Man fired in Canada after complaining about getting sauce as corporate Xmas gift
A B.C. man was fired from his job for complaining about receiving a bottle of barbecue sauce as his Christmas gift on Twitter at the end of last month, but the company's CEO is now admitting that it may have been an overreaction.
It all began when Hussien Mehaidli from Burnaby, B.C took to Twitter to express his outrage at receiving a bottle of Get Sauced barbecue sauce and a wooden scraper from his company, Fastenal, for the holidays, according to CTV News.
Although the tweet was sent from Mehaidli's anonymous Twitter account with zero followers, he tagged the company's American and Canadian handles.
He told CTV he was particularly peeved because he had received huge goodie boxes while working for the company in previous years, and he said this felt like "a slap in the face."
"What kind of multi billion dollar company gifts it's (sic) Canadian employees barbecue sauce as a holiday gift? Yet the USA employees stuff their face with an actual holiday gift box!" he tweeted along with a photo of the product, which retails for $5.99 on Amazon.
Mehaidli said he received a phone call the following day from his manager at work, ordering him to take the tweet down. He had already done so and quickly realized a previous tweet from his account helped identify him even though he had intended it to be anonymous.
Then, ten days later, on the night before New Year’s Eve, Mehaidli told CTV he was called in for a meeting by his manager and fired on the spot. He was told that corporate in the U.S. had made the decision.
You fired a guy for speaking freely about his bbq sauce gift? Really?
— Billy West (@Singletail) January 8, 2020
Wow - what kind of commie outfit you running over there?
He was also given an "exit interview" letter stating that he was terminated for "violation of standards of conduct policy – acceptable conduct section."
He received no severance even though he had worked for the company for six years.
@MiniPatbob you should be more grateful. Now your jobless :). I work for a multimillion dollar company as well, and we don’t receive anything so, grow up.
— Trish Cleveland (@TrissCleveland) January 5, 2020
And although Fastenal CEO Dan Florness maintains that the firing was totally legal, he did the Star Tribune that firing him may have been "an overreaction" and he would not have responded the same way his staff did.
@MiniPatbob As disappointing as the bonus was, a company pays you for the time you give them and that's where your obligation to each other ends. To publicly call out your employer over something you're not owed and not expect repercussions... and then call them out again.🤔🙄
— Molly Max (@molly_n_max) January 3, 2020
Mehaidli told CTV it was nice to hear Florness admit that the response may have been too extreme, and he's hired a lawyer with the intention of filing a wrongful dismissal claim. He also said he believes he is entitled to severance pay.
Minipatbob
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