[Sarihah]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200...orcanaffectjob

Some companies are cracking down on employees' off-duty behavior, raising questions about how far employers should go in policing what workers do on their own time.

Employees are being disciplined or fired for such behaviors as drinking on their own time, using competitors' products and displaying political bumper stickers.

 

[Emzachsmama]

I think it would depend on the job and/or what the employee was doing specifically. Obviously a cop shouldn't be doing anything illegal...they should definitely get fired for that. As for the guy who worked in the brewery....if he had been drinking the competitors beer in the privacy of his own home that is one thing....but drinking it in a bar WITH his work uniform on....well I can see how his employer could be allowed to fire him. I wouldn't want someone who would do that working for me.

I think it isn't an easy issue. Obviously there have to be some guidelines (no clue what) but there are definitely circumstances where your off duty behavior should affect your job.

 

[TiredX2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzachsmama Obviously a cop shouldn't be doing anything illegal...they should definitely get fired for that.

According to the article, they are only concerned with legal behaviors (many companies drug test and do often fire people who are caught). And of course, some legal activities should not be done while on the job (certain medications do not mix with, say, being a large machinery operator).

And as for the person fired for drinking a competitors beer... his boss alleges that not only did he do it while in uniform, he badmouthed the company while doing so. Depending on his statements, he could have been sued not only fired.

Most places have the policy that you cannot wear uniforms outside of work anyway, so I'm surpirsed that wasn't covered.

 

[fljen]

We knew someone a few years back who's husband worked for one of the mailorder PC Companies, they didn't want their employees being in bands (affected the person we knew), smoking, partying, etc, and this was a mail/phone order company! Apparently the founders were extremely narrow-minded.

 

[Emzachsmama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fljen We knew someone a few years back who's husband worked for one of the mailorder PC Companies, they didn't want their employees being in bands (affected the person we knew), smoking, partying, etc, and this was a mail/phone order company! Apparently the founders were extremely narrow-minded.

See, now that is wrong....that doesn't meet any of the circumstances that I was talking about in my last post. Your friend wasn't doing anything that would affect the business he worked for and I don't think they should have any say over it at all.

 

[TiredX2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fljen We knew someone a few years back who's husband worked for one of the mailorder PC Companies, they didn't want their employees being in bands (affected the person we knew), smoking, partying, etc, and this was a mail/phone order company! Apparently the founders were extremely narrow-minded.

How crazy. I really don't understand why the places *care* (generally, I mean I understand if it was a religous organization or something).

 

[Tata]

I think that this society will be better off once all workers are electronically collared and monitored. We can't have them just "doing their thing" and listening to that "rock and roll" stuff. There needs to be order and respect of your betters. Humph.

Sorry, but your time is your time. If you are being paid for the time, you are on their time and doing what they want comes with the job. It sucks but there it is. But, once you are on your time, NO ONE should be able to tell you what to do or cost you your job. This kind of thing is just plain ridiculous. People just have too many "issues" about what other people are up to.

 

[Curandera]

Quote:

I really don't understand why the places *care* (generally, I mean I understand if it was a religious organization or something).

It's all a power thing - if someone becomes a boss - they feel the desire to take that power as far as possible. Power/authority means you CAN push your POV on people.

I think there is a great big problem in the US with the desire to have and use power - and the accumulationof wealth is at the root of it all. Tolerance is no longer something one feels one can afford in the US. The lines ae drawn so tightly (you against us - Michael Jackson innocent/guilty - Iraq War good/bad - Dubya, best example of Christianity/the anti-Christ . . . ) that there is no room for tolerance. Fear makes everyone run to extremes - so if one has accumulated even a little bit of power, one takes it naturally as far as one can.

It reminds me of our children who will always test their limits. That is why our style of rearing is so important. If we raise our children on following rules and our authority, then they will grow up to constantly push their own boundaries of how far their authority will go. They learn that from us. If we teach them to respect others and to adapt their behaviors as a result of their sense of compassion and understanding - then they don't have such a great need to prove themselves, and are more tolerant.

As for the religious organization - my hope is that the people in any structure will do the caring thing - but religious structures are also in danger because so many of themare power and authority based. Would anyone feel better because the church authority said one HAS to act this way or that - rather than having a church structure that deals compassionately with others in the hope that those weak humans working for them will DESIRE to do the right thing?

I've got BIG problems with the use of force to manipulate behavior of others - religious instituion or not. Sometimes I think it is the boundaries made by humans that cause all the misbehavior. Like telling a kid, "Don't put beans in your ears . . . "

 

[mamadawg]

Yet another reason we need a really strong labor movement in this country.

 

[grisandole]

My dh is a teacher, one of the "moral" professions, and we are very careful to uphold the image that schools want of teachers. At one job in IL, he was warned not to ever mention that we weren't married (we were engaged) for fear of parental outrage. Public school setting.

I rember seeing an Oprah years ago with teachers and other professionals who had been fired for off the job stuff, some of it they didn't even do! One guy was a teacher, and his wife posed nude on the internet; some parent saw it, complained, and the teacher got fired. Why?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Kristi

 

[EMT-Mom]

What our troops fighting for??? freedom...

 

[TiredX2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curandera It's all a power thing - if someone becomes a boss - they feel the desire to take that power as far as possible. Power/authority means you CAN push your POV on people.

That's true. I guess I understand in the "Nickel & Dimed" sense, but not in the actual *WHY* they want that "power", etc... What a waste of energy.

 

[Tata]

Power for power's sake. It's why anyone wants it. Power over people, nature, whatever. Simply because you can. It's sociopathic.

 

[stafl]

I think it's all because they are convinced that the workforce is so non-questioning of authority, so compliant, that they can do whatever they want to us and we will not rise up against them. If they for one second thought people might actually start fighting back against such injustices, they wouldn't do them in the first place. The real question here is why do people put up with this sort of treament?

 

[Curandera]

Because they are reared on a basis of insecurity - and one either fights or flees when faced with a conflict - those that perpetuate the norm of power plays are the fighters - the others are the "fleeers" - running away into a dream world of freedom through ignorance and following the crowd - just follow and obey and life is fine . . . then there are those who fight the system, but IMO they are the smallest minority - but I could just be depressed here . . .

 

[CherryBomb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mamadawg Yet another reason we need a really strong labor movement in this country.

Definitely.

 

[Mamid]

I will not tug my forelock for my boss when not at work. I am not his serf nor do I expect to be treated as such. I am a free person. I am a paid employee, not a slave who must obey mastah and all his whims.

Besides, there are laws that must be followed to be in polite society anyway. So what if I want to whoop it up on the weekend. That's my time and my consequences if I screw up.