That guy who was fired for offering ID vids to fellow employees. Or something.
David Klinghoffer says, re Coppedge (Evolution News & Views, March 13, 2012)
It’s tempting to say he has already won, before opening statements even begin this morning at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles. There has been tremendous international media attention to this story, reasonably fair and factual. The headlines alone say it all: “Suit: NASA specialist axed over intelligent design” (that’s Yahoo). I’m very concerned about being able to get a seat in the courtroom!
In the courtroom yesterday I had the opportunity to meet him for the first time. The idea that this sweet and very soft-spoken guy was going around “bothering” people on the job is absurd, and one can only assume that Judge Hiroshige will perceive this clearly when Coppedge takes the stand. (It’s a bench trial rather than a jury trial.) You can see and hear the pain that David Coppedge has suffered because of the way he has been bullied and shut down and punished by his former employer, simply for not keeping silent about his scientific views.
The two factors may be related, of course. Media people who couldn’t imagine doubting for second that, given enough time alone, an amoeba can become a man do know one thing for sure: What a workplace is like if the boss seems out to get you. Stuff you are doing that nobody considered a problem suddenly becomes a big problem. Maybe it’s the slogan on your coffee mug (which your aunt gave you at Christmas). Or the photos of family or friends in your office. Or the vid you lent someone who had shown some interest in something you said …. oh wait, that was what happened in this case, wasn’t it?
After a while, everything becomes about the boss’s opinion and his opinion is not actually about job performance but a reflection of his own issues in life. And the bigger the organization, the more easily a boss can make everything about his own opinion and not about job performance.
Then he just has to wait for the employee to make some minor mistake and blow it out of proportion. Or put him on the list when a downsizing occurs.
Media people do know about that kind of boss, yes they do. And if that’s what they think is going on, it’s not surprising if they show Coppedge some sympathy.