Home Depot employee fired for wearing "nation under God" pin

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_god_button_home_depot

I disagree with this, the language on the pin is from the pledge of allegiance and I think the pin symbolized his love for his country more than his love of God.

As for reading a Bible on his break, well I don't have a problem with that either as long as he's preaching/trying to convert/otherwise interfere with employees.

Can you imagine the reaction if this had been a Muslim employee fired allegedly for reading the Koran on a break? Oh, my.

[BroomJockey]

These mottos and sayings that involve God, that's part of our country and historical fabric,"

Except it's a recent addition to the pledge of allegiance, made in response to the Cold War and the Godless Commie Bastards.

So, unless he means "part of our historical fabric of being oppositional, jingoistic, and warring," no, it's not really part of the historical fabric.

Further, welcome to at-will employment, and private institutions. Technically, he was fired for violating dress code and insubordination. Ain't technicalities a bitch. No lawsuit.

[HYHYBT]

Lawsuit, no. But if it's true that they didn't object to the pin until he started reading the Bible on his breaks, the chance that it was the pin itself that got him fired and they just didn't notice until then is slim. Now, whether the real reason was that someone actually objected to his personal choice of reading material, or he was doing something else that made himself a nuisance (trying to convert other employees or customers, for example) we don't know. And, ignoring the legalities of at-will employment, *ethically* that makes all the difference between a fair firing and an unfair one.

[guywithashovel]

I saw this story on CNN yesterday, and they said that the reason Home Depot took issue with the button was because it violated a company policy that said employees couldn't wear buttons, etc. that weren't related to Home Depot.

[radiocerk]

I'd be interested to know if anything else had changed. Did the guy get a new supervisor who was a rules lawyer, was corporate cracking down on dress code violations, did he make some religious diatribe to one of his coworkers at break. There are a lot of reasons that someone may have "suddenly" had an issue with his pin.

[Greenday]

It's possible that management just kept looking the other way but eventually someone said something to them so they were forced to take action.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It' also possible that there were numerous personal issues with the guy, so when this seemingly minor thing came up, they used to to get rid of him because it was the only real thing they could claim as being a fireable offense. He could have been awful to work with, we don't know.

I suspect the guy was difficult. Just my personal feeling on it.

[Boozy]

I suspect the guy was difficult. Just my personal feeling on it.

My thoughts exactly. This was probably just the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Mr Slugger]

It' also possible that there were numerous personal issues with the guy, so when this seemingly minor thing came up, they used to to get rid of him because it was the only real thing they could claim as being a fireable offense. He could have been awful to work with, we don't know.

I suspect the guy was difficult. Just my personal feeling on it.

Yup I've seen this all the time. Actually had to do it once. The owner of the store I worked at wanted an employee fired. He felt that the guy was stealing from the store, but could never catch the guy, and he was lazy. So finally after watching a couple of dozen tapes trying to catch him stealing the owner gave me 3 more and told me to find anything that he did that could be breaking the rules on the employee rule sheet. And believe me went you do it take way you can find alot because in all honesty everyone breaks the rules a little, it's only when they don't like you it can be a problem. And I mean I got this guy on taking a sip of soda before putting the money in the drawer, and I'm talking taking a sip while the drawer was open and he was going for his money. Not carding several people that were the borderline age to card, and I mean we knew he'd say he knew some, but we had so many that we hoped he wouldn't remember all of them. To letting people walk out the door with product before they fully paid for it. And I'm talking grabbing the pack of cigs and saying they'd come back in with the dime. They did come back, but the rules state product can't leave the store unless paid for. So in the end I had a page of stuff that could be used. And the guy was fired. Lost his unemployment claim too.

I mean if he was easy to get along with and a good worker they probably would have ignored it, but if they don't like you it's pretty easy to see they'll use that to push you out the door.