Fired or quit?

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/267110/report-byers-replaces-stauffer-behind-mic-at-oaklawn

Yikes, really?

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2023/03/10/masturbation-comment-comes-back-to-bite-now-former-oaklawn-announcer

No comment as we don't know, and will never know, why Oaklawn got rid of him, because we all know about press releases and public relations and all the legalese as well. 

If it WAS  over the tweet, as someone representing a corporate entity (having worked in a few myself) I would say that he certainly could have found a memory of his brother that didn't have to do with MB, which isn't exactly "family friendly" conversation for public?

I think some people do not know the difference between what you say in public (while representing an entity) and what you say in private.  

That tweet, due to the word, would have been Flaired NSF (not safe for work) by most company software, and certainly by parent friendly software.  If you were paying tuition in a University, and the Spokesperson for that university talked about that in a public tweet, I imagine some phones would be ringing.  

(Like I've said elsewhere, if Nancy Holthus had tweeted that, it would have broke the internet.)


I already had my big beef with Oaklawn and had to bang on a few doors and rattle some cages to get my point across 
What made me realize that a lot of people in positions of responsibility are clueless.    Not vetting vendors at a summer festival, etc. 

 It's not about politics sometimes ---sometimes it's just carelessness on their part.  

 

Spot on comment. And speaking of large organizations. Perhaps Oaklawn wanted to, or had plans to terminate for other reasons. 

The toy AK-47 issue - that's just another extension of the gun debate which has been rehashed everywhere else and doesn't need brought up here.... But I'm with you 110% on that.  No such thing as "tone deaf" when you are focused on pushing an agenda, and I'll leave it at that... 

As for Vic, you COULD say he exercised poor judgement going that way given he is in the public eye.   It's sad that the world has come to this, what you say outside of work, that has nothing to do with your employer, can get you fired.  That I don't like.   Why I try to stay out of politics in public forums - that never ends well.

[edited to add:]  It is why I do not allow non-racing-related political crap on this forum.  When we were over on About, it seemed every 4 years (and occasionally 2) we'd get flooded with political crap that had nothing to do with racing.  3 election cycles (2000, 2004, and 2008) as the moderator and I'd had enough.  Our usually civil regulars were all but driven away by these every-four-years jerks. I couldn't stand for that, so I decided to kick out the trash and keep our regulars. And that policy continues to this day.

I do have to be careful even here, as the racing community (or, certain tracks) will not credential you if you badmouth them.  I may dislike some things about Churchill Downs (not the least of which is killing Arlington Park) but I have to tone it down if we want to continue being credentialed at the Derby....  Recall a certain columnist/blogger/whatever who was particularly nasty/disrespectful about a well-respected CD staffer.  Yep, no more credential for him.  And I can't say I disagree with CD on that, he crossed a line.

Hear hear...

You have brains.   You get it.  I thought it was common sense/unwritten rule.  It was even back in the day when I represented my company. 

The point is that once you get your paycheck from somebody, you unfortunately do have to tread carefully, everyone knows his twitter account username is Vic.  

I'm not sure anyone has any super privacy entitlements.   I sure never did when I was head of a department at work.   I even re-read my own emails, at least 3 times, to make sure what I wanted to say was being said, and that I had expressed it in a professional and classy manner. 

The point is, if you're truly classy.........you tend to come off that way.  You dn't really have to wait for the "right audience".......guys who tell locker room jokes denigrating women are at heart, mysygonists.  I have brothers, they don't do that.   

Recalling other statements that have gotten people in trouble..."you can do anything you want to them......"   Crass.   Keep it zipped in other words. You can be honest, and express yourself, but why does it have to be in a crass manner?   Only crass people are..........crass.   IMHO.   It's there, in their BEDROCK, so to speak.   

The thing is social media has changed the rules such that you're always at work, always at school, you're never "free" or truly "off the clock".  Back in my school days, I could be a rude jerk on my own time, tell nasty jokes, be totally "politically incorrect" and I wouldn't get disciplined for it at work or school unless I actually did those things at work/school.    Today, not so much.  And I don't even have to actually post it on social media under my own name.  If I said something politically incorrect on my free time and somebody decided to record me on video saying it and then posted it without my permission and then my employer finds out... same result.  "Sorry Tex you are making us look bad in the public eye, we can't have that, pack your stuff and leave..." 

Not gonna lie, back in grade school and high school (and even through university) my circle of friends loved to share some rather rude jokes that would not fly today.  Should I spend the rest of my life worrying that somebody happened to have a camcorder nearby, recorded us, will post the video on YouTube/Twitter/TikTok, and then I get fired from my current job?   Do my university, high school, and grade school get to retroactively expel me from school and revoke my degrees/diplomas because under today's rules I would have been expelled?   

Is it any surprise there's so much pushback against cancel/woke culture?  Vic's mistake was saying something which was so tame but unfortunately somebody at Oaklawn was uncomfortable enough about it to feel a need to fire him.  It wasn't like he insulted some protected group.  If anything he was making fun OF HIMSELF.  Anybody with 1/4 a working brain would not think "This tweet makes Oaklawn look bad".   Can't have a sense of humor anymore. It's ridiculous.   If anything should make Oaklawn look bad it's firing Vic for something this tame.

Agree totally. Suspect they were looking for a reason.

TexSquared said...

The thing is social media has changed the rules such that you're always at work, always at school, you're never "free" or truly "off the clock".  Back in my school days, I could be a rude jerk on my own time

Well let me interject this thought:   

As a "for instance" :    If a male tells jokes that denigrate women, , I don't really CARE if they do it publically or privately.  

To my mind, there is an underlying misogyny going on there, in the bedrock of that person's psyche....

So, public not, I personally have *no use* for such persons.  And I sure wouldn't want them on my team at work.....and the thought that I'd be shooting for "excellence" when one of my team members was a closet misogynist or closet gay-basher......does not lead to excellence. (in my book) 


Ditto, racists, or people or those who call people from other nations by "denigating nicknames".  

So in the end, in many ways, I actually have no problem with SOME of the so-called cancel culture.   like I said, some stuff in both our culture and that of others, in 2023, maybe SHOULD carry a cancel notice.  :)

Most people want to raise their consciousness, and raise their game.  Those are the people who seem to have the most positive influence on teh society.   Talk to any ex-gang member who actually learned something and put away  their prior thoughts/words/actions as being *mis-informed*.   The ones that do gain redemption, both personal and otherwise.  The ones that don't are mostly unsalvagable until they do, and they hurt themselves and others in the process while stuck there. 

In many ways, I actually have no problem with the word "woke".   However, many seem to confuse that with "political correctness". 

THey are not the same thing, at all.