Law firm fires employees for orange shirts

[DaemonSeid]

They weren't wearing sagging pants or revealing clothing. But dressing in an orange shirt is apparently enough to get fired at one Florida law firm, where 14 workers were unceremoniously let go last Friday.

In an interview with the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, several of the fired workers say they wore the matching colors so they would be identified as a group when heading out for a happy hour event after work. They say the executive who fired them initially accused them of wearing the matching color as a form of protest against management.

Orange is widely considered to be one of the most visible colors to the human eye. Orange vests are worn by most hunters as a safety precaution and by school crossing guards. Most prisoners are required to wear orange jump suits.

The color orange is arguably Florida's defining color. The self-described "Sunshine State" is widely known for its orange juice exports.

The law offices of Elizabeth R. Wellborn, P.A. offered "no comment" to Sun-Sentinel reporter Doreen Hemlock, but four ex-employees tell the paper they were simply wearing their orange shirts to celebrate "pay day" and the upcoming Friday group happy hour.

"There is no office policy against wearing orange shirts. We had no warning. We got no severance, no package, no nothing," Lou Erik Ambert told the paper. "I feel so violated."

Ironically, had the employees been wearing orange as a form of protest, it would have been illegal to fire them, ABC News reports.

After the 14 employees were fired, an executive said anyone wearing orange for an "innocent reason" should speak up. At least one employee immediately denied any involvement or knowledge of a protest and explained the happy hour color coordination. Nonetheless, they were still fired.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...181404912.html

[MysticCat]

Something tells me that there's more to the story.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Something tells me that there's more to the story.

Ringa ding ding ding!

I like one of the comments, "all the remaining employees should wear orange in protest."

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Something tells me that there's more to the story.

Um, yeah...I was never that happy about pay day that I would wear a certain color for happy hour.

And these people couldn't recognize each other in a crowd that they needed orange shirts?

Right.

[Kevin]

If that's all there is to the story, I just picked up a new anecdote to use in explaining the concept of at-will employees.

[DaemonSeid]

Red shirts get killed, orange shirts get fired.

Blue shirts live.

[DZsis&mom]

It's a foreclosure mill firm. One of the news articles locally states one of the women fired was at lower management level & was in charge of scanning & shredding confidential paperwork. One was a 21 year working in the mailroom.

And really? Orange? Everyone in the South Florida area has Orange shirts of some type. It's one of the Dolphin's colors.

[dekeguy]

So maybe the firm's managing partner is Irish. Orange wouldn't go over too well if they were celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Friday.

[Munchkin03]

What if they're protesting the termination of a Dutch employee?

There's more to this--wonder how long it's going to take for it to all come out.

Sometimes we've all worn the same color shirt as a gag. But my workplace is a little wacky.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by dekeguy

So maybe the firm's managing partner is Irish. Orange wouldn't go over too well if they were celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Friday.

Then they'd have a religious discrimination lawsuit. Those crazy Protestants.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by dekeguy

So maybe the firm's managing partner is Irish. Orange wouldn't go over too well if they were celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Friday.

Some of us whose ancestors sojourned in Ireland for a while think that Orange is just fine on St. Patrick's Day. I know I wore an orange shirt.

[dekeguy]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Some of us whose ancestors sojourned in Ireland for a while think that Orange is just fine on St. Patrick's Day. I know I wore an orange shirt.

Reminds me of the time during my undergrad years when I walked into a favorite watering hole on St. Patrick's Day. Without thinking I wore a black pull over sweater and some old khaki trousers. The "green gang" saw me and yelled, "hey, its the black and tans"!!! I thought my goose was cooked but I pulled off the sweater to show a green Alligator shirt under it. I haden't even thought about it but the green shirt was just what I grabbed out of my closet to wear under the sweater. Saved my ass that day.

[Cheerio]

Yet, isn't orange THE in color for Spring 2012? Seems so in local newspaper style sections...