The Goodwill in Washington Iowa fired a thirty-year-old employee with Down syndrome after his mother bought him a $3 shirt. Goodwill initially refused to sell the shirt because of a policy banning employees from making purchases on days they were working. Another employee intervened and approved the sale after the employee’s mother explained both that she was a family member and not an employee, and that the employee with Down syndrome had no interest in buying clothes. When the employee reported to work the next day, he was fired.
[The worker's mother] wrote to Goodwill of the Heartland President Jeff Nock explaining what happened and got back a letter saying, “We are sorry that things didn’t work out with Goodwill and [the worker]. … If donors and customers felt that our staff get any favoritism at all in terms of what staff are able to purchase from stores, donors wouldn’t donate and shoppers wouldn’t shop.”
The rules say violations of the shopping policy might be considered theft, and action “up to and including termination” can result. The misconduct section has four disciplinary levels, starting with verbal warnings.
Mark Zaiger, Goodwill’s attorney, said, “The policy is clear. The employer has the authority to terminate. . . . ” Goodwill spokeswoman Dana Engelbert said the shopping policy is strict because of a public perception “that Goodwill employees get all the good stuff.” But Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa is more flexible than its Heartland counterpart. Employees can’t buy things while on the clock, but they can before or after work. No one is fired on a first violation, said Marlyn McKeen, President.
While it’s great that Goodwill wants to fight the perception of favoritism, it makes no sense to fire a worker with Down syndrome for violating a policy that doesn’t appear to have been violated. Goodwill should reconsider its actions and show a little good will towards their workers.
Firing of Goodwill worker with Down syndrome raises questions [Lancaster Eagle Gazette]
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This just seems wrong. Mostly because I keep wanting to call their policy “retarded,” but that seems so wrong that even I can’t do it.
I don’t even know where to start…yes, it matters that the employee had Down’s. Have you ever seen an employee at McDonald’s with Down’s Syndrome working the fryers? No. They are given jobs where they don’t hurt themselves and that are easily understood. If you have an employee with Down’s Syndrome, you know that you treat them with kid gloves and you don’t fire them for a stupid policy like that.
Honestly, Goodwill…I’ve never been a fan of yours, anyway. Now I’m even less of one.
Target, Kmart and WalMart employees can shop whenever they aren’t actively on the clock. Their qualifying family members can shop and get the employee’s discount even when the employee is working. I can understand if Dustin was shopping during work or had stashed a shirt to purchase later. However it sounds like this shirt was on the rack and not hidden in any way. The mother lives in Mt. Pleasant which is over 30 minutes from Dustin’s workplace and is not an employee of the company.
It seems to me that it sounds like management had more of an issue with Dustin than just the purchase of a shirt. They used this as a (lame) excuse to terminate him from his job. Maybe it was because he was a 10-year employee with a higher wage than Goodwill wished to continue to pay. Maybe it was just an issue of management having a dislike for the guy or that he was showing a particular like for someone else on the staff that made them uncomfortable. What ever way you slice it, the evidence seems suspicious that he was fired over a trivial issue when he wasn’t the one who was actually responsible for the purchase to begin with.
I personally hope that Goodwill is taken through the legal mill of defending their questionable process of firing this man. Furthermore, I hope they lose their “shirts” over the process of litigation.
I’m happy to say that I donate all of my needed items to the local crisis shelters and do not take anything to Goodwill or Salvation Army in my town.
The one who fired the worker with a Down syndrome is either an asshole or an asshole. No choice there fella.
Hey, the rules are the rules!
goodbye goodwill. i will NEVER give to a company that treats its employees in this manner.
This is why I donate to the Salvation Army. Goodwill has a history of dick moves with my family starting in the 40′s when they refused to help my grandparents at all because my grandmother was a German war bride. Randomly taking stuff from my parent’s property in the 70′s and 80′s and now this.
Goodwill gets horrible ratings by employees on Glassdoor.com. I wonder why.
Stupid hipster employees hoarding all the ironic t-shirts from the 1980s ruin goodwill for everyone
Reply I just received from Jeff Nock President of Goodwill of the Heartland:
Dear [ redacted by me ],
Thank you for contacting me to share your feelings regarding the Goodwill employee about whom you have recently read in the media. I do understand your feelings and we are looking into the situation. In the meantime, I also value and respect the privacy rights of this gentleman and therefore cannot comment on the situation. I do want you to know that Goodwill lives its mission everyday. We provide the clients we serve with employment opportunities within our organization and throughout the communities we serve. We also clearly and frequently communicate with our employees the workplace rules and culture by which we work to fulfill our mission. We believe in a reasonable, thorough, and thoughtful process for reviewing employee actions. We gather information from available sources and review that information at various levels within the organization before a decision is made.
Goodwill shares your passion for serving people facing barriers to employment. Thank you again for contacting me.
Regards,
Jeff Nock
Sounds like he’s whipped up a canned reply.
Hopefully something comes of this and Dustin gets his job back. I know I won’t be donating or buying from Goodwill anytime soon.
Received the same canned response this morning.
Ha, they are worried that the public will think that the employees get the good stuff, well let me tell ya, Goodwill takes the good stuff and auctions it off on their web site, not letting it get to the everyday goodwill shoppers, but to the people who can afford to bid hundreds on a handbag or coat. So, my question is this, was it a gucci shirt or a walmart handme down for $3…C’mon goodwill, Were you really just cutting costs by firing a clothing sorter who made $11/hr so you could hire another and pay them 6.25/hr…profits profits profits. I think the fact that he was disabled just made it easier for them to fire him (as per their thinking) than to fire the cashier who finalized the sale or the person who approved it, since they probably werent disabled employees, I assume that since they were handling money and were decision makers in the company. Just my random thoughts…