Barney Greengrass waiter, Jon Barrett Ingels, claimed the loss of his job due to his twitter post about “Hung” actress Jane Adams. Barney Greengrass, located in Beverly Hills, CA is frequented by celebrities and under the Twitter name PapaBarrett, Jon would talk about who he saw as he waited tables there. And when Jane Adams visited Jon tweeted, “Jane Adams, star of HBO series “Hung” skipped out on a $13.44 check. Her agent called and paid the following day. NO TIP!!” Jon also says Adams did return a month later to tip. But Barney’s corporate found his Twitter account and pushed his manager to fire the waiter of five years, despite the fact that he never said where he worked in any of his tweets.
There was no reason for Jon to be fired. He didn’t do anything that the press doesn’t do everyday. He spotted a celebrity and talked about what they did. He was simply telling the news. It seems that the restaurant should have had a more outraged reaction to this. What if Adams hadn’t sent a representative to pay it? Then they lose money as well. The customer may always be right but even when they don’t pay? Maybe the company should have protected their employee on this one, rather than throwing him under the bus over 140 characters. Jon says, “I understand they want to keep a safe environment for the celebrities and I think that I broke that safety. Had they come to me and said you need to take this down or change it to private, had I been told if you don’t do this, you’re going to lose your job, I would’ve done that.” Jon was Barney Greengrass’ side. They should have been on Jon’s side too.
Since the firing Jon has tweeted, “Working at the LA Opera today. WooHoo a job! That is all that I’m gonna write about THIS job.”
Do you think Jon deserved to lose his job?
I think Jon should have lost his job over the lack of discretion in this matter. Customers trust an environment to patronize and the personality of the waiter is rarely if ever an issue in choosing where to dine. Waiters should be tipped and well. But it happens on occasion that an oversight might occur. It comes with the territory. However, when an instance like this occurs, it is a form of bullying as well as invasion of privacy. I feel the public has a way to go yet to understand the power of this new media tool called "twitter". I for one am not interested in absolutely every passing thought that one has. Hopefully the consequences of losing a job will curb some of this obnoxious freedom of expression.
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