Posted on 12/25/2008 8:59:47 PM PST by george76
A Tennessee woman says she was fired just days before Christmas because of the way she was spreading Christmas cheer.
The pin says "It's called Christmas, for Christ's sake".
When Sutton admired the pin being worn by a customer, the stranger gave it to her. Neither knew its message would mean trouble for the cashier.
When a customer complained, the employee was asked to remove the pin due to store policy that no employee should wear a pin supporting a religion.
Sutton says when she returned from lunch that day, she was fired.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcbstv.com ...
Now, that is pathetic.
What kind of rotten, miserable person would take the time out of his/her day to complain about a freaking PIN. And what kind of company would fire that person for wearing one expressing a holiday pin around Christmas. Unless there is some written policy, and there may well be...it’s just another cut in the fabric of our society. It’s all falling apart anyway.
If you can’t say Merry Christmas ... don’t take the day off work.
Dosen’t this story beg for more information?
She has a good heart and soul.
"A Christmas pin, on your uniform?"
Wouldn’t you like to know the identity of the complainer?
**this story beg for more information?**
Begs enough that if there isn’t more information forthcoming, I WILL BE considering cancelling my card and moving my business to HOME DEPOT!
Christmas tradition is based upon the winter festivals that go back into pre Roman times. Winter was depressing so the civilizations had winter celebrations under various names.
So if Christ was Born April(just like me) then why don't we celebrate it then?
Because the Church at the time decided to take over the winter festivals, and celebrate Christs birth then, works for me.
Lowe’s won’t explain why Sutton was fired, several employees told 6 News they believe she was fired because of the pin. They expressed support support of her, but they didn’t want to go on camera for fear of losing their jobs.
http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=9577785
satan always overplays his hand
It must have been a stark raving mad lunatic, frothing-at-the-mouth atheist who complained... (to a gay, down-in-the-mouth, weenie store manager, no less)...
I would quite imagine that the company has a written policy against overt expression of religion. As much as religious types will deplore this as another sign of the PC secularization of society (and I would agree with this to some extent) — still, companies are and should be free to create such policies and enforce them at their discretion. And I imagine that the comments here would be much different if the pin had said “Praise Allah” or “Atheists for Peace.” However, immediately firing the woman was certainly uncalled for. Perhaps a warning about the policy, which would be well within their rights if, as I suspect, there is a written policy. But nothing more than that.
I having a lot of trouble believing this story as written.
Methinks this women was looking to be made a victim.
” the comments must have been made by a friend or relative of the ... Operations Manager Jim. “
” The store in Newport has become a flurry of write-ups......even as far as to try and write an employee up when he was laying in a hospital bed. “
http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=9577785
comments at the bottom
“And I imagine that the comments here would be much different if the pin had said “Praise Allah” or “Atheists for Peace.” “
Then you fail to understand the difference between conservatism and leftism.
In addition to which, that’s a pretty damned offensive thing to say.
Somewhere out there with my own company, there is a line or two about excessive jewelery and pins. They don’t have a problem with an American flag pin, but beyond that...it would be questioned.We had our first employee with a nose piercing this month hired. So far, no big comments and I think they will accept that one.
Managers run scared, and they really—bottom line— don’t care about their people. The majority of them would have gone no further than give the employee a warning, the good ones in a kind manner. She was unlucky enough, it seems that her manager is a prick.
The Soviet regime was run by Marxists who intended to conserve Marxism. The Iran is run by Mullahs who intend to conserve a rigid interpretation of Islam. These are conservatives. Now what is it that I don't understand about the difference between conservatives and leftist?
Another store off the list for shopping at. I am tired of these idiot stores that have to discriminate.
“What kind of rotten, miserable person would take the time out of his/her day to complain about a freaking PIN. And what kind of company would fire that person for wearing one expressing a holiday pin around Christmas. Unless there is some written policy, and there may well be...it’s just another cut in the fabric of our society. It’s all falling apart anyway.”
We have a free market, and economic boycotts are very effective. Why would any Christian wish to shop at Lowes until they have made amends for this mistake? It seems as though their lower level management needs better training, or they will suffer the consequnces.
It's called Xmas, for X's sake.
I won’t be shopping there.
Christmas and Easter fit neatly into the Pagan ritual calendar, not just for convenience's sake, but philosophically. Christ's birth around the solstice, the coldest and longest night of the year, is a candle in the darkness -- the birth of a new hope in the darkest times. Christ's resurrection is observed in spring, a time of rebirth and renewal (hence the bunnies and eggs).
Lowe’s is off my list forever.
I agree. An employee should tailor on-the-job behavior to achieve job preservation in the interest of one’s family. That means understanding and complying with what’s required to help the employer maintain good community relations. Employees need to be neutral an non-provocative, even toward customers with a chip on the shoulder. Taking off a conservative pin while on the job is part of it. If she cannot adapt, then she deserves to be self employed, work in a church, etc. Having said that, I sympathize, to a point.
These big companies better be very careful in this economic downturn. A large group of boycotting mad people, and adverse publicity, could make survival very tough.
Concur. Perfectly stated.
Sutton admits she was already looking for another job and had planned to put in a two weeks’ notice after Christmas. But she says she’s upset about missing her holiday pay.
Lowe’s released a statement reading “Personnel matters are confidential, so we’re unable to share any information; however, Lowe’s follows all federal, state and local laws governing employment including laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion.”
Lowe’s also says its employees may wish customers Merry Christmas, if they like.
http://cbs5.com/business/Lowes.Christmas.pin.2.894870.html
The pin that the woman was wearing referred to Christmas. Your examples have nothing to do with Christmas. Apples and oranges.
A liberal Demoncrat...
I agree, you can buy a Christmas Tree at Lowes but it would be difficult to find a Menorah. This story doesn't wash well.
Don’t see what this has to do with the difference between conservatism and leftism. Do you think the comments here would not have been significantly different if the pin had had either of those slogans?! Of course they would. I’ve been hanging around here long enough not to be as naive to think that they would not.
Don’t see what was offensive about it, either. I was simply pointing out the perils for businesses in regard to overt displays of religion (and I’m counting atheism as a “religion” of sorts here too). If you support a Christian button but oppose buttons in support of other religions, then obvious problems arise for businesses. That is just a fact, which I am examining analytically without regard to any emotional attachment I may have to them whatsoever. Actually, the fact that you found my mention of those two other religious slogans as “damned offensive” illustrates the point made above — that there would and in fact, IS a quite different response depending on which religion you’re talking about.
Last point: I am a socio-economic and fiscal conservative. I am not a fundamentalist religious conservative. So I know that my views will occasionally go against that grain. This is one example, as I can see both sides of the coin here.
Somebody who gets twitchy about being reminded that they’re probably going to Hell, maybe?
I’d have dearly loved to have one of those pins.
Never saw it put so plainly and so well.
“The Soviet regime was run by Marxists who intended to conserve Marxism. The Iran is run by Mullahs who intend to conserve a rigid interpretation of Islam. These are conservatives. Now what is it that I don’t understand about the difference between conservatives and leftist?”
That argument is so bad that it would have to improve significantly just to rise to the level of “wrong.”
It does, however, serve to demonstrate with perfect clarity that you do, indeed, lack all understanding of conservatism as the world view held by conservatives in the US, circa 2008. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that you pretend to that lack.
You know perfectly well that “conservative” is not currently used to describe one who wishes to conserve any status of affairs, be they leftist, theocratic, or any other.
You know perfectly well that “conservative” is used to describe a world view that incorporates at least a certain minimum number of a constellation of axioms, propositions, and beliefs regarding the nature and purpose of life, the universe, and everything, which beliefs are in opposition to leftism.
Conservatism as used today does not indicate a desire to conserve the mess the left has made of the US, but rather adherence to the principles of the country’s Founding Fathers. And, of course, adamantine enmity toward leftism, which is of and from Satan.
So, “...what is it that (you) don’t understand about the difference between conservatives and leftist?”
In a word, everything.
I am aware of that, of course, and that was exactly the main crux of my point.
Actually I don’t like that pin either. Why use the name of Jesus in vain. If it was simply a Merry Christmas pin that would be different. I don’t think she should have been fired though.
In Tennessee it is.
They’re no longer called Christmas trees.
They’re “holiday” trees, now.
While I can’t speak for Lowes this Christmas, Home Depot 2000 ft away made no bones about the fact they were selling Christmas Trees. I was glad to see it. (they sold out in week one, I’m sure Lowes was no different)
Tennessee law basically reads that Tennessee is, as far as employment is concerned, an "at will" state. You are employed at your will, and you are employed at the will of the company. Not a whole lot she can do unless she can prove "selective enforcement" of the company's policies. If that is the case, she still has an uphill battle because the policy was still violated. The only other alternative would be if there was no written policy to back-up the reason provided to her regarding her termination (if it was for anything other than poor job performance or lack of work) - in that case she would probably have a fair case in which a jury might side with her against a big box chain like Lowes.
But what gets me is that here is Lowes, that makes a boat-load of money selling Christmas decorations, lights, trees, front yard inflatable Santa's and such, and they are firing this women when she gets back from lunch after a customer supposedly complained? Okay, that leads me to believe that either: a) The store has one or more jackasses on the management team that folded when a customer complained and, fearing bad press, fired the woman; b) the woman didn't get fired for the pin, but some other infraction that she doesn't wish to divulge because she knows she is wrong; or c) the management team of the store found something else she was doing wrong (along with several others employed at the store) and decided to use that infraction to terminate her prior to giving her her holiday pay. In this scenario they did so because they had been made aware of the fact that she was about to give notice - in which case they are now trying to cover their butts, making no comments, because they know other employees could prove selective enforcement of the rules against the woman.
I'll be watching this one closely to see how it turns out prior to boycotting Lowes... If they are in the wrong, then I will boycott them.
Ragards,
Raven6
Ping!
Sheesh, I need to get to bed... Up to late last night playing Santa...
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