Mad To Work Here

Mark and Matthew D'Avella are New Jersey brothers who made a spoof rap video at the A&P store were they worked.

The video went up onto YouTube and - perhaps not surprisingly - they were sacked.

But now the company is suing them for defamation and is seeking $1 million in damages. Goodness! How much do their ex-employers think they earn? Oh, wait. Yeah.

This is so cool. The Smoking Gun has gathered together a set of arrest shots in which the alleged "perps" are wearing their work uniforms and proudly displaying the logos of companies such as IHOP ("International House of Pancakes" to Brits).

It's great free corporate branding for the employers, isn't it? Don't be surprised if your marketing department starts fitting you up and planting drugs in your locker and phoning the old bill.

This fire-fighter is apparently afraid of mice, so what do his colleagues do?

You would have thought that one of the few benefits of working in fast food would be the absence of any great responsibility or risk.

So imagine our surprise to see this story on Ananova.

Apparently:

Police Officer Wendell Adams said the burger he ate from a McDonald's in Union City, Georgia, made him vomit.

Well, nothing strange there, but to put it in context:

A McDonald's worker was arrested and spent a night in jail after serving a salty burger to a police officer.

Police Officer Wendell Adams said the burger he ate from a McDonald's in Union City, Georgia, made him vomit.

Kendra Bull, who admitted accidentally dousing the officer's burger with salt, was charged with reckless conduct.

Police spokesman George Louth said: "It is questionable whether she even knew it was for a police officer. She knew it was not up to their standards and served it anyway."

The 20-year-old single mother complains that she missed out on a paycheck and spent a night in police custody.

Ms Bull says she was mixing hamburger meat when too much salt and pepper accidentally spilled into the bowl. A co-worker tried to remove the seasoning.

Do we believe it? Are burgers really mixed freshly? Don't they just come ready made and frozen in boxes stacked on pallets on the back of a pantechnicon?

You live and learn.

Ananova reports:

A Romanian man has been sacked after his mother visited him at work - minutes after he told his boss she had just died.

Florin Radu Hretu, 27, from Pascani in Iasi county, had just asked to borrow some money to pay for her funeral.

He has given the equivalent of £150 but had to immediately pay it back when his mother turned up a few minutes later.

US hit tech company EMC has had six sexual-discrimination lawsuits filed against it since 2003 by women who once worked in EMC sales offices but from this Wall Street Journal article it sounds like a place that very few civilized people would care to work:

locker-room antics, company-paid visits to strip clubs, demeaning sexual remarks or retaliation against women who complained about the atmosphere. Three of the women said male managers unfairly took away accounts they had developed and gave them to men.

Fish??? Fish???

One woman claims she was told she "wasn't qualified to fill a vacant position on the big Motorola Inc. account because she wouldn't "smoke, drink, swear, hunt, fish and tolerate strip clubs."

An amazing tale of office horror (unless you happen to be at home with Sharia Law) has emerged on the forums of the social workers' website CommunityCare.co.uk

Can it possibly be true?? Bear in mind that the woman writing this claims to be a social worker:

In my office my manager is a firm advocate of Sharia Law and wants all the women to take the Veil. He ensures that only married women are recruited and believes all gay men should be killed and all gay women gang-raped (then killed.) His usual response to how to deal with a teenage girl in distress is to comment that she should be flogged, in public. His manager (a women) is even more extreme - will not speak directly to a non-Muslim, wears the hijab and believes that rape allegations should be investigated by police only if witnessed by four men. Forget the union rep, she's a Sharia Law advocate too. Anyone who mentions the United States or Israel is anything other than a derisory manner is in trouble, and god help anyone who takes a holiday to Disneyland, Florida.

Hats off to Office Humor Blog for spotting this story in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Apparently Subway waiter Juan Canales stopped a carjacker who tried to take a woman's Honda CRV at knifepoint.

Canales was working in the 84 Thai Food restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when he heard Massiel Marquardt screaming for help.

Canales foiled and subdued the attacker, but then things it all went pear-shaped:

Canales, who worked at 84 Thai Food for three weeks, returned to work after spending an hour talking to police and the media. Once the lunch shift ended, his boss fired him.

"The owner got belligerent" about all the attention his scuffle with the carjacker generated, Canales said.

The owner, listed in corporate records as Sathaporn Yosagraiof Fort Lauderdale, could not be reached for comment despite two calls to the restaurant and one to his home.

I mean, really, How shabby is that? If we were running a restaurant we'd take him on before you could say "knife".

We weren't we told? We found out from Guru.

Here's where to buy them.

"German carrier Lufthansa will be showing its Bavarian pride for Oktoberfest by dressing flight crew members in traditional costumes. During the Munich beer festivities, lucky passengers will have the pleasure of being served by flight attendants wearing dirndls and Bavarian suits."

Is there nothing a trolley dolly can't be made to do? It's bad enough having a job where your job functions include blocking the aisle with a trolley full of bad food, clearing up vomit and strapping down drunken passengers, but this...

Spotted at Airline Business.

An episode of US Government film series on careers. I assume it was shown to high school students. This one was filmed at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) library in 1946.

We've seem some strange tales of reasons for sacking people, but being sacked for being too ugly? As a nurse? Nurse Ratched tells the horrible tale of prejudice:

She said that the medical director called her into a meeting and informed her, in front of witnesses, that she is too old and ugly to work at their hospital. He explained it's about marketing, and that the hospital is updating its image. He said that only young, beautiful nurses would be allowed to work at the hospital. He also said that patients want beautiful nurses taking care of them, so she had to go. She was shown the door after thirty years of faithful service to the hospital.

Still, there was a silver lining to it all:

Fortunately, this nurse has options because the medical director was stupid enough to make his insulting statements in front of a room full of witnesses

Sometimes, lifestyle choices and careers choices just clash horribly:

[via Road Transport Blog]

Every day having to wrench my leaden body from a cocoon of Egyptian cotton and feathers is hard — and I quite like my job...

Spare an empathetic thought for others...

…… if we believe the frequency of no-show candidates reporting serious illness, muggings, traffic injuries and other injuries and maimings. What’s the best (or worst) excuses that you’ve heard? Or is there something else more dangerous in this HR life?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiRGvK67CzA