Off-duty behavior can affect job

[moosmom]

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. No one tracks the number of such cases, but some workers rights' groups are concerned that the practice is on the upswing.


"The shock is that there's no legal protection," says Lewis Maltby, of The National Workrights Institute, a non-profit based in Princeton, N.J., that focuses on employee rights. "You can get fired just for having a bumper sticker the boss doesn't like."


For example:


• At the Atlantic City, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, bartenders and waitresses can be fired if they gain more than 7% of their body weight. They are first given a 90-day unpaid suspension to lose the weight. Officials say it is a recent clarification to the company's appearance policy.


About 200 cocktail servers and bartenders, known as "Borgata Babes," are covered by the policy, and have to submit to weigh-ins. Weight gain for valid medical reasons, such as pregnancy, are exempt, but the waitresses have 90 days to comply with the target weight upon return.


"We believe the policy in place is not only legal and non-discriminatory, it is also fair," spokesman Michael Facenda said in a statement.


• Lynne Gobbell was fired from her job packing insulation by her Moulton, Ala.-based employer for displaying a John Kerry bumper sticker on her car, according to the Associated Press and numerous media reports. Gobbell could not be reached for comment.


• Ross Hopkins, who worked for a Budweiser distributor, sued after he says he was fired for drinking a Coors at a Greeley, Colo., bar after work.


But Jeff Bedingfield, attorney for American Eagle Distributing, says Hopkins was fired in 2003 for making disparaging comments about the company while at the bar wearing a company uniform. The case is expected to go to trial.


While about half the states have laws preventing employers from firing workers who smoke off duty, questions remain about other legal, off-duty activities. Some states have passed broader protections, says Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU in Michigan.


"It's a growing trend," Moss says. "But whether or not they will go further to protect workers is an open question."

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No one has the right to dictate to me what I can or cannot do in my own free time!!

I hope with this new trend also comes new laws that will protect employees as well. What a bunch of hogwash!!!

When I worked at the newspaper in Connecticut, I attended a peaceful protest outside of a courthouse, of a cat killer, Jill Mazurek. I was never late to work nor did I miss anytime from work. It also didn't affect my job. I attended on my own time. My editor called me into her office and told me that she forbid me to go to anymore protests. I told her it was on my own time and she had no right to tell me what I could and could not do. She was very angry with me. I continued to attend both the protests and the trial on my own time. My picture appeard on the front page of one of our rival papers yelling at someone who said, "All this hoopla over a cat!!!" I prayed to GOD she didn't see it. (she did) Someone at work put a copy in my chair. Everyone in the newsroom was giving me a thumbs up sign for bucking the system. I was also quoted in our OWN newspaper. My editor was livid! But she knew she had NO legal right to tell me what to do.

[K9soul]

My brother-in-law is a police officer, and when he got promoted to sergeant not long ago, he was told he could no longer have his poker party gatherings with his buddies that he has worked with for years because it would be unseemly and a breach of work ethics for a someone in a supevisory position to have outside parties and gatherings with people under him. I understand their concerns with it but I still feel they have no right to dictate what he and his friends want to do outside of work. I agree with you Donna.

[Scooby4]

I don't live far from the town the woman who got fired for the John Kerry sticker. There was more to the story than what was printed. It is true that her boss and some co-workers were Bush supporters. Greatly due to the type of business would be effected if Kerry got office. However, there were a great many supporters of the woman who got fired and they did protest for about a week over it I believe. It may have turned out later that putting the sticker on the car was "the straw that broke the camel's back". I believe there had been a few incidents of confrontations between her and other workers. I don't believe it was 100% the sticker issue that got her fired.
I do agree that there should be a line with personal freedoms and our work responsibilities. However, many careers out there don't allow this just in their very nature. For example: A school teacher shouldn't be caught at a bar or a strip club. A politician can't do a whole list of things. Your local TV newscaster even has to watch their extra-curricular activities in their viewing areas.
The person who gets fired for drinking after work... Does their job require them to be on call for 24 hours a day? Would you want your doctor to show up drunk from a party he was attending to save your life?
Anyone in these careers do so knowing they have to sacrifice many personal freedoms. It is part of being a professional in some cases. The President of the United States will never stop being referred to as President and every move monitored for the rest of his life. Everyone even knows that Bill Clinton eats Mcdonald's which doesn't encourage a lot of people to eat healthier.
So take the situation of what freedoms are being compromised and put it in context. Then decide if that is the life you are willing to lead. If not, then you get to keep what you value most.

[Killearn Kitties]

And there was me thinking that this was a joke when it appeared on my calendar last week!



Edit: Not sure why I can't get this to show up as a picture, just a link.

[moosmom]

Great cartoon, Killearn Kitties!! I love Dilbert!

I'd like to know whatever happened to the constitutional right to freedom of speech. Doesn't THAT count for something???

[smokey the elder]

This is a real touchy issue for me. I think the workplace is encroaching more and more on people's private lives. The slippery slope started with drug testing, which presumes guilt. As Heinlein said, what will happen "If this goes on..."