Did You Know that You Can Be Legally Fired for Lifestyle Choices?
Anywhere.
Anytime.
When the 60 Minutes reporter brought up the idea that this kind of intrusion into the private lives of employees smacked of Big Brother, the CEO responded: “Maybe Big Brother should be watching because we have to eliminate that problem.”
If those words don’t send chill down your spine, then maybe these will. In most states it is perfectly legal for most employers to fire you for something you do in your private life. Let me repeat that: Most employers in America have the legal right to fire you for something you do while off the clock, out of the office and on your own time behind your own closed doors. It’s not bad enough that Pres. Bush is spying on every aspect of your lives, now we have to fear that Big Brother works alongside us. Yes, Big Brother is alive and living well inside the executive suite.
The justification at Weyco for their policy of firing people who smoke at home is that smoking increases health care costs. Big Brother has ties to the health care industry. Big Surprise. Smoking does raise health care costs, but so does eating a high fat diet, riding motorcycles without a helmet, and going to the beach without sunscreen. If Weyco can legally fire their employees for smoking, what’s to stop Weyco or any other employer from regulating the private lifestyles of their employees?
At Weyco’s web site, there is a big list of justifications for why the company feels they should be allowed to fire people based on their lifestyle. They want to encourage healthy lifestyles. In other words, they want healthy workers who never take a sick day, who aren’t a drain on their woeful health care plan, and who commit fully to eight hours of solid work every day. Smoking undoubtedly is not conducive to those things.
Neither is homosexuality. A gay person faces multiple health-related risks that could reduce productivity and increase health care costs. For instance, the threat of contracting HIV. Surely, contracting AIDS would put a significant drain on any company’s health care system. That much is obvious. But you know what else would present a productivity drain on a company hiring a gay worker? What if the gay worker got bashed by some right-wing neo-Nazi skinhead anti-gay marriage types? A crushed pelvis and punctured lung would probably keep that worker away from his desk for, what, a few months? So clearly companies should be able to fire gay workers.
Big Brother is an avid fan of extreme sports, I’m sure. If you regularly skateboard, or snowboard, or base jump, you’d better look behind you to make sure Big Brother doesn’t have a camera pointed at you. Broken legs and arms reduce productivity. Weyco is probably looking into firing workers who skateboard, snowboard, base jump or, heck, even if they just engage in regular parachuting. After all, if smoking-which usually takes years and years to result in health problems related to productivity-can be used as an excuse to fire someone, why on earth wouldn’t flying down stairs on a skateboard or jumping off the Sears Tower? Just one little updraft and you’ve got yourself a computer operator with a cast on his arm for six weeks.
Big Brother could potentially extend to each and every aspect of your life. If employers can fire you for any reason, including how you conduct your private life then what’s to stop a company from firing you because you attended a political rally for the “wrong” candidate? What’s to stop a company from firing you because you go out to clubs at night in a see-through blouse? Think that’s a silly idea? Consider the true story of Ross Hopkins who worked for American Eagle Distributing Co. which distributes Budweiser beer. Hopkins experienced one of the most unfortunate cases of bad timing ever; he happened to be in a bar drinking a Coors when the son-in-law of the majority shareholder of American Eagle Distributing walked in and spotted him. Upon finding that Hopkins was drinking a Coors and not a Budweiser-on his own time and off the company clock-he was fired. Coke distributors take note: Never be seen drinking a Mountain Dew. McDonald’s employees beware: avoid Wendy’s like the plague. (And not just because Wendy’s will get your order wrong every time.)
How is it possible in this day and age in America that employers still have the power to fire someone because of what they do on their own time? I’ll explain it to you: The myth of private ownership. Do you want to know what every business owner would own if every employee in America took the day off tomorrow?
Jack. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.
Business ownership is a myth. These people don’t own businesses; they own people! They can tell you how to dress, how to live your life, what to buy, where to shop. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. Or is there? If you truly desire to take back control of your life from Big Brother who apparently has the legal authority to fire you for whatever reason he wants, then I’ve got just two words for you.
Worker revolution.
Which would you prefer to be? The property? Or the owner? The choice is yours; you’ve only allowed the boss to believe it has been his.
