Transcontinental employee suspended after heckling female comic at awards show - The Globe and Mail

For anyone moving here, if u think its like the free speaking UK then think again, keep your mouth shut and just watch how much u drink as anything silly or sexist or God forbid racist, said while drunk is reason for losing your day job.

So you think it's ok to make sexist or racist comments and blame it on alcohol?

No I do not, but I know it happens I have seen it regularly in down town Blackpool. They get arrested or thrown out of clubs. Like they should. But lose your job? Just saying make sure u don't say nowt out of line when u have a few beers and become the cheeky chatty English person. :@) who is to say what is or is not sexist? Maybe u say some thing that is taken out of contex? Like...."can I bum a fag pal"

That's true but it's a case that's generous to the employer; one can see that racist employees might be problematic. Just to be clear, I have no problem with any amount of shit falling on the head of the, former, Hydro employee who stars in this thread.

That said, I've always been careful about expressing political views in Canada under my own name as I know that taking a anti-militarist or left of centre view is a "career limiting move". Contrary to the quoted text, I think expressing any sort of sexist view is accepted and that it's more likely to hurt a man in the workplace to not agree with 1950's opinions than to express a sexist view. The important thing is not to express a view out of sync with that of the firm.

I think the degree of separation between private and corporate life in Canada is much less than in the UK; one represents the company at all times and should be happy to embrace the values of the company. It's because workers' lives are subsumed by their jobs that they don't need or want long holidays.

It's interesting.

The point that I see in correlation between the two incidents is that both involved females trying to earn a living.

It doesn't matter if you are at work. It matters if they are.

As some one who occasionally visits pubs/bars you wonder how many people could be fired in a day if you filmed individuals and servers/bar tenders and their interactions with customers.

The problem is firing customers doesn't pay the bills.

But the mindset in Canada is somewhat peculiar. I don't want your drunk banter unless of course I am making money out of you.

Good morning.

How are you today?

The article Magnum posted refers to a guy at a corporate awards dinner - he was there representing his work, in a group of his colleagues and peers. Therefore it is quite reasonable to expect that his standard of behaviour was appropriate to the workplace: this was not some drunken heckler in a comedy club (if it had been, as the comic indicates, she would have been more at liberty to let rip at him and shut him up. But she'd been briefed, for this corporate event, that some topics were off-limits in her set).

Is it more than a coincidence that this was a printing industry event - the same industry that employs Mr "I get more than enough to eat at home" Ford?

Nobody has limited his personal freedom, he is still able to go about and say what he wants. All the employer has done is make clear what they find unacceptable behaviour. That is entirely within their right. You seem to be a lone voice defending the indefensible. Devils advocate?

No, more like a student idealist . I simply don't think giving tacit power to employers over what individuals do/think in their private time is a good path. Threat of joblessness can be a de facto limit on personal freedom.

Moving off slightly and speaking generally, I'm always surprised when people say employers are free to hire and fire who they like and operate whatever practices they see fit.

Isn't this why we have laws that protect employees and potential employees from discriminatory practices?

+1.

Same here, agreed. The employer cannot impose censorship (yes, that's what it is) on your actions outside of work. I personally hope the guy in the OP takes it to court. He wasn't actually charged by the police it seems, so technically he didn't break any laws. They have absolutely no solid grounds to have terminated him.

I think it was dbd who posted about being anti-military being negative in terms of employment, which brings up another thing - all the people fired for what they post on their personal social media accounts, outside of work. I don't even understand why employers feel the need to intrude and snoop on you like that. I am "anti-military" in that I do not support the military action in Afghanistan, and oppose the actions of Israel with regards to Occupied Palestine, and i'm somewhat of what they call a "voluntaryist", which means I oppose certain laws and government action. I'm sure if a potential employer saw any of that i'd be in the can. So i've had to be careful in locking down everything privacy wise, and when I start in the rat-race world, I won't "friend" anyone to do with work, or use my personal electronics (mobile, laptop) for anything work related.

are there any women on this thread defending these idiots? so far it only seems to be men.


speaks volumes.

I just think it's hilarious how the whole thing has become about HIS job and HIs career and blah blah blah. I guess it's okay to slag off a woman without penalties doing HER job and trying to have HER career if a guy's career is then at risk. OH NOES. HE LOST HIS JOB. BUT HE WAS DRUNK. HE COULDN'T HELP IT. HIS FREEDOM OF SPEECH. POLICE STATE. OH NOES. GUYS DO THAT STUFF. IT'S OKAY. FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

Freedom to make women feel unsafe at work is A_OK for some I guess.

Maybe it's time to take this out to the wider issue of violence against women, and how this action was part of that, and how such actions serve to keep women quiet and out of certain male-dominated areas.

I've adopted the no "friends" from work policy for sometime. It has served me well.

The device thing is kind of irrelevant. Everything is in the cloud and the device (whether work or personal) is just where you access the required platform. It is somewhat of a pain remembering all these passwords these days!

Of course there are no women on this thread defending him, we are all in the kitchen cooking and cleaning in our rightful place.

I honestly can't bring myself to read this thread anymore, the apologists for his behaviour honestly make me shake with rage
Literally.

Very good post.