Posted on 11/02/2006 12:01:17 PM PST by tobyhill
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck trying to get your bus driving job back after giving the President the finger."
In case anyone's wondering, it's pronounced ISS ah kwah.
Yep..cool town, I lived there and went to Issaquah High, my dad still lives there, it sure has grown over the last 25 years.
It's got a lovely situation. I used to commute to a church on the plateau and loved coming down the hill, looking over the valley and at the mountains.
I still don't think it's a fireable offense. It was a stupid thing to do. Maybe her so-called "pattern of behavior" put her in the should-be-fired category. Free speech may not be exactly what you want it to be, but we are free to flip someone off should we so choose.
Stop right there. You do NOT have freedom of speech while I am paying you to work for me. You are not free to discuss religion/politics/sex/racism at my place of business, period. That is my business POLICY. And while you are in my employ, you are most certainly not allow to flip-off anyone while driving the company bus.
Free speech is about GOVERNMENT attempting to limit what you can say. It is NOT about what, I as your employer, state you can and cannot say or do while in my (or for example, the local school systems) employment.
Let approach this a different way. Since you believe flipping the bird in front of children is not a firable offense. How about is the bus driver said outloud "F%^$ that George Bush" or "F^%^ that congressman"? that must be allowed under free speech by your argument. How about if the bus driver dropped the N-bomb along with the F-bomb?
I'll go you one better. In the NFL, you can and will be fined/suspended for behaviors/actions that you do entirely OUTSIDE your work obligations and outside of your required working hours. When you sign a contract to work for any employer, you almost always agree to act in an ethical, professional and moral manner.
Jeez, somebody p*ss in your cornflakes this mornin'?
No, it was my coffee they hit.
And I am free not to employ your sorry a$$ if you do so while working for my company.
Let me pose this question: Would you have fired the "sorry a$$" of someone in your employ if it was revealed to you that they had "flipped off" Bill Clinton?
I'm just saying, flipping somebody the bird is just a gesture, a meaningless, stupid one, but a gesture nonetheless. It only makes the flipper look like an idiot.
It doesn't matter, if it is my company, and that person violates the policy, and if it feel it would reflect bad on my bottom line, even if they flipped off Bill Clinton, then yes I would fire them. Business is business.
You seem to want to ignore or forget that this was a school bus driver on a bus full of children. Do you think that also has some bearing on the matter?
Fine, but just don't go around crying that someone's right to free speech is being violated.
I'm afraid you would have had a hard time keeping employees if you had your business in the Bay Area in California, where I no longer live, thankfully. I've seen and heard much, much worse from my lib ex-coworkers against President Bush.
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