Fired for not wearing the number '666'

[Sandra Craft]

Here's the story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/billy-e-hyatt-666_n_1105116.html#

In a nutshell, a company made a habit of having their workers wear stickers every day citing the number of days since an accident.  After the 666th accident-free day, a worker refused to wear the sticker because he believed it would condemn him to eternal damnation.  He was first suspended for 3 days, and then fired.  The article doesn't mention what his work record was like, but he'd worked there for over 4 years so I'm assuming until then they'd found him worth keeping.

In my opinion the worker with the 666 phobia was acting like a superstitious nitwit, and may well be a superstitious nitwit, but the company way over-reacted with the suspension alone, never mind the firing.  I don't see why upper management couldn't have gone along with what the guy's supervisor initially planned to do -- just have him go without a sticker for one day.

The issue this brings up in my mind is how far do you accomodate an employee's eccentricities or weird beliefs, and when do you be a hard case and insist they follow company policy or else?  To me, the dividing line would be when the employee's oddities interfere with something in a critical way, or create a dangerous situation, but I've never been an employer and hope never to be one (I'm aging fast enough as it is) so maybe I'm missing something.

[xSilverPhinx]

Superstitious nitwit on one side, definite overreaction on the other. It's just a sticker. ???

[The Magic Pudding]

The lawsuit, which seeks punitive damages and back pay

We only have Bill E. Hyatt's version, if it's as stated the company probably deserves to pay compensation.

But what's with this "punitive" crap?

Good old Wiki has some to say about it.

Anyway I don't think there should be punitive damages awarded in civil cases, not unless you want an overly litigious society.

[Sandra Craft]

We only have Bill E. Hyatt's version, if it's as stated the company probably deserves to pay compensation.

That's another thing that strikes me odd about all this -- the company isn't responding to questions from the press.  That may be on their lawyers advice, or maybe they've realized how badly they stepped into it and don't trust themselves not to make it worse, but to me it looks off that they're not giving their side of it.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Somebody with public relations sense should have predicted the firestorm this would create, and just accommodated the guy, even though the idea that wearing a number would condemn to eternal damnation is silly.  Somebody in management with a little sense should have seen this coming.

[Tank]

Somebody with public relations sense should have predicted the firestorm this would create, and just accommodated the guy, even though the idea that wearing a number would condemn to eternal damnation is silly.  Somebody in management with a little sense should have seen this coming.

This could well be the case.

The other issue is that the company could have a very authoritarian attitude, with a top boss who doesn't tolerate people querying his decisions.

[Stevil]

Wearing stickers is a bit naff. I wouldn't be happy if my employer came up with that silly idea.
Why not post the number on a bulletin board or something less degrading to the employees.

Yeah the employee could have worn a sticker that says 665+1 or something to that effect. Who gives a flying toss if he refuses to wear a fucking sticker for a day. Presumably he has worn it for 665 days already. This is such degrading tripe. The employer should be shot.

[Too Few Lions]

I'd have loved to have worn a badge with '666' on at work, but  that's just me!
Like people have said, superstitious idiot on the one hand, possible overreaction by the company on the other. What I can't understand, which makes me think that Mr Hyatt is a total idiot, is that he could have just taken the day off as holiday, or kept quiet and pulled a sickie.

[Stevil]

I'd have loved to have worn a badge with '666' on at work, but  that's just me!
Like people have said, superstitious idiot on the one hand, possible overreaction by the company on the other. What I can't understand, which makes me think that Mr Hyatt is a total idiot, is that he could have just taken the day off as holiday, or kept quiet and pulled a sickie.

Maybe he wanted to make a point and stand up for his rights?

[Too Few Lions]

Maybe he wanted to make a point and stand up for his rights?

true, I just think maybe he could have been a little more pragmatic and not made this an issue, although the same also goes for the company. Maybe he'd had earlier problems with the company and there's more to the story than just the refusal to wear a sticker at work. Anyway, I can't say I've got any great sympathy for him, he's quoted as saying that anyone who wears that number (including all his work colleagues who did wear the badge) will burn in hell so he's clearly a nutter;

'The people that accept the mark, they're going to burn in hell. There's no way that I'm going to put that on my body.'

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/man-claims-he-was-fired-refusing-wear-666/nFjht/

apparently there's a phobia of 666 called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia!

[Asmodean]

If you are disloyal enough to your employer to refuse wearing a sticker with a number on it, then in my opinion, you should have the grace to quit and find another job.

I wouldn't wear a sticker at work unless it stated my name and occupation or some such, but then, I wouldn't look for work in places that enforce any sort of dress code either - exactly because that would kill any prospect of loyalty to the employer and I consider that kind of important when it comes to quality of the work I do.

[fester30]

I used to be a Christian, and experienced many different denominations, so I can shed some light on the 666 phobia.  From an early age, a Sunday Bible school lesson that comes up once or twice a year involves the end times and the mark of the beast.  Apparently, in the time of the anti-Christ, there will be a time that people will be forced to wear the mark of the beast.  "They" will try to coerce you in many ways.  We were warned that "they" may even hold our spouse and kids hostage, and tell us that if we don't accept the mark of the beast, our family would be tortured and killed.  We were told that even then, we should not accept the mark because it's better for Earthly suffering than for eternal damnation.  This is serious stuff to someone who believes in God, Satan, Heaven, Hell, and Apocalypse.  The mark of the beast is considered by many to be the number 666.  Every once in a while, people fear that the mark will be in the form of a tattoo, a-la Holocaust numbers, or in the form of a microchip that holds all of our personal and banking information. 

It doesn't surprise me that there was an employee who made such a stand against the ridiculous policy of that company.  what surprises me is there weren't more making a stand, considering how many believe in such stuff.  I think the company is in the wrong in this case, because it's an easy accommodation.  Easy accommodations should be made.  Some accommodations cannot, however.  In the military, we don't always get Sundays off.  That could be a big deal to people who believe the Old Testament that mentions a person should be put to death if they work on the Sabbath.  That one, however, hasn't been a big deal.  Another example of nitpicking the Bible.

[OldGit]

I suspect the management are closet satanists and were deliberately setting up a situation where the Evil One would gain all the employees' souls to burn in the eternal flame.  Worth waiting 665 days for, I'd say.

[Stevil]

Regardless of what reason the guy had for not wearing a sticker, I'd like to know if human bulletin board was in his job description.
The sticker doesn't fit any Occupational Health and Safety standards, its not there to let others know who he is.

Employers need to get real. If a person is doing a good job, is it worth getting rid of them over not wearing a sticker?
Coming up with policies like this forces the company to make a heavy stance, wear our numbers sticker or get fired.
How valued do you think the staff are?
They are being treated like little children. I am the boss, you need to do exactly what I tell you.

[Sandra Craft]

I suspect the management are closet satanists and were deliberately setting up a situation where the Evil One would gain all the employees' souls to burn in the eternal flame.  Worth waiting 665 days for, I'd say.

Well, the company's original name was Pliant Plastics, which sure sounds suspicious to me!