triticale - the wheat / rye guy

It Wasn't The Drinking

There has been a lot of discussion around Wisconsin about the beer distributor employee who lost his job after a photo of him drinking a competitor's product appeared in a local newspaper. A lot of people think that he was treated unfairly, and that what he does on his own time is none of his employer's business. If he had merely been seen drinking the wrong brand by a coworker who reported him, I would agree. I do not believe that it was the choice of beer which cost him his job, but rather the decision to share his identity with the reporter. Most people are flattered to be depicted in the nightlife column, but his occupation carried with it an obligation to say no thank you, after which journalistic ethics would have given the paper an obligation not to depict a man who made his living moving pallets of Miller products endorsing (as management viewed it) Bud Light.