How Not To Get Fired While Social Networking
Posted by: Erica Maxwell
Filed in:
news
2:00PM, Saturday October 10th 2009
First, the story of how to get fired. Hapless waiter Jon-Barrett Ingels had the kind of experience that garners some extra happy-hour attention and gasps over martinis, but it all went south once it hit the internet. He’d served Jane Adams, star of HBO’s “Hung” and when he delivered her $13.44 bill, she turned red and explained that she’d left her wallet in the car but she’d be right back to pay. Jane didn’t return and Jon-Barrett felt stung. But, he felt even worse the next day when her agent called to pay the bill—sans tip. He tweeted about it, and one month later her people saw it. She came in, gave him his three-buck tip, and he got fired. Here’s how to avoid a similar catastrophe after the jump.
- Solve most problems by protecting your messages: Seriously, unless you friend your bosses and the people your bosses want to keep happy, this should keep you employed.
- Don’t use your full real name: Fall into the anonymous world of internet land. Jon-Barrett Ingels can be fired, but SnowDrop42 would’ve been a mysterious entity.
- Follow Grandma’s advice: Follow the old adage: If you can’t say anything nice .... It is such a simple way to stay out of trouble. So many times in a hot fit of hissy pique, I’ve wanted to throw up my grievances about everyone I know online. Can you believe the nerve of so-and-so? But I’m glad I kept my mouth shut and my fingers still because I would have regretted it later.
- Remember Twitter has a search function: Politicians and celebrities like Jane Adams are people with people—Agents and publicists are paid to find the nasty crap people are saying about them and do damage control. Bad news to be on their bad side.
- Don’t friend your boss: Duh.
- Damage control: Unlike email, Twitter has something similar to an undo button. It is possible to make a mistake and go back and send that oops to the trash, hopefully never to be seen again. Unless someone unsympathetic took a screen shot. Then, you’re out of luck.
- Resist temptation: This is the hardest and worst of all. Stupid, dangerous, tempting internet.
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Kiki T
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 01:11 pm: [report]
that is lame that he got fired. it was tacky of her to say she would be back and not pay—most places understand if you are sincere about not having your wallet and will be back to pay. It’s happened to me… and she should of made sure her agent left a tip—a big tip….to come back a month later with just a $3 tip makes her look so TACKY!
majicksand
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 01:33 pm: [report]
That bartender probably had a new job the next day, but Jane Adams will now be forever known as a lying cheapskate with a vicious streak. How did she figure she was gonna come out ahead in this scenario?
ajf78
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 03:35 pm: [report]
I agree. She is the one who looks like a jerk.
CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 03:38 pm: [report]
Tweeting is not social networking.
CrookedGlasses
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 04:06 pm: [report]
@CheeeeEEEEse Actually, twitter is very clearly social networking. People use it in the same way that they do facebook, sans apps about gardens and pirates.
delerben
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 08:41 pm: [report]
Not a good idea to be doing this stuff while working.
abortion support
Lavanderism
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 09:16 pm: [report]
That was very jerk-like to fire him, and for her to come back with just three dollars. Waiters make 90% of their money from tips.
amandabear
wrote on October 10 2009 @ 10:03 pm: [report]
She’s definitely the one who looks bad in that situation. Seriously, $3 AND he got fired? So tacky.
luke15chick
wrote on October 11 2009 @ 07:04 am: [report]
could he not have put that on the internet?! so she didn’t pay, move on! people do things I don’t like a lot, but it doesn’t go on my facebook every time.
conspicuous
wrote on October 11 2009 @ 08:35 am: [report]
I’m fascinated by the lists sometimes. Seems like common sense, no?
Oliveira
wrote on October 11 2009 @ 01:57 pm: [report]
I don’t even know who Jane Adams is, but next time I hear her name I’ll think “oh that’s the cheapskate who gets people fired when they let it out”.
PinkRanger
wrote on October 11 2009 @ 02:17 pm: [report]
it’s a shame. She is a fantastic actress, ever seen Happiness? Sounds like it was an honest mistake, maybe even a mistake made by her agent when he didn’t tip, then she got petty and pissed about the negative publicity and added insult to injury with that embaressingly small token. Completely unnecessary, and in very very poor taste.
CheezeDoodles
wrote on October 11 2009 @ 02:55 pm: [report]
My sympathies to the waiter. Might have been his only job, and a lousy, often thankless one at that.
bbblondie
wrote on October 11 2009 @ 03:24 pm: [report]
That’s terrible. That poor waiter. And @luke15chick, as a former waitress, I would be the one to get in trouble if someone skipped out on a bill, even a small bill. It could be deducted from a server’s pay, or they could get fired for it. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest move to put it out there, but in the heat of anger, people lash out. I think it’s understandable- it was more than just “something he didn’t like”, it was his job. I agree with the majority of comments here- she winds up looking like the jerk, not him.
Austin Artist
wrote on October 11 2009 @ 05:34 pm: [report]
I knew nothing of this actress until reading this post and now I don’t like her. Instead of looking like a jerk and getting the guy fired she could have totally used this as an opportunity to look really cool by just going up to the waiter and giving him a decent sized tip and maybe apologizing. He would have probably tweeted about it and generated some positive buzz for her. I wonder if the negative publicity was worth the $13.44 + tip for Jane and her cheapskate agent.
LadyDomina
wrote on October 12 2009 @ 11:59 am: [report]
I agree with the poster who said, and I paraphrase, “Surely he got a job the next day. She’ll look like a cheapskate forever”. As a former waitress, looooong time ago, that unpaid bill comes out of the server’s pay. I prefer to give/invest My money to the generous folks out there: Denzel, Johnny (a good ol’ Kentucky boy whose Mama was a waitress), and Leno. I’ve no desire to see a Jane Adams flick (couldn’t name one to save My life) and now I never shall.
NaomiK
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 07:57 pm: [report]
How is it that she’s a regular on an HBO drama and she doesn’t have a 20 on her? $13 bucks might not matter to her but surely it matters to the owners of the restaurant and the waiter. I read another article on this and it was written in such a favorable manner for her. It said that, “About a month later, Adams finally got wind of the Tweet. She returned to the restaurant, stormed up to Ingels, and gave him (finally) his $3 tip—noting that she’d read his snarky post on Twitter.”
I have friends that are bar tenders and waiters and they fb and tweet about work. The only difference here is that she’s “famous”. If your on tv and don’t want people saying bad things about you, just don’t be a jerk.
equnsuocha
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 01:28 pm: [report]
She is awful and I like that show so much, yet I cringe everytime her ugly mousey mug shows up on screen. Ihave hated her since Frasier and now I have even more fuel for my righteous vengeance and hatred for her.
Bit much huh? ok :
^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^
GreenEyedGirl
wrote on October 17 2009 @ 05:37 pm: [report]
how is this the waiters fault? a famous actress skips out on her tab, then doesn’t even tip? even if it was the agents fault for not tipping, she should have apologized &/or sent them back to tip him when she found out. had she responded graciously, this whole story would’ve had a different ending - with a waiter keeping his job & an actress keeping her fans.