Watch out, kids. Don’t try to be funny on the internet or you’ll be fired by Walmart.
David is Consumerist reader who works at Walmart. He was recently fired for posting a joke that mentioned Walmart on his MySpace. The comment:
The exact quote said “Drop a bomb on all the Walmarts, trailer parks, ghettos, monster truck shows, and retarded fake “pro wrestling” events, and the average I.Q. score would probably double.” This was a silly statement, but in no way was a threat as Walmart said and used as reason for my termination and denying my unemployment benefits. On my “Exit Interview” they checked Gross Misconduct – Integrity Issue (which they describe as: Theft, Violent Act, Dishonesty, or Misappropriation of Company Assets) as the reason I was fired. They wrote on the exit interview that it was a threat posted on website; which it clearly is not.
The Flint Journal (David’s local paper) has written up his story, but he also wrote us a letter. David seems like a nice guy, and is clearly dedicated to customer service. He’s received a personal thank you letter from the President of Walmart after a customer wrote Walmart to compliment them on David’s “service with a smile.”
Read David’s email inside.
To whom it may concern:
I was fired from Walmart on Feb. 27th 2007 for posting a joke on my myspace page that someone had copied, printed, and brought to managements attention. The exact quote said “Drop a bomb on all the Walmarts, trailer parks, ghettos, monster truck shows, and retarded fake “pro wrestling” events, and the average I.Q. score would probably double.” This was a silly statement, but in no way was a threat as Walmart said and used as reason for my termination and denying my unemployment benefits. On my “Exit Interview” they checked Gross Misconduct – Integrity Issue (which they describe as: Theft, Violent Act, Dishonesty, or Misappropriation of Company Assets) as the reason I was fired. They wrote on the exit interview that it was a threat posted on website; which it clearly is not. I have an exemplary customer service record and near perfect attendance. I even got a personal Thank You from the company President for a letter he received from a customer who was really impressed with the “service with a smile” attitude I brought to work consistently. During the termination Dean Genore the store manager who fired me even said that he knows me and that he knows I’m not that type of person, but since someone brought it to the walmart legal departments attention and they said: with the climate since the Columbine incident and the others that followed, that they had to fire me.
They denied my unemployment, so first I had to fill out a fact finding form and send that in to the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA). Then I received a notice of determination from them saying I was disqualified for benefits under MES ACT, SEC. 29(1)(B). It reads :
“You were discharged from Walmart associates inc. on 2/27/07 for integrity issues. You had a posting on your personal website stating to “Bomb all the Walmarts” to increase the average IQ scores. Your conduct was not in the best interest of your employer.
It is found that you were fired for a deliberate disregard of your employers interest. You are disqualified for benefits under MES ACT, SEC. 29(1)(B).”
Then I had to request a redetermination,which required me to write a letter of protest clearly stating the reason I disagree with the determination. The following is that letter:
To whom it may concern:
I disagree with the determination and would like to request a redetermination. The reason I disagree is that the wording in the notice of determination was taken out of context. This is the exact sentence in the notice of determination I received: “You had a posting on your personal website stating to “Bomb all the Walmarts” to increase the average I.Q. scores.” The exact wording of the sentence posted on my myspace site is “Drop a bomb on all the Walmarts, trailer parks, ghettos, Monster truck shows, and retarded fake “pro wrestling” events, and the average I.Q. score would probably double.” It doesn’t state to do these things, it’s a joke saying if all those places suddenly didn’t exist the average I.Q. would probably double. I even sent a copy of the web page my employer printed up as the reason for my termination, so I don’t understand why the wording was taken out of context and made to appear as something other than a joke statement. I didn’t bring it in to work or even talk about it there, I believe a coworker that didn’t like me printed it up and brought it to managements attention to cause me hardship at work. This was not a deliberate disregard of my employers’ interest.
Sincerely,
David Michael Noordewier
If you have any advice, or can put me in touch with an interested lawyer, and/or help get this story “out there” to shame Walmart into doing the right thing; it would be sooo greatly appreciated.
Thank You so very much in advance.
Sincerely,
David Noordewier
This is really sad. We know a lot of Consumerist readers work at places like Walmart, and it’s sad to see one of them lose their job over something so silly! Does anyone have any advice for David?—MEGHANN MARCO
Joke on MySpace costs Wal-Mart worker his job [Flint Journal]
(Photo: crawfishpie)
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It was an asinine thing to write and he’s more the fool for thinking he should still be employed. Over the past year there have been a spate of bomb threats that have closed schools, etc in mid-Michigan. That type of stuff is disruptive regardless if he was joking. Any company would run him out the door for the simple fact that if they found out about this, let him keep working, and then something actually happened, the company would be screwed. I seem to remember some Consumerist posts blaring – SEX OFFENDER WORKING FOR AS HOME DEPOT INSTALLER! Could you imagine the headlines if Walmart let this guy keep working and he killed a bunch of people? They simply cannot take that chance.
First off… how and why did they find your website?
Second of all you could tell them to prove that its something you did.
If i had your contact info and a few picture of you i could put up some political site about your status in congress. It doesn’t mean that you are actually in congress. But lets just belive everything on the internet is fact and judge people on their factless rambelings.
He should be glad he’s not in Boston – they would have had EOD blow him up first.
Bad judgement, yes.
Threat, no.
Misrepresented by WalMart to the Unemployment Insurance Agency? sounds like it.
If anyone thought there was a serious threat, he’d have been investigated by the police. It seems clear that everyone knows exactly what David meant and that everyone knows that he clearly should be fired for those remarks. Well, everyone except David who is assuming a misunderstanding is responsible because he doesn’t want to accept responsibility for his incredibly stupid remarks.
…..He’s actually lucky he got fired. Walmart, in my state, just reduces employees it doesn’t like to 4 hours a week in perpetuity. They can’t claim unemployment because they aren’t unemployed. If they quit, they can’t collect, either.
…..I knew when I read the post that the
“poor victim” was headed for some snarky smackdown! Hopefully he now knows that talking bad about his bosses isn’t a good idea!
Not a lot different to what Rob Muldoon, New Zealand’s Prime Minister at the time, said:
“Everytime a New Zealander emigrates to Australia, the average IQ of both nations increases”
Somewhat more subtle than the chappy here and a prime rule is business life is never but never to bad mouth your employer.
I’m an throughly offended by what that man said.
I have a college degree, a 156 IQ and I love Monster Trucks and Professional Wrestling.
Well maybe firing him was wrong but some action should have been taken at his ignorance at least. I’m a respectable mother of four, graphic artist, writer and photographer.
I enjoy monster trucks, pro wrestling, and sin of all sins I actually shop at Walmart because with four kids no matter how much cash you bring in – diapers, formula, medicine and clothes are half the price there as any other store.
I think maybe he isn’t a bad guy – just an ignorant narrow minded twit.
If you dropped a bomb on all of the ignorant narrowminded twits – wars would end.
If I were his boss I’d fire him for being unfunny.
Guess what guy who thinks he’s above all of the ghetto-dwellers and Walmart shoppers: you work at Walmart. You rely on those people for money.
I feel sorry for the kid. When you get fired from Wal*Mart, where else is there left to go down to?
I don’t get why he even did the exit interview.
What did he hope it would accomplish?
I would never do one, it’s demeaning, they shit canned me!
Wow, blaming it on Columbine is old school as hell. Someone should at least tell him about 9/11 or even Virginia Tech. I bet up until last year the manager was like “Well, with the climate after the Oklahoma City bombings…”
@nidolke: Hmm… You just may have a point…
Were I in charge of the Walmart’s in question, I’d fire the guy, for cause, and would dispute his entitlement unemployment. He, despite being in a customer service position, called my customers morons. He demonstrated a lack of respect, politeness and basic common-sense. Perhaps, if he had kissed ass impressively enough, I might have been content to choose some lesser penalty. His whining is as misplaced as his apportionment of the blame.
People should just stop talking about bombs:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/30/america/NA-GEN-U…
This hyper-paranoia thing is getting out of hand. It is obvious it was a stupid joke. Don’t the powers-that-be at Walmart have more important thing to worry about than a joke posted on MySpace? Yet one more reason (out of 1,000s) to NOT shop at Walmart.
@dbeahn: @bambino: @acambras:
I’ve seen too many references to “hot” guys, and fashion critiques in reading that blog to think that the “character” in “Behind the Counter” is a guy.
This post: http://bbcamerican.blogspot.com/2004/11/more-fashion-disas…
There are comments in this post that refer to “Barrio Boy” in a romantic sense:
http://bbcamerican.blogspot.com/2007/03/making-me-smile.ht…
Just my observation
Don’t you need a plane to “drop a bomb?” And how likely is a WalMart employee to have such a conveyance?
We’re too paranoid for our own good…
Meh… Kinda makes you wonder if the Chinese government has regulated the chain store that sells all their products.
One more reason why Wal-Mart should go out of business. And besides, why should stuff he does on his own time in his employer’s best interest? Does that mean he can get fired to shopping at Target? Please. And unemployment insurance is a sham so politicians can point to it and pretend they’re actually doing something. They’re only interested in enslaving you for money. Don’t rely on someone else and make your own goddamn emergency fund, save for your own damn retirement, and educate your children yourself. IF you want something done right, don’t rely on the government, because they take 3 weeks to send papers through a building. By comparison, FedEx can send papers HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD in a week.
This reminds me of the time a guy I knew made a joke about firing a “Tom Cruise Missile” at a Church of Scientology compound. They threw a giant fit and he got arrested for making terrorist threats… heh. Wonder how Keith’s doing these days.
If trash-talking customers/clients/co-workers on your own time is a termination-worthy offense, then we’re going have a pretty damn huge labour crisis on our hands.
The guy’s only mistake was that he ranted online. If there were any actual human beings involved in reviewing his case, instead of corporate automatons, they’d have chalked the incident up as the online equivalent of ‘beer and bitching’ after work, and dealt with it as such.
(That being said, this is exactly why I don’t use sites like MySpace and FaceBook with anything resembling my real name.)
Interestingly enough, IQ scores are based on a bell curve, and so if all the stupid people were killed, then everyone else’s IQ would fall such that the same average IQ would result.
@Kierst_thara: Trash-talking your place of employment on your own time is fine. Its doing so publicly with an awful joke about how great it would be if your employers customers were killed isn’t. That’s the difference here. They aren’t firing him for shopping at Target on his own time. They aren’t firing him for making a stupid joke about wrestling fans. They aren’t firing him because they think he’s going to bomb the place. They are firing him because he insulted their patrons. OF COURSE they would fire him for that and of course they SHOULD fire him for that.
A bomb threat almost ruined my date tonight. I blame this wal-mart guy.
@BStu: Sure, it was a bad joke, and some bad judgement on David’s part, but I honestly don’t think the incident merits the crucification that he’s getting here.
I’d say the defining factor here is intent. If David had made his ‘joke’ to a customer while he was at work, or at the company picnic, or if he’d registered ‘BombAllWalmarts.com’ and handed out leaflets to all his co-workers, then sure, fire him. But it was a joke on MySpace. Who takes MySpace seriously? Pretty much only people who want to be pricks in situations like this.
Yes, if you put something on the internet, that makes it potentially public to everyone in the world, and there are plenty of people who are learning that the hard way, but there are also about a zillion other places where Walmart customers are being insulted, and firing David over his MySpace page certainly isn’t going to change that.
All I’m saying is that it just seems hypocritical and reactionary to get up on a high horse about ‘integrity issues’ when most of us are all guilty to one extent or another, and it’s only the ‘bad internets’ that’s the condemning factor in this particular case.
I agree that intent should be considered. Was the entire post about Walmart specifically or was it just included in the “joke”? In the end, if Wal-mart managers want to fire you for making a stupid joke about stupid people going to Wal-mart that is their decision. It does sound like this may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
As far as the comments regarding an employee’s right to do what they want on their own time….I disagree. I know that Wal-mart isn’t a “high profile” type of job but in the real world what you do on your “own time” can effect your employment regardless of where you work. I have a friend on the Fire Department. He can get fired from the Fire Department for getting drunk and acting like an idiot in public. The Department takes their public persona very seriously.
I think that in some instances, and I don’t count this myspace joke as one of them, employers have a right to fire you for something that was done “off hours”. I expect I will hear a certain amount of backlash because of that comment but there it is.
And if you don’t want your words coming back to bite you….don’t put them in print…don’t make them available to the entire world by broadcasting them on the net. Use your head.
@gwong: ah, the first ammendment. big brother’s/big corporation’s worst nightmare.
this is america peoples. surely this kind of crap is illigal.
Take it from a Walmart employee. This guy is lucky. Walmart is the worst company in the world to work for, and I have worked for several others before. McDonalds offers better pay, more hours and better benefits.
And while this joke was totally stupid, and not really funny, its true. People who shop at Walmart are not very smart, or they would have a job that makes enough money that they wouldn’t have to shop their. Although, I’ll also add that 99% of all employee’s of walmart are also stupid, since they work for the company that rips them off right in front of their face… and puts up with it.
Thing is, I can rant about Walmart and call them stupid because they can’t trace me.. I’m on a public computer, gave a fake email address and didn’t give any hint to my personal being.
Note to poster: If you wanna call your company dumb, be sure and do it anonymously.