Santa fired for 'naughty' joke

My girlfriend got a sweater last christmas. She was hoping for a screamer or a groaner.
 
Spindrift said:
I wonder if there isn't more to this. Even though corporations are renowned for making dumb decisions like this, it seems to me as though there has to be more to it than the lame jokes the Santa said he was telling. One complaint for a bad joke told by a 20 year employee and he gets canned? Where's the Elf Union?
Click to expand...

I saw people sacked for less.

Sometimes there isn't "there is more to the story".
 
TragicMonkey said:
In many times and places, the default interpretation of the listeners would have been the playful one, and not the creepy one. It's sad that this appears to not be the case anymore.
Click to expand...

Case in point, until somebody pointed out the pedophile interpretation, I only thought of "adult naughty stuff" interpretation.
 
dirtywick said:
In this story it's somebody who got offended by the joke...which means they went to sit on Santa's lap. That's weird.
Click to expand...

You know, I thought the same thing; they sat on Santa's lap, engaged in the joke, then reported him. However, I've read the article a second time and perhaps missed it but he only talks about how he tends to banter with adults, never specifically them. It's quite possible that they heard the banter between Santa and another adult and reported him for saying it within earshot of children.
He sounds like a nice guy and harmless joking between adults shouldn't, IMHO, cost him his 20yr position, but it's just a possibility. I found nothing to suggest that the couple mentioned in the story actually sat on his lap.
 
slingblade said:
I'm starting to recognize sentiments like these as possible symptoms of the "just world" fallacy. To be clear, there may very well be more to the story as you say. But in my experience, there doesn't have to be more to it. Unfair, unjust crap like this happens a lot more than people seem to think.

That said, I hope there is more to it, because I'd like to think I live in a just world, too. Except, I know I don't.
Click to expand...

I would classify it as a "Real World" issue. Those of us that have had extensive real life experience know that in a lrage corporation like Macy's, there is a definite procedure and process requied to fire someone.

In general, given the potential for negative publicity, for legal entanglements, etc. I would expect that the HR department has a well documented file on this.

managers can't just go: "your fired" these days, they need to have everything backed up and documented first.
 
I don't think I would have fired him over this, but I generally prefer my Santas to be clean and wholesome.

Maybe they could have just told him to cut out the smut talk.
 
caniswalensis said:
I don't think I would have fired him over this, but I generally prefer my Santas to be clean and wholesome.

Maybe they could have just told him to cut out the smut talk.
Click to expand...


This has become a major issue in the Bay Area, of course.
I have a feeling the Santa's timing was off,he did it in the presence of kids, and that is what caused the fuss.

IMHO, being Santa is a PR job, and Image is everything in a PR job.Wreck the image, bear the consequences. After 20 years I think the guy should have known this.
 
Toomey - who stays in Oroville most summers and winters in San Francisco while he does the kiddie-on-the-knee gig - said he'd never had complaints before about the joke, which he saves for the occasional grown-up who visits him.

"When I ask the older people who sit on my lap if they've been good and they say, 'Yes,' I say, 'Gee, that's too bad,'" Toomey said Monday.

"Then, if they ask why Santa is so jolly, I joke that it's because I know where all the naughty boys and girls live."

The kids who sit on his lap, he said, get only his trademark laugh and questions about what toys they want.
Click to expand...


That's it? That is the 'dirty' joke they're complaining about? I first heard it in the third grade, back in 1965, and from a teacher! If she didn't get fired for it, then why should some well-meaning pensioner get into any trouble over it?​


It's not even like he was dissing the prophet Muhammed ... ;)​
 
Last edited:
Alferd_Packer said:
Even in the U.S., if you don't want to get sued, you document first.
Click to expand...

Unless he's in a protected class he doesn't have anything to sue about.

At-will employment is a doctrine of American law that defines an employment relationship in which either party can break the relationship with no liability, provided there was no express contract for a definite term governing the employment relationship and that the employer does not belong to a collective bargaining group (i.e., has not recognized a union). Under this legal doctrine:
“ any hiring is presumed to be "at will"; that is, the employer is free to discharge individuals "for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all," and the employee is equally free to quit, strike, or otherwise cease work.[1] ”

Several exceptions to the doctrine exist, especially if unlawful discrimination is involved regarding the termination of an employee.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom