November 1, 2002 - Friday | 7:57 PM, CST Alright, now here's the narrative of Monday night's events. I pulled in the driveway at work a little before 11:00 PM. I was scheduled to work a ten hour shift that night just after getting out of school. The garage door was open, and two unfamiliar-looking vehicles were parked out front. [name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel] met me outside, and asked if I'd come in the garage for a moment. There were two other women ([name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel] and [name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel]) standing there on the wheelchair ramp looking down at something. For a moment I thought that someone had fallen off the ramp and they needed a hand to get them up, but then I noticed the notebooks in each of their hands. "This is bad," I thought. I could just imagine them putting on their sternest faces: "Matthew, we've installed a hidden camera in the kitchen... Are four pieces of raisin bread really an appropriate midnight snack??" (Un)fortunately, this was not the case. So Rhonda,... errr [name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel], stood behind the other two women with (what I perceived as) a smug grin on her face and nodded as the other two began the proceedings. They explained that they had become aware of my website, which "contained inappropriate material." They accused me of breaking confidentiality by naming the CILA I worked at in my website, and said that I discussed inappropriate things about other staff members. They quoted me from their notebooks. The conversation went a little something like this:
[name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel]: You say "I hate it when people trash talk about me behind my back," yet isn't what you're doing trash talking people?They then explained that I had two choices. I could choose to "voluntarily" resign, in which case future employers inquiring into my past with the Arc would be told that I had voluntarily resigned but was ineligible for rehire, or I could be terminated. I chose to voluntarily resign. [name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel] warned that if I were to come onto Arc property, or to call anyone employed by the Arc while they're working, they would bring "felony charges" against me. I was told that they'd be "keeping track" of my site to see if I had made any changes. "Fat chance," I thought, "you don't think I know how to set up a password?" I kept that to myself, however, and started to leave. Our parting conversation went something like this:
[name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel]: Another thing. You say that you have this website as an 'outlet,' I think there are more constructive ways to have an 'outlet,' I'd suggest maybe a counselor.I climbed in the car and went home to tell Mom (a counselor) that I had been fired. Yesterday I received a certified letter in the mail from ABRA. Below is a copy of the letter:
October 29, 2002 "What just a minute," I thought when I got that letter. "Names of people served?" I've never done any of that. They might be accusing me of knowing nothing of confidentiality, but I knew better than to mention any client's names. As for the picture, yes. Do you remember that one? On my 20th birthday that lady baked me a cake. I went in and took a picture of the two of us holding it in the kitchen. She is one of the nicest ladies I've met, I didn't think of anything malicious or breaking confidentiality when I posted that. But c'est la vie, thats the way things are run around there. Now, as for the references to my coworkers and calling the CILA site "Keller Dong," as far as I know, theres nothing illegal about that. Nevertheless, I thought "Man, I must have really written some horrible shit on there to get this letter," so I went online and perused my old journal archives. Surprisingly, I found them to be pretty tame compared to what I had expected them to be. Still, I decided to contact an attorney, and scheduled an appointment to meet with him earlier today. I showed him the letter they had sent, and asked him what I should do. From what I understood, usually people threaten legal action just to scare others into getting what they want. I told him I did plan on taking the picture down, but asked what to do about them accusing me of posting the names of the clients. He explained that since I didn't do that, I didn't need to worry. It would be the same as if they accused me of hitting their car, if I didn't do it, I didn't do it. Next, I asked him about the references to employees and my nickname "Keller Dong." I also explained that everything had a -Dong ending to it. Mom works at Harbor Dong, Bryan worked at Burger Dong, we buy car parts from Auto Dong, and so on. From what I understand, this can only be held illegal if 1. It contains slanderous or libelous information. Since nothing I've ever said about any coworkers is false, I'm in the clear for that. Just the same, I'm taking Andy's advice and going through my old entries to replace all the names of coworkers with "[name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel]". And 2. the -Dong nickname isn't becomming detrimental to their business, so I don't see anything to be concerned about in that area. I was told that I really didn't need to even write them back. I didn't mention any clients, I'm taking the picture down, and the rest is either crap or is being taken care of by editing the journal archives. One thing I was concerned about, however, was the "Past Employers" section of job applications. While I may not list anyone from either ABRA or the Arc as a reference, most prospective employers will still send a blurb to your old workplace to ask what kind of an employee you were. I was concerned that with both ABRA and the Arc accusing me of violating confidentiality, it would put a block on any meaningful job in the future. The lawyer said that I should worry about that when it happens. We can find out what they say, and if its anything defamatory, then we can take legal action. So now you're probably wondering, how'd they find out about my website in the first place? Well, the day after I got fired, I got a call from [name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel]. She was nearly in tears as she asked what happened.
[name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel]: What happened?!?! That pretty much ended the conversation. I'm not mad at [name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel] for telling [name omitted on the advice of my legal counsel] the website address. If anything, I should be thanking both of them for getting me away from sixteen hour night shifts. Also, with this getting somewhat legal, I'll point out that no one is to make any joking comments on my webpage about "getting revenge" or anything else of that sort. I really don't need that shit. As it stands, it looks like it'll all blow over. I've taken down the picture and changed the references to my coworkers, and thats really all they have against me. I don't need them thinking my friends are gonna go running amok throwing eggs (or worse) at them as they cross the street. With that, I'll say that anyone making inappropriate comments (and you know which kind I mean) onto the website, will be banned from posting anything else. The password will be down shortly. Its just up so I could make any needed changes, and to let them know that they won't be "monitoring" anything I write unless I say so. Other than that, screw 'em. |
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©2000-2010 Matthew | E-mail: mhavens at alcade.net | ICQ: 24626751
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