Starbucks is a company some people find easy to hate. It is big. It serves an appetite one might consider a want, not a need. It caters to elitists — people for whom Maxwell House and Folger's are not good enough. It is in a field, agriculture, where First World meets and sometimes exploits Third World. It has a mermaid on its logo. So, it is not surprising that a current employee fired for blogging tale, featuring a Starbucks' barista, has some people sneering, They were already inclined to, and this story bolsters their disdain. Jason Koulouros brought the sad saga of the unemployed Canadian blogger to my attention.
When does criticizing an employer become a firing offence?
That is the question a former Starbucks employee is asking after the ubiquitous coffee chain terminated him this week for profanity-laced remarks he made about a manager, and the company, on an Internet journal.
Matthew Brown, a 28-year-old Starbucks supervisor in Toronto, uses the Blog, or online journal, to keep in touch with friends and family. The diary contained his thoughts, a place where Mr. Brown vented his frustrations about everything from personal issues to work. When a manager refused to let him go home sick, Mr. Brown sounded off about his boss from home. He said he didn't use his real name, and gave the journal's address to a select group of people, so he doesn't know how the diary ended up in Starbucks' hands.
''I feel violated,'' he told Global News.
Predictably, some people commenting on Brown's dismissal have condemned Starbucks.
Firing an employee for muttering unflattering comments about his employer is ridiculous.
Would you stop buying Starbucks because one of their employees ranted in a blog? Yeah right. Are consumers supposed to believe that everyone who stands behind a fastfood chain's countertop waiting to serve us, loves their job? Give me a break.Everyone has had bad days. Maybe the employee's supervisor was deserving of the comments. Who knows? Who cares.
The real concern here is personal freedom. Should corporate entities have the power to control their employees' thoughts and expression off the job?
If you answered yes, perhaps you should revisit G. Orwell's 1984. We're talking about brand loyality not the country's security issues.
Continued on the next page Page 1 — Page 2
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
The guy should be so fired - as I would expect to be if I mouthed off about my boss, my employer, in what is, by definition, a public place - the Internet.
You give it out to friends and family - you're potentially defaming a man's reputation.
Stupid whining MoFO.
2 - RJ
"Starbucks is a company some people find easy to hate. It is big. It serves an appetite one might consider a want, not a need."
Okay, I'm only three sentences into your post, and I already disagree! :)
"...one might consider a want, not a need..."?
"...might consider..."???
Coffee is NOT a "need." There is no debating this. This isn't a matter of opinion, where one "might consider" one thing and someone else "might consider" something else.
Coffee is no more a "need" than cigarettes, Big Macs, or meth.
3 - RJ
Surprisingly, though, I pretty much agreed with the rest of your post. Good work! :)
4 - Jason Koulouras
It will be interesting to see if this one gets into the courts because it would be a precedent setting case one way or the other
I have been following this and have not seen anything about the ex-employee taking legal action
Cheers
5 - Douglas Mays
Are you sure it wasn't a racist thing, the blog excuse as a cover up? He is Canadian, you know.
sorry MacDiva, just ribbing you a bit (take notice to bogcritics letters lately). Anyway, Starbucks probalby had good reason. The guy was sick? Or is he a whiney hypocondriac. To many elements to be answered here to come up with an opinion.
peaceloveguidance
6 - Mike Kole
As a former employer and current employee, I can see both sides of the inherent respect issues here. No matter which side of things I am on, I expect internal issues to be handled internally. Managers rightly take employees they feel are out of line 'behind the woodshed' out of respect. Nobody else hears or sees the employee being addressed, thereby sparing that person public embarassment. As an employer, I expected employees to bring grievances to me out of the same courtesy. This person failed to give this courtesy in posting to the blog. Fair is fair. If a manager publicly dresses down an employee, there are grounds for action against that manager.
I disagree with the undertone of negativity against working under 'at-will' conditions. An employer who hires and fires at will has their freedom of association preserved.
7 - Mac Diva
Some people think I am an anarchist or something. However, the law is an inherently conservative profession. It is almost impossible to have a good legal mind and not find oneself balancing interests, including those of 'bad' entities such as employers. So, when it comes to issues such as this one, I find myself parting company with the IndyMedia set. Note that I am not saying that I think workplaces are wonderful the way they are, but 'let's be realistic about the way they are.'
Doug, one of the avenues that an employee does have when fired is discrimination claims -- gender, race, and age. Unions can also mitigate firing of employees at will. So, Mike Kole's belief in freedom of association (often used to mask discrimination) is not quite the status quo.
I was in a curmudgeonly mood the other day, so I have another entry some folks will find odd coming from an 'anarchist' up. After all, dogs are people, right?
8 - Douglas Mays
Mac, very true, one must beware of the mask of discrimination, predjudice...
plg
9 - sydney
I can't believe some of you guys on here.
This is a simple case of a guy complaining about his boss in what he thought was a private discussion. What the fuck was the boss reading his employee's journal for anyway? Even if he did stumble across it on the Internet, or if someone snitched to him, there is no reason to believe these comments do any real harm to the boss. How fragile is his ego?
Starbucks, obviously, wasn’t going to suffer from a few "unflattering comments" directed at one of their employees.
The truth is there is no real damage done here, other than to the person who has lost their income. Anyone who has ever worked in a managers position knows that a percentage of their employees are not going to like them, and that a percentage of their employees will at some time or other mutter unflattering remarks about them. You just accept that and continue to try to do the best you can.
This Manager is a vindictive fuck who, it would seem, went out of his way to read his employees journal.
Such a fuckin joke. As is typical in America you guys are all discussing the legal implications as if this issue needs to go to court. For Christ sakes, every time something goes wrong in a person’s public life, they don’t need to waste public funds by taking it to court.
If a manager from a Starbucks wants to act like an egomaniacal asshole than he deserves to be judged by those who know him as such.
And I guess the remaining employees at Starbucks are showing unwavering loyalty to this manager after the firing? We certainly shouldn’t expect any of those remaining employees to mutter unflattering remarks towards him. Problem solved for this manager; wise decision on his behalf.
10 - a farrooki
starbucks was right to fire that employee.
when you work for someone you should do your job and keep your opinions to yourself.
if you don't like the system move on to something else and let some poor third world worker have your place, ( a mexican or poor arab) they'll appreciate a pay check,thanks for letting me "vent", Ahmed.