an ass out of himself, and was an embarassment. As much as my friend didn't like to do it - he had to fire the guy because some clients were (shall we say) less than impressed with the performance of the drunk employee at the hockey game. Point is, if the employee had purchased his own ticket, got drunk and made an ass of himself he would have been doing so on his own time. But his presence at the hockey game was work-related.
Like the drunk hockey fan/employee, the Bush heckler was not on his own time at the event.
Just my .02
"Graphic designer Glen Hiller, of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia"
In some agencies graphic designers rank about the same as receptionists. If he was a very junior person and made a spectacle of himself there's no way they wouldn't can him.
Heck of a thing to lose a client over.
Welcome to the real world. I hope he wastes his money hiring a lawyer to fight a no win battle against unlawful termination.
Nothing personal, it's just business. Don't offend the clients in a service business.
Umm... the guy was fired because he offended a client. George Bush had nothing to do with it. If I behaved boorishly in front of one of my employers' clients and the client complained to the execs, I would almost certainly be fired too. There is nothing to see here.
For some reason, we seem to have lost the ability to say "no" in this country, as in "no, that's not the appropriate thing to do". I'm glad to see at least this company can say "no, you don't work here any more". It's a start back in the right direction.
Oh boy. . .fire his butt for sure.
If they fired me for my Political stand I would not have to worry about my soon to come retirement!
Everyone is free!
If a person or company is forced to continue employing you against their will, how is that different from slavery?
As a business owner I reserve the right to employ whomever I please. So does Octavo Designs.
NO it's not wrong. In private industry a person can get fired for being a crass, crude, and incompetent person, something that cannot happen in public unionized areas of employment.
No business will allow its employees to insult the clients. Use your brain.
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