Posted on 07/13/2011 11:10:40 AM PDT by NYer
July 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) The American-based multinational corporation Cisco Systems, a company that touts its inclusion and diversity strategies, has come under attack for the recent firing of a top employee, reputedly over his off-the-job work defending true marriage.
Earlier this year, the company fired Dr. Frank Turek, Ciscos leadership and teambuilding program co-ordinator, after receiving complaints from a homosexual manager with the company regarding Tureks authorship of a book on homosexuality and marriage, entitled Correct, not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone.
According to Cisco management, Tureks work with the company had received nothing but praise. In fact, in the managers complaint to the company he commended the leadership program lead by Turek as excellent, but took issue with his political and religious views, which he considered inconsistent with the values of the company.
I was fired as a vendor by Cisco for my conservative beliefs about sex and marriage even though my beliefs were never expressed on the job, said Turek, a periodic columnist for the conservative paper Townhall.
Townhall columnist Mike Adams reported that Dr. Turek took up the job with Cisco to design and conduct a leadership and teambuilding program for about fifty managers in 2008. Turek received high marks and in 2010 he was commissioned to design a similar program for about 200 managers globally.
Following one of these sessions, the homosexual manager called a human resources professional at Cisco with his complaint, after apparently searching Tureks name online. According to Adams, even though neither the manager nor the HR professional had read Tureks book or heard him speak on matters of same-sex marriage or homosexuality, Turek was fired within hours, and the HR professional commended the manager for outing Turek.
Notice that Cisco did not have a problem with my behaviour, wrote Turek in a recent column. My job performance was deemed excellent, and I was inclusive and diverse by working in a respectful manner with people of all moral, religious and political views.
Cisco had a problem with my thoughts, he continued. Although I certainly accepted homosexuals, I committed the thought crime of disagreeing with homosexual behavior and homosexual political goals. So despite all their talk about inclusion and diversity, Cisco deemed my thoughts about something irrelevant to the workplace as grounds for immediate exclusion.
Turek said that Marilyn Nagel, Ciscos chief inclusion and diversity officer, could not explain the meaning of the terms to Turek during a phone call regarding his firing.
Because we believe that it has to be an employee environment where everyone is welcome, we do discourage discussions around strongly held political beliefs or religious beliefs in group settings within Cisco other than certain forums, Nagel reportedly told Turek. Were very sensitive about protecting our culture of acceptance of everyone, we dont want anyone to ever feel excluded and that means all opinions.
However, according to Adams, one such forum for inclusion and diversity that was held June 13 was decidedly one sided, with solely same-sex marriage advocates for speakers.
The speakers included a Member of Parliament for the Netherlands, Honorable Boris Dittrich, who helped his nation lead the way in recognizing same-sex marriage and a former U.S. mayor, Honorable Evan Low, a gay man and activist. .
Why didnt Ciscos relentless emphasis and training on inclusion and diversity serve to prevent [my firing]? asked Turek. Maybe its because inclusion and diversity means something different to corporate elites than to normal Americans. Inclusion and diversity to corporate elites actually means exclusion for those that dont agree with the approved views.
Meanwhile, Peter La Barbera of the pro-family group Americans for Truth warned that anyone could be the next victim of such homosexual intolerance.
If its OK to fire Frank Turek merely because he disagrees with homosexuality and same-sex marriage, then you, too, are vulnerable, said La Barbera. Christians and all defenders of sexual normalcy: we have no other choice but to fight back against the emerging liberal homo-fascism unless you are content to live as a muted serf in the land of the free.
Contact information:
Mr. John Chambers
Office of the President
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Mail Stop SJC10/5/4
300 East Tasman Drive
San Jose, California 95134
Phone: 408-526-4000; hit 0″ for operator
Sue the bastards; hard.
Maybe the guy does not reflect the values of his employer.
Let me guess: he wasn’t really an employee. He was a vendor (via The Austin Group), but LSN is just claiming he was an employee.
Am I right?
Which was he? A “top employee” or a “vendor”? The article uses both. A vendor is not an employee.
Yeah...it's up to the government to tell companies what vendors they have to hire and what ones they can't fire.
</sarc>
I love the idea of firing someone under the auspices of a diversity tolerance policy for their personal point of view.
Apparently at CISCO, tolerance & diversity are one way streets...
A conservative working at Cisco
Can’t abide all the gays using Crisco
“Marriage should be for life
With one man and one wife”
Though his attitude’s foreign in ‘Frisco
My previous comments concerning Cisco gear, cost, support and marketing - that ‘Cicso’ is Spanish for ‘bend over’ - has now taken on a whole new context.
I thought that Cisco - being a vendor of top quality electronics - would be composed of intelligent engineers.
However, I forgot that at the top of virtually every company is a cadre of idiots.
Cisco is obviously no exception.
However, thanks to liberal logic and sleeze, we’ll soon have an alternate (Chinese) source.
It’s sad to think that the Chinese govt just may have more scruples than our liberals.
Hints that your company just may be headed south:
1. Press 1 for English.
2. Mission statements that have absolutely no information contained within.
3. Any mention of “diversity” instead of “product”.
>>>>However, thanks to liberal logic and sleeze, well soon have an alternate (Chinese) source.
Chinese stuff with all kinds of back-doors and holes in it...
Well,they had to start somewhere,I guess......
-Cisco Could Eliminate as Many as 10,000 Jobs: Report-
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/07/11/business/business-us-cisco-jobs.html?_r=2&hp
Pinging Wagglebee and LJ ... might be worth running a series of threads here on FR.
My own, for example - we have been hectored endlessly this year on "diversity and inclusion" and they have even made demonstrated participation in such efforts part of our annual reviews. I kid you not.
This is insane. Last I heard, statistically, only 1% of the population is gay. Now we all need to attend diversity training to indoctrinate us into their lifestyle. How close are you to retirement?
Cisco is Chinese they moved to china a few years back. Guess they might have a few employees left here in the USA but Cisco is no longer an American company.
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