I have had nothing but a heavy heart for the family of Amanda Todd this week. Between finding your child dead, the online malicious pages that have been created and arranging a funeral, it has to be horrific. A mother’s worst nightmare.
Today the Toronto Star reported that Justin Hutchings from London Ontario was fired from his retail job for posting “Thank God this bitch is dead” on Amanda’s Facebook Memorial Page.
On the Jeff Allen Show, on 570 News, the question was asked “Does the company have the right to fire Justin Hutchings for putting this malicious post on Facebook on his own time?”
Someone stated this his action was a “hate crime” and I agree with the caller.
As a business owner of an online marketing consulting firm, my business is all about truth, honesty and integrity. I want my clients to feel that they can tell me anything and I will be sympathetic to their needs. If I had a person like this working for my business, it would completely destroy my credibility as a business person. I am happy that the Mr. Big and Tall Store in London decided to fire Justin. Simply slapping his wrist would only jeopardize their integrity to their clientele.
Hutchings claims that this was a social experiment, stating that “he wanted people to question the values and beliefs that society held for themselves and he wonders why there is so much support for Todd now rather than support for her before she killed herself.”
Many times we see on someone’s profile the tag line “All opinions are my own” whether they post where they work or not. If you lack integrity, then you can keep your opinions because it just doesn’t jive with me. Social experiment or not, his words were disgusting.
At the end of the day, if employers can make the decision of hiring a person based on their social activities, an employer should have the discretion to fire that same person for social activities if it threatens the integrity of the company.
This incident goes against the morals of any human being with compassion. What if she was your daughter? There is no other answer but yes, fire him.
