SAP 'investigating' after viral video allegedly shows anti-mask employee coughing on shoppers SAP says it is investigating after a video went viral allegedly featuring one of its employees coughing on fellow shoppers in a US store. And that's viral in the internet sense, at least. Without identifying any individuals, the German software giant said earlier today: The health and safety of our employees and the …
I'm perfectly fine with it. Actions have consequences, and an action doesn't need to be a crime to land you in trouble with your employer. Potential for reputational damage is usually enough.
SAP have clearly taken the view they don't want to be associated with people like that, and are sending a message.
I think it probably would be a criminal offense, at least for right-pondians, if this gentleman's conduct and punishment is anything to go by:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/18/hairdresser-daryll-rowe-given-life-sentence-for-deliberately-infecting-men-with-hiv
I would change that to: Cough on me once & I'll tell you to go away. Cough on me again & you'll wake up some time after the effects of the Taser wears off. Don't be surprised if you find yourself naked, taped to a tree, with a sign "laminated" to your chest that reads "Avoid me, I carry the plague!"
That guy in Vietnam sent up for 5 years? They actually had to prove he'd killed one of the several people he infected when he brought Covid from the big city to his small village.
Meanwhile in my locality, if I were just to too loudly *say* "Allahu akbar" I'd be shot by several of the maskless. Strange times...
Independent of the crisis-du-jour, can't we just agree on being polite to one another? Deliberately trying to scare people (with COVID or any other dangerous weapon) is just a dick move. I'd say it deserves punishment and losing your job sounds appropriate -- who wants to work with such a person?
Remember: Don't be an ass. Living together is much more pleasant when everybody remembers to be polite.
That's the thing I find most sad about this affair.
So this person doesn't believe COVID exists and/or is dangerous - fine (not really, but nevermind for now). The other people around clearly do, because they're wearing masks, and you have to be able to imagine they don't want to be coughed on. It would be extremely rude even if there wasn't a pandemic; for someone who believes COVID exists, it's downright scary.
So why the fuck would you do it? It does nothing for you, the only thing it does is make someone else miserable. What's wrong with you, to get your jollies from distressing others? Being an idiot is bad enough, can we at least not be evil idiots?
It's really sad. They're sending around 'Vax=Nazi gas chamber' memes on Facebook, and then they, their family, friends, or loved ones are dying of Covid 19. They feel guilty for their part in that, and its difficult to accept the reality of it and so they double down on the lie. I saw one couple, both dead now leaving their 3 kids alone, and it was so avoidable, they could simply have had the vaccine and they'd be fine now. They could simply have worn the 3 layer masks and likely would have avoided even catching it, or at least spreading it.
Republicans should realize they've been conned by professional con-men.
Those televangelists that tell them 'God' doesn't want them to wear masks, are professional con-men, they don't actually talk to God, they lie on TV to get money from their victims. Con-men.
Those politicians that tell them Covid19 is a liberal hoax to undermine their freedom, they've all been vaccinated, they all have the anti-bodies for Covid19, and when/if they still catch it, they go run to hospital and get more monoclonal-antibodies too. Those politicians are con-men, they lie to their voters to get their votes. Con-men, running a con.
Those shock-jocks, that lie about Covid 19, then catch it, then claim to be taking horse-dewormer, while actually receiving monoclonal anti-bodies. They're con-men, they feed the lies to gain audience for sponsorship money. Con-men.
It's OK, to wake up, realize you've been conned and stop going along with the con. It's not your fault that your loved one died, its THEIR fault. The con-men's fault. The con-men lied to you, they told you it was a hoax and it is not, they told you it doesn't kill and it does, they told you God is the only vaccine you need while, while they get Pfizer and Janssen, THEIR fault.
Blame them.
Fooking Republicans and their fooking lies, killed your loved one.
Loudmouthed folks currently dying largely appear to do so to "own the libs": https://www.sorryantivaxxer.com/ (somewhat NSFW).
The army of deluded does include some lefties, but these don't have the tendency to rub their belief into everyone's face, let alone attack random people.
God did not invent scientists. We did that with the intelligence God graced us with.
Just as God does not punish us with landslides, floods or avalanches. We do that by not paying attention to where the dangers are when writing the zoning rules.
Stop attributing to God things that are our own responsibility.
The day the asteroid comes, it will be our fault if we're not ready and God will have had nothing to do with it.
If you do something that means people don't want to be associated with you, 'people' is likely to include your employer and co-workers.
Certainly, consumers can and do legitimately question why a business would continue to employ someone they know to be vile, so just as a business matter it's a sackable offence to be vile in a way that attracts publicity.
Employment contracts will of course vary by country. It's entirely possible that an employee in SAP's home country of Germany would not be dismissed for doing something outside of work. But this happened in the USA, where it's much easier to fire people. Nebraska an "at-will employment" state, so protections are even weaker.
> It's entirely possible that an employee in SAP's home country of Germany would not be dismissed for doing something outside of work.
She'd absolutely positively be fired. Some idiots have challenged similar firings in court, that's when they find themselves in the news.
You mean Some Americans do have "some" employee protections. Shocking
/s
As much as i liked the people I fail to understand how Americans stand for the appaling way they are treated by their employers and by the state and federal government and corporations.
Yes, Americans have freedoms. Freedon to be abused and misstreated and shot....
"But this happened in the USA, where it's much easier to fire people."
Where does this misconception come from? It's much, much harder to fire people in the US than Europe. The whole of Europe has rules which are significantly less stringent than even 'at-will'.
This actually makes sense when you think about it: in the US, there's no state healthcare, no real unemployment benefits, etc. They have a lot of rules about whether you've been reasonably fired or not because it's really important there. Here, you don't lose your family's healthcare entitlement, you won't be made homeless, etc, so we don't bother about unfair sackings as much. (Obviously discrimination on grounds of protected characteristics is something we care about.)
As far as I know, the code of conduct of a company doesn't apply when outside of the company. I even suspect it would be illegal to fire someone for such a reason when out of job, unless the offender would have made public his/her affiliation with the company.
This is clearly a cultural thing.
"I even suspect it would be illegal to fire someone for such a reason when out of job, unless the offender would have made public his/her affiliation with the company."
Ah, but there's the rub. If you are easily identifiable as working for the company, then simply doing something under your own name will, if it's vile enough, get back to your employer. At that point, byebye job.
I agree.
If you click on the video link, the first featured comment mentions her being employed at SAP.
I would definitely fire an employee after watching a video like that since I definitely don't want such kind of person in the company, let alone inside the office. But that would be an internal decision, not a PR affair.
What bothers me is that Twitter's angry mob immediately link the person to their employer which has absolutely nothing to do with her behavior and somewhat it is expected from the company to take public action.
What happens in the video should be a matter for the police alone.
Learned the following an hour ago from an emergency responder (Austria).
People avoid getting vaccinated get a fake certificate, no news so far. Of course they distrust the "evil government", so they pay 100 Euros and submit their personal info including *all* details of their ID/passport to a random web-site for the fake cert. A whole new level of brilliance right there.
In Vermont, the State Police are (well, "were") apparently selling them!
And now, they're "former" State Police:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/09/08/vermont-state-troopers-accused-in-fake-vaccine-card-scheme-resign/
We'll see if they actually end up being charged with forgery of a Federal document, or if "professional courtesy" prevails.
Paying _anything_ for a fake covid vax cert is utter stupidity. A simple Google search shows images of literally _thousands_ of covid vax certs, from a multitude of countries. Download a few images, apply the image editor of your choice, and print the cert out... and now you have a fake cert. For free, other than the few seconds, a minute tops, required to do the search, download the image, and mess with said image. And, of course, for the jail time and/or fines you'll get when (not if) you get caught using it. Paying €100 for one, _and_ sending your PII on top of that, is not merely incredibly stupid, it's also insane.
Of course, the 'vax hesitant' are, for the most part, incredibly stupid, utterly insane, or both.
As seen in France, it goes even better if they manage to have a genuine certificate without having being vaccinated (either using the stolen credential of a doctor or finding one without morals).
When they start being scared and want to get vaccinated, the answer is: "sorry, according to the database you are already vaccinated, so you can't get it"...
..of whether we're in a pandemic or are all perfect, healthy specimens, I don't ever want some stranger invading my personal space and sharing bodily fluids with me. That's what Tinder and Grinder, plus various bars are for if you're so inclined.
I'm glad SAP fired her. She clearly does not have the emotional stability, much less the intelligence to be an asset to any company. Perhaps she should be forced to do community service tending to people stuck on respirators due to Covid.
I've always suspected that a large percentage of the population were just raving idiots. In the USA at least, the last 2 years have really driven home in a scary way just how many willfully ignorant people are out there though.
So, the SAP recruitment process includes the following :
SAP numerical reasoning tests measure your numerical aptitude and your ability to interpret, analyse and draw conclusions from sets of data.
-- "millions dead = it's all a hoax!"
SAP situational judgement tests allow the recruiter to assess how candidates may approach workplace-based scenarios.
-- "You disagree with someone else's choice. Do you (a) accept that other people have other opinions or (b) cough in their face and call them sheep"
Not wearing a mask, ok it's rude, antisocial, stupid and in some cases illegal
Deliberately coughing on someone - that's assault clear and simple no question on the illegality.
But she's an entitled American Karen and losing her job is the best we can hope for
Good on SAP for at least doing this
The venom toward the _individual_ is understandible. That woman's actions are indefensible.
However, she's one individual. To those posting about 'COVIDiots':
Don't spew hatred sizeable swath of the population (i.e. the unvaccinated) that would never in a million years _intentionally_ do something like that which might harm a mother and her daughter in a store, no matter how misguided or misinformed about the disease they are.
There's a word whose definition is "obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction; in particular, prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group" and it's an ugly one.
That word is bigotry, and we have more than enough of that in the world.
Also, no matter how right it might be to tell them they should get vaccinated, you're just perpetuating one of the vectors that spreads the problem - listening to social media and commentards like us give them medical advice. Just keep the message to 'When it comes to pandemics, talk to your doctor and consult the advice of your national infectious disease authority.' You know what advice they'll get from those sources, and when then next doozy of a disease comes through, maybe they'll go there to get good, real medical advice instead of Farcebook or El Reg's comments section.
"Don't spew hatred sizeable swath of the population (i.e. the unvaccinated) that would never in a million years _intentionally_ do something like that which might harm a mother and her daughter in a store, no matter how misguided or misinformed about the disease they are."
I have no idea where you get the idea that a group comprised mainly of antisocial loons wouldn't do this stuff intentionally. My observations suggest the exact opposite. You have to be some kind of cunty fuck to fall down a far right rabbit hole in the first place, and that's what we're talking about,
Nice people don't 'accidentally' do far right stuff. They do it because they're _that kind of person already_.
What you're saying is like excusing people for racist outbursts because they were drunk and angry. It's still not a place anyone acceptable goes for any reason.
The anti-vax stuff isn't the relatively harmless conspiracy theory you imagine. It's a gateway into neo-Nazism. It is based on old-fashioned conspiracy theories about 'the Jews'. People are incapable of believing it unless they already believe that kind of nonsense.
That's why the number of anti-vaxxers is roughly the same as the number of far right sympathisers - BNP members, etc - in this country,
So that whole swath of people are neo-nazis, racists, and they all want to harm mothers and their kids their daughters in stores. Right, well that's good to be clear on who's spewing hate then.
Good to know. I had this weird idea that people are people and any large group is full of idealists, principled people, mislead and deluded people and bad apples all mixed together and it wasn't fair to categorically tar them all with the same brush.
Oh, and the first line of my post about what the specific thing she she did being indefensible was written in invisible ink.
Gosh, I'm learning so much from the Internet today...
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