I hadn’t read her site before becoming aware of this situation today, but you can still glance at her site’s old front page through the magic of Google cache and although tame for the San Francisco Bay Area, I could see a Midwesterner going into apoplectic fits about it. Also, it seems that in St. Louis, Missouri folks are still tight-assed enough to think that somebody’s PRIVATE, ANONYMOUS sexual musings warrant firing them.
It’s as if she wrote an advice column on kink, or published a magazine about it, or even was a successful writer of self-help kink books — all under a pseudonym — and the employer fired her when that fact became known through no fault of the employee, who’d made every effort to keep her two selves private and separated. They may have the legal right (“at-will” employment) but that’s just WRONG.
A magazine article on the firing, with some good background and legal analysis, is here.
Watch yourselves, gunbloggers! There’s a lesson here for you if you choose to learn it. Either work for an employer that won’t care what non-work topics you blog about; live in a state (like California) where this sort of firing is difficult at best for an employer to do, if not impossible; or be prepared every day for the bigots to terminate you.
She’s an office worker, not a republican candidate for office! Geez people, try being a wee bit adult here.
I think she was a wee bit TOO adult for some people…
Seriously though that seems pretty BS to me.
Shouldn’t her boss get fired for reading that racy stuff on company time!?
Kim complained about not getting job because of his site. And he seemed to relate being told by the employer that was the reason. Mostly around his views on the 2A.
Well, Joe Huffman had something similar happen as well:
http://www.pnnl.info/
(Note: the lawsuit referenced in the above link is over; the website hasn’t been updated for a long time. It’ll still make your blood boil, though.)
Bigots would be less likely to “terminate” free adults for their freely expressed thoughts and opinions that didn’t effect their jobs, if the people as a whole, who were discriminated against in this manner returned the favor and “terminated†their employers more often following such a life shattering affront. This would have the salutary effect of discouraging similar future discrimination against others by employers everywhere.
“You’re free to fire me for no good reason even though I’m an exemplary employee, you’re also free to take a dirt nap…â€
An armed society is a polite society, and in this economy, if you expect to fire somebody (as opposed to laying them off because you can’t afford to employ them any longer) without it coming back to bite you on the ass, it better be for cause related to work performance.
Armageddon Rex:
You are a fucking lunatic.
Shoot someone for firing you? What’s next? Shoot someone for not allowing you to mow their lawn for $50? Shoot someone for choosing not to buy lemonade at your lemonade stand? Shoot someone for walking past your For Sale beater car without buying it?
A job is not a possession .. it is a transaction between a person who needs some labor done, and by someone who wishes to sell his labor.
This notion that a job is a “right” is socialist bilge.
I should know better than to post when angry.
Armageddon Rex, I apologize for calling you a fucking lunatic.
However … the position you are taking is insane. Re-think it please.
I’ve been on the receiving end of that kind of anger. A former employee at a job site was fired because the Sheriff came in and hauled him off for late child support payments three different times in two months.
He made death threats when fired, and two of us CCW holders ( me and one other person ) were given permission to carry at work. The two of us, and the CEO ended up holding this moron at gun point for the police, when he showed up with an SKS and started threatening the receptionist.
A job is not a possession. It’s a transaction.
Kristopher @10:10AM
You may be right….
I’m not easily offended. I make like a duck…
I’m curious what state you live in.
I currently live in KKKalifornia, and even if someone broke into my home, and I told them repeatedly to leave, and they proceeded to loudly describe how they were going to mutilate me and then rape my wife, and I ventilated them, even if they outweighed me by 150lbs, if they were unarmed, I’d probably wind up arrested for murder of some kind or another.
If on the other hand, I were still in Texas, and someone broke into my house, and tried to carry off my son’s Nintendo game system, and I shot him dead before he even knew I was there, why then it’s no questions asked. I was just defending myself in accordance with the castle doctrine.
It may be lawful to kill someone for attempting to steal a couple hundred dollars of entertainment electronics, a relatively minor possession, in certain circumstances.
It’s illegal to kill someone in other circumstances when their malicious, unfair, and arbitrary action will likely result in financial devastation for you and your family, and possible destruction of decades of your effort when your home is re-possessed.
Are you willing to kill to protect your possessions?
If you are, why would you be unwilling to use deadly force to avenge an unfair and devastating blow to your life, and to prevent similar devastating blows from occurring to your countrymen?
Don’t you give a sh!t? What about the children? (just kidding!)
Yes, business owner’s & managers have every right to fire employees for poor job performance. The example you gave was a classic case of excessive absenteeism and was certainly justifiable.
Do you have an example where someone was fired for something legal they did outside of work that had no effect on their job performance at all?
Kristopher @11:34AM
“A job is not a possession. It’s a transaction.â€
I disagree. A job is a contract and a covenant between the employee and the owner or manager.
When the employee violates the contract / covenant, the employer or manager can, and almost certainly should punish the employee up to and including firing.
When the owner or manager violates the contract / covenant, many employees, especially white male employees who can’t realistically file a sexual harassment or EEOC complaint against an employer or manager don’t have as many options.
What I’m driving at here is that the owner / manager has great power over the employee. They also need to take responsibility for their actions.
Rex, I am guessing your opinion here may be colored by your California residency.
I do employment law for my employer, and in California, even though all our employees sign that they are employed “at will” (a legal phrase that theoretically means either employer or employee can terminate the relationship at any time for any reason or no reason) California law and precedent means that in reality terminated employees have lots of options for retaliating against a perceived or actual breach by the employer of the perceived or actual contract. (I’ve got horror stories I can’t discuss, but I know one State of California manager who’s said they can’t even fire an employee who surfs porn at work on work computers — unless it’s kiddie porn or something that awful.)
In other states, that’s often not the case and “at will” actually has teeth. In practice, that means there is no contract.
Davidwhitewolf@2:46PM:
Yep, the whole situation here in KKKalifornia is disgusting. The situation when it involves government employee unions is helping to bankrupt our state.
It should be illegal for government employees to strike. It should be illegal for government to engage in collective bargaining with its employees. If the employees still want to “unionize” and pay dues for whatever reason without collective bargaining or strikes, that’s their business…
All this lack of respect and discourtesy could be easily remedied by bringing back legalized duels. Then if someone thought they’d been terminated for an unreasonable excuse, it would be grass before breakfast, and everyone would be much more polite and considerate.
Someone fired for cause would have no grounds for a duel, since their failings could be publicized, further disgracing them, and reflecting no dishonor on the owner / manager who had fired them for cause and then refused a duel.
It’s an item that is high on the agenda to be legalized immediately after my coronation as emperor of the Earth!
I was fired six months ago, after my employer found out indirectly that I did not vote for Barack Obama. I did my best to keep my political feelings out of the workplace, though my employer frequently subjected us to her opinions on, oh, everything. My boss had been an extremely difficult woman to work for prior to this, but the harassment ramped up when she found out I voted for Palin.
I finally went to the union with a grievance list, just before I was out sick with Swine Flu. While I was out, my boss took it upon herself to access my personal email, and discovered the grievance. I was then placed on administrative leave and fired. Oh, it was dressed up very nicely, and made to look very legal, but the truth is, it was politically motivated.
As for the union, which I was mandated to join as a condition of the job? I have it on good authority that my employer paid him off, which I believe, as one day he seemed very gung ho and in my corner, then completely stopped answering my calls/email.
All this to say that in my experience, employers can do pretty much whatever they like, regardless of what the law says. Unless you can afford a very good lawyer, you’re over a barrel.
As for dueling, you might find this page interesting: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Citizens-for-the-legalization-of-dueling/102295163140380
Hmm, what I meant to say is my employer paid my union rep off.
Armageddon:
If you want such an employment contract, you should get the employer to sign one.
Absent such an agreement, “at will” should prevail. California’s employment standard should not prevail.
I got fired recently for political incorrectness as well ( after the CEO retired, his replacement decided that us crazy gun nuts needed to go ) … but you don’t see me whining about it, or making death threats.
The best revenge on an unfair employer is to fire his ass and get a better customer for your labor.