Military Update: Veterans could see benefits cut in effort to reduce federal deficit
Posted on 11/23/2013 4:14:09 AM PST by daniel1212
STOCKTON, CA – A hospital in California that recently put a retired military veteran on leave after he asked to speak with an attorney about their request to remove ‘God bless America’ from his email signature has partially rescinded its actions following a national outcry over the matter.
As previously reported, Dameron Hospital employee Boots Hawks was called into his supervisor’s office earlier this month and asked to remove the phrase from his email, which is one of three that he posts with his signature. “Excuses only satisfy the person making them” and “Change is either induced by inspiration or desperation” are also displayed on each email.
“I believe in America, and I believe in God so strongly,” Hawks told local television station KCRA. “And I believe that America needs a blessing.”
While Hawks complied with the directive, he also told his supervisor that he wanted to consult with an attorney about his rights.
Much to his surprise, Hawks was put on leave for “insubordination.” He returned to work this Wednesday to find that the combination on his lock had been changed and his computer password had been suspended.
As Hawks had contacted the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), the organization sent a letter to the hospital, demanding that it recant its actions. It noted that Hawks has been on staff for ten years and was once named “Employee of the Year.” He had served twenty years in the Army, earning the rank of Sergeant First Class.
“Rarely do we see something as shocking as supervisors placing a hard-working military veteran on leave right before Veterans’ Day for saying something patriotic,” stated PJI President Brad Dacus. “The hospital’s actions were outrageous and illegal. We expect a swift apology and full restoration of Mr. Hawks’ rights.” Connect with Christian News
As reports of the incident broke nationwide, the hospital provided further information to PJI, and is partially recanting the reasons for putting Hawks on leave. The organization reported on Friday that a Dameron human resource official advised that Mr. Hawks was no longer considered to be insubordinate, but state that he may have been “disrespectful.” The hospital agreed to restore the lost pay from the time when Hawks was on leave, and advised that no punishment would be implied.
However, Dameron officials continue to insist that Mr. Hawks refrain from including “God bless America” in his email signature. A reason for the ban on the phrase has not yet been provided.
“We view the hospital’s response as a retreat from some of their earlier positions, but clearly they have a long way to go toward making this right,” Dacus stated. “We will continue to press for fair and equal treatment of Mr. Hawks’ speech. No one—least of all a veteran—should be censored for fear that someone will be offended by their patriotism.”
Hawks said that he appreciates the hospital and does not wish to speak poorly of his place of employment, but feels that the situation is unjust.
“I don’t mean this to be bad publicity,” he told reporters. “I just see that we need to have justice done.”
Military Update: Veterans could see benefits cut in effort to reduce federal deficit
Even Free Republic has censored my tag line because it supposedly "offended" some un-named member.
What did it say?
I agree completely and no offense to Mr. Hawks, but I find any of those personal email tag lines on business emails rather annoying. I’m glad that Mr. Hawks is God Fearing Patriotic American and I sincerely thank him for his military service, but I probably don’t need to know all that about him if I’m corresponding with him on solely business related matters. If I correspond with him on a personal basis and via our personal emails outside of work hours, that’s something completely different.
But on business emails, I really don’t care if you think that God Blesses America or if you support Breast Cancer Research or the Human Society, that you are running in a marathon for your favorite charity and want me to know about that or send a donation, that you beseech me not to print this email for the “good of the planet”, if you “I “heart” Obama”, or you want me to know that “Jesus Saves” or that “Allah is Great” or that “Excuses only satisfy the person making them” and “Change is either induced by inspiration or desperation” (what the heck does that even mean and why should I care that you think this or that you think that I should?) and Heck No; I’m not going to ask you about your grandchildren – I’m sure your grandchildren are the most bright and beautiful EVAR, but frankly I don’t know you on a personal basis and so I really don’t care.
And if you have so much idol time on your hands at your job that you have time to update your email signature on a daily basis with the “inspirational” Quote of the Day, I really want your job because I have no time for such nonsense at my current job. And I frankly don’t care what Gandhi, the Dali Lama, Ben Franklin, JFK, Spock, JK Rowling, Aristotle, Erma Bombeck or Jesus had to say – well not on a business emails at least, in that case, I’m only interested in what YOU have to say with respect to the business matter at hand.
For business purposes, IMO, an email signature should only contain the person’s name (maybe job title but those are mostly useless and superfluous to me) and a phone number (just in case the email I just received made no sense whatsoever and I have to pick up the phone for clarification or to see if it was written by an actual human or if I’m curious to find out if the person speaks as stupidly as they write) and maybe an snail mail address but then again, if I really need to snail mail you, I can email you and ask for it.
Some other business email gripes - please set your email so that only the first or the first reply in a long chain of emails has your signature block; I don’t need to see all that or links to your company’s website or links to your company’s product catalogue or your company’s logo and “mission statement” on each and every single email reply. And don’t reply to ALL if you only need to reply to me and don’t reply to me if I’ve already told you and forwarded your email to someone else because I’m not the appropriate person to handle the matter. Also, don’t reply to include the exact same attachment that I just sent you – hint – I just sent it to you so I already have it.
I’ve received some business emails that look a lot like this:
or
I’ve also received business emails with annoying animated GIF’s, animated company logos and fonts of many various sizes and colors. Ug!
And why does this matter to me? Why do I find it annoying?
First of all my company gives us only so much space for our email in-boxes and saved email folders (Lotus Notes) and these really long email signature lines (especially the ones with links and GIF’s) and if they have unnecessary attachments, they take up a lot of space. I can of course delete resolved emails or archive older ones (which is not as easy as it sounds), save the attachments to a network folder, or print them out, all of which I do, but I sometimes have an active email chain with many respondents and these often get ridiculously long even without all the personal tag lines and excessively long and completely unnecessary signature blocks.
Secondly, speaking of having to print out an email because I need to keep a record of it for legal or later references purposes, and again if the email chain goes over the course of several days or weeks and has many respondents, and if everyone has a signature block like the ones in the pictures I posted above, the last email in the chain can end up being well over 40 pages long but only with about two or three pages of useful and relevant information.
The Five Most Annoying Types of Email Signatures
The bottom line is that this is a work email address, one provided by his employer. His employer has a right to set and enforce company policies regarding what they think is or isn’t appropriate to add to email signatures. Like Feckless , I once worked at a company and currently work for a company were we have to use standardized email formats, not only the signature block but also font and font size and font colors and we are not allowed to add any personal tag lines or GIF’s or links.
Of course if this employer allows all sorts of other types of personal statements on company emails by other employees but is only singling him out for his, then that may be another matter completely. But I think the best company policy is to not allow any personal statements and tag lines whatsoever. It is mostly annoying and or unnecessary to the people who receive them and IMO has no place on business emails. They should set a standard and a policy and enforce it equally across the entire organization.
IMO, while I don’t at all disagree with Mr. Hawks’s sentiment and I would not personally find it at all offensive, this is not a really a “freedom” of speech issue IMO. I for instance can’t add personal statements and links in my work emails advocating things like who to vote for at election time, advertizing my personal blog or my outside business (if I had one), promoting my religion or my church or advocating an Atheist cause, or my personal charitable causes that my company is not involved in or not endorsing. My employer is not in business in order to give me any sort of personal platform on company time and nor do they have to allow me to use company electronic resources in order to promote them.
FWIW, if an employee added a quote on his work email from Jeremiah Wright saying “God Damn America” most of us would have no problem with the company terminating that employee. Likewise if I worked for a Christian based business or org. and their policy said that I had to drive a company vehicle displaying Bible quote and a Jesus fish and likewise had to have these quotes and symbols on my company emails, if I didn’t like that or found it offensive to me, my recourse would be to find another job.
I was trained by the US Government to kill Communists and Radical Muslims. IrOnic, ain’t it?
Ha ha ha... Love the douchespeak.
I’ve seen worse here... That stinks that happened to you.
Im with you - provided the idiots established standards of correspondece as most do.
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