Emily Duprie
Having an opinion on politics and government leaders is perfectly legal, although some people should probably reconsider just how much they’d like to share these opinions. Freedom of Speech is in the constitution and although we wish people would just shut the hell up sometimes, they have every right to keep blabbing on. Bringing your political opinions and propaganda into the workplace however, is another story entirely.
Most companies would prefer that you don’t talk about or speak for the business as a whole when it comes to politics, and most people find that easy to abide by. One worker though, Steve, decided his big boy truck with contradicting political stickers just had to be seen by his customers.
A recent Reddit post on the subreddit “Am I The A-hole?” had one boss of a contracting company wondering if he had taken things too far by firing Steve. Read the story in context below and let us know what you think!
OP asked Reddit: “AITA For firing an employee for driving his personal vehicle to job sites”
I own and operate my own contracting company. I’ve been in business for almost a decade now and have almost 50 people working for me. I usually ask that my workers drive to the office in the morning and take company vans or trucks to job sites, but I understand that isn’t always the easiest option for people, so I do allow them to drive personal vehicles to job sites if they need to. However, there has been one guy, Steve, who I have gotten a few complaints about from customers.
Steve drives a big, lifted, customized truck. It’s a nice truck and I know he takes a lot of pride in it. But, the thing is covered in political stickers. Now, if you work for me I don’t care what your political views are as long as you’re good at your job. And Steve has been with me for about 5-years now and he’s good at what he does. He’s knowledgeable and efficient and overall has been a quality employee.
But, Steve has been driving his truck to job sites pretty regularly because his kids are in daycare and it’s easier for him to drop them off in the morning and then go directly to a job rather than to the office. We’ve talked about this and I approved it to make it easier for him.
OP was understanding of Steve’s situation and did his best to compromise…
Normally this wouldn’t be an issue for me. But the last 3 customers that Steve was working with complained to me that he was parking his truck in front of their houses and they weren’t comfortable with the political messaging on his truck. The last one even took pictures of his truck and posted it to social media and tagged my company on it.
I had a talk with Steve about driving his truck to jobs and told him that he’s going to need to come to the office in the morning and take a company vehicle. He complained about the hassle of dropping off his kids and I told him he’s going to need to figure that out, but for now I want him to leave his truck at the office as it is causing me and the company headaches.
At first, Steve followed OP’s request.
He complied for the rest of that last job, but when we started a new one last week he started driving his own truck again. Sure enough, 3 days into the job and I got complaints from the customer about Steve’s truck.
I had another talk with Steve and told him that this was no longer negotiable and that I am requiring him to take a company vehicle. He accused me of discriminating against him and it turned into a heated argument. We both said some harsh things and I eventually told him he was fired.
Steve didn’t take being let go too well…
He has since posted a lot of negative stuff on social media about me and my company. He has also talked to a lot of my employees and some of them have taken his side and think I was in the wrong to fire him. I’ve had to hold a company-wide meeting about this and I have revoked the option to drive personal vehicles to jobs and now require everyone to take company vehicles, no exceptions.
Now I have people pissed off at me for taking away that option when they never got complaints, so maybe I’ll have to revisit that idea, but I don’t think I was an asshole for firing Steve.
Redditors in the comments had a lot to stay about Steve’s political bumper stickers and attitude
