Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I never thought that I would find myself defending Wal-Mart, but this case is not comparable to the one where a photographer was threatened by the store security ape. Here we have an employee who engages in conduct that elicits complaints from (some) customers, is told to stop that conduct and does not, then gets fired. It seems a pretty straightforward case of disciplinary action (whether it was overly harsh or not is another issue, but the guy had been warned by his supervisor), and does not really relate to the wider issues of freedom of speech etc. Nathan Jeffery Smith wrote: > On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 14:04:08 +0100, Ruben <ruben@rhodos.dk> wrote: > >>What is the world comming to > > > It's coming to this: > Wal-Mart Greeter Fired for Saucy Pic > Friday, January 07, 2005 > > MUSCATINE, Iowa ? A Wal-Mart (search) greeter was sacked for > apparently showing too much of his friendly side to customers. > > Dean L. Wooten, 65, was accused of greeting customers with a > computer-generated photo of himself in which he appeared to be naked ? > except for a carefully placed Wal-Mart bag ? and of telling customers > that Wal-Mart was cutting costs and the sack was the company's new > uniform. > > A supervisor at the Muscatine store where Wooten had worked for seven > years told him to knock it off after customers complained. He was > fired five days later, in September, after he displayed the photo > again. > > Wooten's application for unemployment compensation was rejected by an > administrative law judge, who said "a reasonable person would know the > act of showing a naked body wearing a Wal-Mart sack would not be good > for the employer's business." > > Wooten said he did not see the harm in the photo, which he said was > made by a friend who spliced a picture of Wooten's head onto a shot of > another man's body. > > "When I first seen it, I pretty near died laughing," he said. > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com