All Joe Gordon did, he told the British press, was vent about a bad day on the job on his Weblog. And all it got him was the dubious honor of becoming the first person in the United Kingdom to lose his job for his trouble.
The Waterstone’s bookstore worker made an entry about a day on the job hard enough that he called the store “Bastardstone’s” and referred to his “evil boss,” venting because he couldn’t take a day off for his birthday. As A result, Gordon was fired without warning for what he was told was gross misconduct and bringing the store into disrepute.
“This wasn’t a sustained attack,” the 37-year-old veteran of 11 years at Waterstone’s told British reporters. “I was not deliberately trying to harm the company. I was venting my spleen. I wasn’t libeling anyone or giving away trade secrets. Blogging allows you to vent steam about a bad day at work in a healthy way rather than doing it at work. There was no direct reference to anyone in the company and it took place outside working hours."
The Gordon case may prove an unwanted advisory to other bloggers, according to British attorney Campbell Deane. "People should remember that there is no separate law for the Internet,” he said. “Just because what you write appears on the Internet rather than in print does not give you any greater rights."
Gordon recorded some of the reaction on his blog January 12.
“Very busy - right from the off as I had a reporter and photographer literally on my doorstep first thing this morning,” he wrote. “A little later as I was finding out what an odd experience it is to look at or read about yourself in the papers (and it is odd) and I had several more calls. A very nice lady from my MSP's office called to say someone from the BBC had tried to reach me via them and she put us in touch. A little later another call and then as I was preparing to head out to the BBC's new Edinburgh studio (down by the Parliament, across from the Scotsman's new home) yet another, both from other BBC radio stations and programmes, so I ended up doing three short interviews in a row at the Edinburgh studio for BBC Scotland's Newsdrive, BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat and Radio Five Live's Drivetime.
“The irony is the last time I was in a BBC Edinburgh studio was to discuss literature and I had been asked in as an expert bookseller from a well-known company,” Gordon continued. “Fate, it seems, never tires of playing silly buggers with all of us...”
On January 10, Gordon posted a letter to Waterstone’s from Richard K. Morgan, a teacher and the author of Altered Carbon, in which Morgan admonished the company for doing what compared to punishing a subordinate for private talk overheard at a pub.
“Waterstones is, after all, a bookseller, whose stock in trade is the purveying of opinion, not all of it palatable to those concerned,” Morgan wrote. “You sell books which offer serious critique of the corporate environment and government, but do not expect to suffer punitive action from government or corporate quarters as a result. You sell books which criticise and satirise religious and political groups, but you do not expect to be firebombed by extremists as a result. Surely Joe has the right to let off steam in his free time without having to fear for his livelihood as a result.”
Gordon wrote the venting blog post before the Christmas holidays, on November 16:
“Having to pay Edinburgh bastard moneygrubbing council's tax, may they choke on every penny
“Return to shift working as Evil Boss decrees even those now in stockroom must do late and early shifts, which is a waste of time for that post.
“Xmas working hours brought in early - first shift now starts at 7.30 bloody am which is fucking ridiculous.
“Evil Boss fucking me off by refusing my requests for a day's holiday on the 31st of December for my birthday and the first week of January off as I have taken for hte [sic] last few years. Nope, it's still to close to 'peak trading period'. As both are after Xmas and the 31st is a crap day for business as the whole of Princes Street is closed to traffic that day in preparation for the world's biggest Hogmanay party it makes no sense.
“Evil Boss then has cheek to ask me to work one of the bloody bank holidays in the week he refused me off. Cheeky smegger. Said no.
“Noticing he has put me down for one of those days anyway, the sandal-wearing bastard. Words will be exhanged - if he gives me my birthday off I will do his bank holiday day. If not he can kiss my magnificent Celtic ass, since it is voluntary.”
He was called into the store manager’s office and then “was told that for comments I had posted on this web site I was now subject to an enquiry to determine if I should face a disciplinary hearing for ‘gross misconduct’ because I had ‘brought the company into disrepute,’” he wrote January 6, the day after he was fired. “I was informed (more than once) that this could cause my dismissal. I was suspended on pay and escorted from the premises of the bookstore I had worked in for eleven years.”
Then, after the holidays, he was canned.
Waterstone’s has said only that they could not comment due to an ongoing disciplinary action against Gordon, but they did tell British reporters Gordon has two rights of appeal remaining before his firing becomes permanent.
