A worker has been fired over a pin

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by potpourri, Oct 31, 2009.

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  1. potpourri

    potpourri New Member

    Trevor Keezor had been working at Home Depot for over a year, when his boss pulled him aside and told him that he'd have to remove a certain pin from his orange apron. The American flag pin said "One nation under God, indivisible." Keezor refused, and he says he was fired for it. In a very buzzy article from the AP, reps from Home Depot explain that Mr. Keezer was fired for violating the dress code, not because the company agrees or disagrees with the button. Policy states that "only company-provided pins and badges can be worn" on the aprons. Not surprisingly, the story sparked tremendous interest in the Search box. Lookups on Mr. Keezor and "home depot firing" both surged into breakout status. And, also not surprisingly, a lawsuit is currently in the works. This is one story that hasn't ended yet.
     
  2. raristud

    raristud Member

  3. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  4. raristud

    raristud Member

  5. sentinel

    sentinel New Member

  6. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Well, how this case gets decided will depend upon how the Supreme Court rules as to whether employees are required to sign away their First Amendment rights (freedom of religion, freedom of speech) at the door. A good case for the ACLJ - the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal action group that fights for freedom of religion cases. Personally, I hope that worthless a-hole POS manager (and anyone up the food chain of command who refuses to overturn his/her/its half-a-s-sed decision) gets terminated and never gets hired ever, ever again and that he/she/it/they end up totally abandoned and starving to death in the streets. I also hope Home Despot ends up being sued into freakin' oblivion and survives only after being subjected to a hostile takeover offer.
     
  7. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

  8. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    In my opinion, the gentleman is willingly giving up his rights to work for a private company because no one is forcing him to work for said company.

    -Matt
     
  9. MichaelR

    MichaelR Member

    Its a place of business, in my opion they have a right to tell you if you are wearing something that is outside of the dress code and remove it. That being said, if he has been wearing it since day 1 and they didn't notice until day 365 then they have some issues to work out.
     
  10. DeterminedAdjunct

    DeterminedAdjunct New Member

    Lowes should jump on this

    Home depot will get a lot of bad "anti-american" publicity over this. It went too far. I think management (job to put out fires) should not have let it get this far. We need American pride in this country right now! An exception should have been made. I hope they lose the lawsuit and get boycotted and people go to lowes! Lowes should see this as an opportunity to capitalize and offer "american flag pens" as an "option" not requirement, to their employees. The district manager of home depot or higher up will most likely offer him the job back and do just such.
    DeteriminedAdjunct
     
  11. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    So you make an exception for one pin. What about others? American pin or not, a huge can of worms could have been opened had they allowed one exception. The bottom line is that a uniform is a uniform. If you don't want to wear it and wear it properly, find a new job.

    -Matt
     
  12. raristud

    raristud Member

    Same here. The movie is a cult classic. Speaking of cult classics, the movie wall street 2 will be released on April.
     
  13. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member


    Thanks for the heads up!

    How is school going? I am trying to get fired up and finish my MBA capstone.

    Abner
     
  14. Go_Fishy

    Go_Fishy New Member

    YES!!! And we should all display our pride through buying pins and bumper stickers made in China. Pins and bumpers stickers - that's how we exercise our freedom of speech!

    And we should burn down Home Depot! Moderate action is for communists. ;)

    Unnecessary provocation aside and on a somewhat unrelated note, people should really shop at Lowes. They treat their employees better, they have a solid environmental record, and they still seem to be doing better business than HD, which means they must be well managed.
     
  15. morganjames

    morganjames New Member

    the smart thing would have been to remove the pin when asked and then if he really wanted to wear it figure out what his right were.
     
  16. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Well, God forbid that we should offend the Moslem shoppers at Home Despot with our American pride! That would just be politically incorrect! ;)
     
  17. Huh?

    How confused are you?

    1) Muslims believe in God.

    2) There are MILLIONS of Muslim Americans.

    3) This has nothing to do with American pride, it has to do with company policy.
     
  18. rickyjo

    rickyjo Guest

    I think the managers actions were inappropriate but not illegal and SHOULD NOT be illegal.

    I will certainly exercise my free choice to consider this incident when I go shopping just as they exercised their right to fire somebody over something stupid.

    If you have the right to wear a USA pin when the company says no then you have the right to wear any pin (at least) no matter the company's opinion. As previously mentioned precedents are important.
     
  19. Griffin

    Griffin Crazy About Psychology

    Exactly. I've never understood this sort of faux outrage over company policy. Luckily, there's a pie chart to help understand this internet phenomenon:

    http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/5850/christianhelp.gif

    In all seriousness though, company dress policies basically exist to make everyone as homogeneous as possible. Standing out with an earring, tattoo, pin, necklace, hair color or anything else is frowned upon. I wouldn't care if it were any other pin, I don't care now. Those are the rules of the retail road.
     
  20. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    How confused are you? One nation, under God, indivisible is not about our national pride? So now we should just surrender our rights of free speech in order to have a goddamn job?
     

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