Another job on the line over vulgar comments

Forum Sponsor
Furpo said:
Hang on a mo. Losing your job with cause is pretty serious. It is difficult to find another job and without the income you may well lose your car and your home. Your whole family will suffer. That is why employment tribunals consider sacking to be like a capital offense and require that it was necessary.

I am getting concerned that we are punishing people for behavioural lapses that often occur at a festive event where the offender is possibly impaired. You know nothing about what happened, what this man is like, or other contextual facts yet you are happy to condemn. I hope you never get chosen for jury duty, and if you do please watch Twelve Angry Men first. We are all too human and prone to stupidity--should our lives be ruined because of it? I hope the employer gets to follow their HR policies rather than be bullied by the braying mob. Investigate and determine a proportionate response. Perhaps unpaid suspension during which the man takes equity and diversity training.

There is a miasma of sanctimonious, hypocritical, prudishness surrounding this. So Joots, heckling bad, physical assault good? I trust the next time a comic ridicules you because of: your appearance; incoherent answer to a question; presumed sexual deficiency; crappiness of your job; or any other of the routine comic targets that you will head to what, the police? The Star? The Human Rights Tribunal? Lenny Bruce, Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, Jimmy Carr, Lisa Lampanelli, Doug Stanhope, and all the rest: the angry, frightened, foggy brain of Joots wants to punch you.
Click to expand...

Wow, there is someone literate on this forum! An intelligent and reasoned response, shocking.

BB
 
Last edited:
TwistedKestrel said:
How stupid does your decision have to be before you are required to take responsibility for it, then?
Click to expand...

Is that addressed at me? I'm not sure because it's not really connected with anything I said. My question was what is the appropriate sanction? I suggested suspension without pay and equity training. You believe termination is the correct response. Okay. I believe in rehabilitation and restitution, a proper progressive, disciplinary process. You want to execute forthwith. Seems harsh, and few HR departments or employment tribunals would agree with you.
 
Old Suzy said:
This guy was attending an association event representing himself and his employer. Not withstanding the stupid comments he made to the comic, there is a good many companies that would terminate his employment due to being simply drunk at this event. This in itself is inappropriate behaviour, combine this with the disgusting heckling,
Punch out and don't punch back in!
Click to expand...

Is it relevant that the acceptability of drunkenness is subject to fashion, and is cultural? Would it not be odd if an employer could supply you the world's most damaging drug and then fire you for being under its influence?
 
inreb said:
Drunks have been getting away with murder (maybe not literally) forever.
Click to expand...

This is true. Well said.

inreb said:
Now all of a sudden it's flipped 180 degrees.
Click to expand...

This is true too! Things changed, it is time to get smart. I don't get why this is news to anyone. Internet? Social media? Digital cameras? Everybody has a video camera in their pocket? Hello?!!
 
Last edited:
Furpo said:
Is it relevant that the acceptability of drunkenness is subject to fashion, and is cultural? Would it not be odd if an employer could supply you the world's most damaging drug and then fire you for being under its influence?
Click to expand...

Maybe it is a Darwinian test to thin the herd. Evil management people, trying to trick the poor employees!! CruisnGrrl wrote, "If you can't control yourself when drunk maybe it might be a good idea to not drink in public." I would add, maybe it is not a good idea to get drunk in front of the boss...
 
MarcosSantiago said:
I would add, maybe it is not a good idea to get drunk in front of the boss...
Click to expand...

Why? Are you both fourteen? Can't people get drunk anymore? Do we look down on people in their cups? The world's getting too weird for me. "It's not the serious and chronic physiological damage or the financial and emotional cost of alcohol that we're worried about Furpo, it's that cross-eyed selfie you took outside Flannery's. Not acceptable."
 
Furpo said:
Why? Are you both fourteen? Can't people get drunk anymore? Do we look down on people in their cups? The world's getting too weird for me. "It's not the serious and chronic physiological damage or the financial and emotional cost of alcohol that we're worried about Furpo, it's that cross-eyed selfie you took outside Flannery's. Not acceptable."
Click to expand...

Hang on, don't confuse the issue. This is not a cross-eyed selfie outside Flannery's, this was public sexual harassment at a corporate event. Alcohol may or may not have been involved, we don't know that one way or another. Whatever the consequences are to this employee, or how many chances they are given, the company has been harmed from this single occurrence. I've already seen it as a story where the company they work(ed) for is in the headline of the story.
 
Furpo said:
Why? Are you both fourteen? Can't people get drunk anymore? Do we look down on people in their cups? The world's getting too weird for me. "It's not the serious and chronic physiological damage or the financial and emotional cost of alcohol that we're worried about Furpo, it's that cross-eyed selfie you took outside Flannery's. Not acceptable."
Click to expand...

What part of "If you CAN'T CONTROL YOURSELF when drunk..." did you not understand?

Sure, go ahead and get drunk all you want, as long as you can keep your cool.

And...

If you can't control yourself when drunk, you can still go ahead and get drunk all you want -- BUT do it in private.


Nobody said anything about not getting drunk at all. God save us!
 
I used to work for a company that provided us with a party twice a year and an open bar at each one (they also provided hotels for us so we didn't have to drive, it was great and invarariably there was some idiot that lost his job because he said something crude/crass/spiteful to the boss or was stupid and used the washroom to smoke up instead of going away from the party. And it's not like people weren't warned ahead of time because it was talked about between the employees. At these parties if had a beef with the boss you kept your mouth shut because liquid courage made you stupid. I watched 3 people stupid themselves out of a job, one of them just because they joined the smokers invite in the washroom, the other because he found courage to tell the boss what he thought of her at her party for her employees.
 
Furpo said:
Is it relevant that the acceptability of drunkenness is subject to fashion, and is cultural? Would it not be odd if an employer could supply you the world's most damaging drug and then fire you for being under its influence?
Click to expand...

Read the article this was not a employer event this was an association event where the individual was representing his employer.
 
Work function or association function representing your company, you are still at that event because of your employer. They give you money to represent them, if you want to drink, go ahead but do it responsibly. The person in question in the article is obviously stick in high school where being the rude dumb a** makes you funny. If the story is true the guy deserves what he gets. If you can't drink socially then don't drink at work related events.
 
I don't diagree with the FHITP joke going around, as it's not a sexual harrassment thing, people have pranked both men and women with that line, this on the other hand was direct and pretty shameful
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom