magnumpi

http://m.torontosun.com/2015/05/12/hydro-one-firing-tfc-fan-after-vulgar-comment

A man who hurled a vulgar comment and swore at a CityNews reporter outside of a Toronto FC game is being fired by Hydro One.
The company confirmed Shawn Simoes is in the process of being terminated from his position as an assistant network management engineer.

What with Facebook pics outing them funeral guys who stopped for a donut and all the cop videos, who needs cctv in Canada when the Canadian public appear to police themselves with results!!

JamesM

The guy in the Arsenal shirt was the one fired. I was not surprised by the association with Arsenal football club here.

The other twat with the sunglasses lives in my neighbourhood and seems to have a reputation for being a twat. I look forward to bumping in to him when he musters up the courage to show his face again.

I passed them on the way out. A typical example of Canadian bro's and unacceptable frat boy behaviour. This country has gone to the dogs.

Gozit

IMO it happened whilst he was not at work, not being paid by the company, not at a company event. Canadian law and law enforcement should trump "company policy", especially when the "violation" of said policy occurred when the employee was not at work. Not saying what the bloke did was right, but it wasn't right for the company to take action either. That's the police/law enforcement's job if there were laws broken.

caretaker

Fired Him Right In The Paycheque. Unacceptable insults made in public will get you fired from public sector and private sector jobs.

Greenhill

So, if he was an employee in your company, you'd have kept him?

Gozit

If he did a good job at what he did and was a good employee then yes I would see no issue. I can't understand why society keeps bringing in stuff that people do outside of their job into their job. Its part of this annoying culture here that people don't have separate lives outside of their jobs.

magnumpi

Regarding Mr Arsenal, (who was out of order of course) BUT, was the female reporter out of order too going over to, and interviewing an obviously drunk group of guys.? Is there no rules for media not to exspose a drunken guy to the public, the consequences have snow balled for him now. He will have to get lawyered up for this one I guess.

Greenhill

That might put the spotlight on you, though. All too easy for competitors to put up a show by passing on the inference that you subscribe to the employee's bad attitude.

The opportunity here (the obvious one) is to kick him out and enjoy the free advertising.

JamesM

Whether drunk or sober the best response to any camera and microphone from the media is "no comment".

They can show you in any context regardless of how you say or deliver it.

Greenhill

Interesting article that includes comments from the Hydro One CEO:

Firing employee got Hydro One a lot of publicity; if it’s for cause that’s a bonus | Financial Post

magnumpi

James, imagine the comments one would get in a pub in the UK if some one entered just before last orders, that would fill a large proportion of YouTube lol

JamesM

The behaviour of individuals in any pub. I see behaviour like this all the time here but the reality is if you are spending money in a bar regularly the behaviour is tolerated by the management.

Just don't be a Frat Boy Bro and take it outside.

magnumpi

Imagine how he felt when he woke up the next day. At first I guess he was calling or getting calls from his mates "hey dude u is on the telly" then after oh my, talk about post drunken regrets lol "idiot"

Oakvillian

Yes, Hydro One was right to fire him.

This goes beyond doing something stupid on social media. It was live on air. It doesn't matter how drunk the guy was - if he thinks it is appropriate behaviour, in any circumstances, to say that sort of thing to (or about) a woman, then perhaps the reality-check of being fired will do him an ounce of good. Why on earth would anybody think it's acceptable to say that to any woman, ever - let alone somebody in the middle of a live TV broadcast. It would be easy to dismiss as puerile, if it weren't so deeply offensive.

We don't know all the circumstances of his dismissal (or at least, I don't - I don't care about him enough to find out). Was he in a position that involved making visits to customer premises? Was he terminated with cause or was he packaged out? The news last night indicated that he was hardly a junior employee - he made a good salary (paid for by taxpayers, since HydroOne is a government-owned entity... not that I think that is relevant to this case, but as a Sunshine List member his compensation is a matter of public record).

It all fundamentally comes down to people's misunderstanding of the principles of free speech: sure, you're quite at liberty to make dumbass comments, or even this sort of sexual harassment dressed up as some sort of lame "hey look at me" photobombing thing. But others are equally free to take a dim view of your behaviour and to take action against you as a result. Freedom of speech protects you against criminal proceedings as a result of what you say, but does not allow you to be completely free of the consequences of your words or actions.

dbd33

$104,000 at Hydro One is the salary of a junior employee. The programmer I shadowed there for ten years made more than that when I started doing his job and much more by the end.