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Was Robert Waple right to fire Texas teen who complained about her pizza parlor job before even starting?

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Robert Waple
Define freedom of speech and the consequences of freedom of speech …

Be careful of what you choose to share on social media might be the overriding mantra after one Texas teen, Cella recently found herself being fired from a pizza parlor job even before getting her start after taking to twitter to complain about the post before she even began.

Tweeted Cella using the twitter handle @cellla_: ‘Ew I start this f*** a** job tomorrow.’

Invariably the post would be seen by her new employer Robert Waple and owner of Jet’s Pizza in Mansfield, Texas who had hired Cella to work at the pizza parlor after the tweet was brought to his attention.

Tweeted Waple (handle: @Robertwaple) a self admitted infrequent twitter user (he would admit it would be the second time to post a tweet since first getting a twitter handle in 2009) directly to Cella in a tweet that has since gone viral: And….no you don’t start that FA job today! I just fired you! Good luck with your no money, no job life!’ 

As of time of press, Rober Waple’s tweet had been retweeted 3,800 times and favorited more than 4,200. 

Since the incident has gained wide media attention, Robert Waple would admit that one of Cella’s future co-workers (but which one …?) told him about the tweet, which led him having to log on to check it out himself. 

Robert Waple

Robert Waple

After firing Cella, several former employees chimed in to comfort Cella to say that working at Jet’s Pizza wasn’t all that great, anyway. One said it was the worst job he ever had. 

One Twitter user told Robert Waple: ‘Just thought you should know I was stoned out of my mind every time I went into work, and your pizza sucks.’

He replied: ‘Being high would only partly explain how you could deliver a pizza to the wrong house…multiple times. You have no hockey skills.’

Another Twitter user rose to Cella’s defense, saying that the firing was unjustified: ‘@Cellla_ you were exercising your freedom of speech and never mentioned the company name so you got fired for no reason, contact HR asap.’ 

Cella, who today tweeted about having to go to a court date, seemed to take it all in stride. 

Robert Waple
Cella

She tweeted: ‘That moment when someone snitched on you trying to get you in trouble but instead accidentally gets you famous.’ 

As for Mr Waple – who joined Twitter in 2009 and hadn’t tweeted before the Cella incident – he gracefully excited Twitter.

‘Made my point today. I’ll check in again in 6 years,’ he wrote.  

What do you think? Was Robert Waple right to fire Cella before she even had her first day, should Cellla have kept quiet or why for that matter would Cella choose to work at an outlet that she didn’t really want to work at or is that an underlying statement of what many would regard as ‘dismal’ job opportunities that so often await the young…?

And then there was this comment on the web courtesy of Joe Habes that made me wonder:

I think it’s funny how many people have no idea what “freedom of speech” means.

All freedom of speech protects you from is persecution from the government for anything you say that is not threatening or endangering to others.

It has nothing to do with:
a.) Your job
b.) Your personal interests (forums, Facebook, groups etc)
c.) Your school
d.) Your friends

You have the freedom to say what you want. You can’t be arrested for it. But that doesn’t mean you’re immune to the consequences of your words outside of the government.

You can’t say you hate your job (paraphrasing) on a public website and expect it to stay there. Twitter isn’t Vegas.

Robert Waple

Robert Waple

Robert Waple

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17 COMMENTS

  1. You do realize that Waple’s business is a god damn pizza delivery service, right? Are you seriously too dumb to understand why banning cellphones for your delivery drivers is a bad idea? And this tweet didn’t even occur at work!

  2. It’s not that she complained, it’s a) she didn’t even work there yet, she was complaining about having to work at all, and b) she was dumb as hell to do it on social media.

  3. She’s a teenager, where does she expect to work that doesn’t “suck”? My first jobs were cleaning and then at McDonald’s. All first jobs kinda suck and are minimum wage. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? It’s your foot in the door, teh first thing on your resume, so when you’re 25 you have more than “babysitting” to go to an interview with.

  4. She will never rise beyond “employee” status and become a business owner, unless she takes on self employment through worlds oldest profession.

  5. If your account is public, then you’re not snooping. Freedom of speech-which people don’t understand-is freedom of speech from Government! You can say what you want, but you are held accountable for your actions.

  6. I do find a stunning hypocrisy in the people acting as if the girl is literally Hitler.

    Yeah, she’s immature but some of these people online speak as if they’ve never complained about their jobs. That’s all she did and she did it on a remote Twitter account with a handle that didn’t even contain her name. She didn’t mention the company’s name either so it’s not like the reputation of the company would be ruined or people would be thinking “oh this is the type of staff that are working in Jet’s Pizza.” No one would have been none the wiser had one employee decided not to rat her out on her comment.

    The boss, however, shouldn’t have responded online especially with the tweets he came out with “have fun with your no job life.” Judging by the other ex-employee’s comments, the comment the girl made was warranted seeing as several other employees found Robert Waple’s management to be pretty bad. Perhaps if he was a good boss who could manage the place efficiently, the girl wouldn’t have been complaining in the first place about the job.

    They both should have kept their lips shut. People need to learn to separate their personal lives from what they post on social media platforms for all the world to potentially see.

  7. Robert was correct in firing this girl. He is a business owner whose workers deal with the public every day. As a business owner and a boss it is most likely that he wants his employees to be Polite and Hard Working. Many kids and adults today would rather have attention than to just do their job! Twitter and all that other online crap is nothing more than a distraction. If I were Mr. Waple, I would have a ‘no-cell phone on’ rule for when my employees were on the clock. They could tweet and twitter on their breaks only.

  8. Honestly, I hope you get doxed. You’re not immune to consequences for what you say and do, either. 😉

  9. I agree with Robert. These folks today think they can say whatever they want and not have to face consequences for it. Social media and people’s attitudes are getting worse every day. I hope he has truck parking at Jet’s pizza because next time I drive through, I’ll stop and support him with my money as well as my words.

  10. I can’t agree with either side. The girl was totally asking for it as no matter how crappy the job may be, at least you have one. The unemployment numbers today are a bold faced lie because they drop all the underemployed, those who fell off the 99 weeks, and those who just quit because they won’t be hired for some reason (age for instance.) Yet, I think she totally had a right to say that. Companies should be by law banned from snooping and spying on employees with their personal online accounts. People should be allowed to express their feelings, their opinions, and behave as they will off the clock within the confines of the local/state/federal laws. Saying this f’n ass job sucks shouldn’t get you busted, just as you going out and getting smashed at a holiday vacation because your boss doesn’t like partying or booze at all. If it doesn’t impact how you work, and you’re not on company time or wearing their logo acting like a douche they shouldn’t be allowed to make an employee live in fear of their own actions away from work.

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