Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Comments

  1. as long as the policy is enforced impartially, i don’t think the employee has anything to hang his hat on.  no employee has a right to display personal items at work if it is against company policy to do so.  it doesn’t matter the purported reason that the company instituted the policy.  that is a separate issue entirely.  an important one, but truly separate imo.

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    p>a related personal story:  just after the invasion of iraq began, a few employees in the company i worked for in greater boston circulated a series of emails company-wide with information on how people could send care packages, etc. to our soldiers.  i thought that was a fine idea, and decided to balance it with an email of my own about ngo’s people could contribute to if they wanted to assist the iraqi people caught in the cross-fire.  i sent my email, and waited, and waited, and waited…  it never came through.  finally i found that it had been stopped by a company executive.  after some discussion, they finally agreed to distribute my email out of fairness.  immediately thereafter, they changed company policy and forbade any further distribution of non-work-related emails within the company.  although i was sad about that change in policy, i was happy that they ultimately treated all comers equally.

    • This:

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      “a related personal story:  just after the invasion of iraq began, a few employees in the company i worked for in greater boston circulated a series of emails company-wide with information on how people could send care packages, etc. to our soldiers.  i thought that was a fine idea, and decided to balance it with an email of my own about ngo’s people could contribute to if they wanted to assist the iraqi people caught in the cross-fire.  i sent my email, and waited, and waited, and waited…  it never came through.  finally i found that it had been stopped by a company executive.  after some discussion, they finally agreed to distribute my email out of fairness.  immediately thereafter, they changed company policy and forbade any further distribution of non-work-related emails within the company.  although i was sad about that change in policy, i was happy that they ultimately treated all comers equally.”

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      p>most definitely underscores why it’s best to at least minimize the involvement of current events within the office environment, if not keeping them out altogether, although the latter is much tougher, given the fact that it’s often human nature to chit-chat about everything under the sun in the office or wherever, including domestic and world politics and current events.

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  2. Seems to me that Verizon’s taking down the flag is completely consistent with their willingness to, for example, help the government trample on the rights the flag is supposed to stand for by handing over private customer data without a court order.

  3. the prior comment that said “I don’t see a problem, as long as the company policy is enforced impartially…” (or something to that effect) is chilling, to me at least.  Makes me think of a line in SiCKO:
    “One reason the healthcare system is so much better in France is that in France the Gov’t is afraid of the people, but in the U.S. the people are afraid of their Gov’t” – I guess we should add afraid of the company boss, too.

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    p>C’mon, people have basic rights, and those rights extend to when they’re at work in their own office.  It’s not like he was hanging the flags at a retail establishment or anything like that. What’s going on in this country with so many people being so ready to bow down to supposed “authority”, even when that “authority” is so very wrong? (The obscene overreach of authority by the Bush Regime while the American public just rolls over and takes it, being a collosol example of this.)

    • that i do not blindly bow down to authority.  please don’t blow my comments out of proportion.  i don’t necessarily endorse verizon’s policy, but i respect its right to set it.  likewise, as is evident by this man’s very public campaign, employees can push to have policies changed.  companies do at times actually listen to their employees, especially if they are embarrassed when stupid or unacceptably punitive policies come to light (as i suspect they might become over this).

      • …..  before the Iraq war began I had an anti war bumper sticker on a company vehicle I drove but wore a peace button on my Shirt. The law stated ( I spoke to my lawyer about this) I had to take off the bumper sticker  as it promoted the idea that the company supported the position but that as long as I had no insignia or company logo on my shirt or person the Peace sign was free speech and remained.

    • that former employer i spoke of above?  i was satisfied with their eventual even-handed approach to company email blasts, but you should know that after 911 they printed up american flags and pasted them EVERYWHERE.  for people like me, who did not believe in invading afghanistan and iraq, this was very, very intimidating.  the company set a tone of “god bless america, so shut up and follow like a good patriot lamb”.  since the atmosphere of fear+conformity drummed up by bush and his wars, flag displays can be very intimidating symbols of blind allegiance, even if they are not intended to be.

  4. You say that Verizon “took down the flags”.  But according to the Herald article you cited, they only moved them from the guy’s outer cubicle wall to his inner cubicle wall.

    Terry Skiest, a Verizon employee and Massachusetts Air National Guard member, said his Acton supervisor ordered that two flags be removed last fall from the outside of his office cubicle and hung less prominently inside his work station.

    The reason given: to comply with a workplace rule that bans personal memorabilia from being hung in “public places” at job sites.

    If this article is correct, then you are misleading us and, imo, blowing the story out of proportion.

    • Good catch. Thanks for pointing it out, I revised the original post.  I don’t want to mislead anyone or blow it out of proportion.  However, I don’t think management rehanging the flags inside his cubicle changes the substance of Terry’s basic point.  

      • on what you mean by “rehanging the flags inside his cubicle changes the substance of Terry’s basic point.”?  do you mean that his basic point is that he should be able to hang flags anywhere he wants to?  or something else?

  5. I guess a Rebel flag displayed over a desk should similarly be permitted.

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    p>For crying out loud, it’s Verizon’s property; Verizon should be able to say what can be displayed or what cannot.

  6. About 20 Verizon workers from across Massachusetts braved a snow storm and traveled to Terry’s office in Acton, MA on Friday, Feb. 22 to show their support for his right to display the American and Massachusetts flags outside his cubicle at work.

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    p>Pictures from the Feb. 22 rally and of other people showing their support for Terry are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ra…

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    p>Also on Feb. 22, thousands of Verizon workers across the country wore American flag stickers and decorated their cubicles and vehicles with flags to show their solidarity and outrage about VZB’s policy.

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