Photog suspended for pic of dude who lost his pants on ski lift -is that OK?

[ringer]

By now, the picture of guy who got "pants"ed by a Vail chairlift on New Year's has made the rounds. (see The Smoking Gun, Huff Po, or the link below)

Today, the photog told his side of the story.
http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/06/the-story-behind-the-vail-chairlift-photo/

Can his employer legally suspend the photographer? On what grounds? Paranoia?

 

[OTD]

Anyone can be suspended or fired with or without cause, unless they're covered by a contract that specifies otherwise. The only exceptions are for reasons the of race/gender/age discrimination. Is it fair that this guy got suspended? Nope. But they can do it.

 

[Ace]

If he is employed to take nice photos of people skiing on the mountain for PR purposes, I'd fire him too.

He wasn't fired by the paper. He was fired by the ski resort.

 

[ringer]

The photographer took the shot with his own camera while off-duty.
The photo was not exploitative.
The victim isn't identifiable.
The accident took place in public.

Why kill the messenger?

Vail should be happy the guy wasn't hurt.

 

[Stitch]

If he is employed to take nice photos of people skiing on the mountain for PR purposes, I'd fire him too.

He wasn't fired by the paper. He was fired by the ski resort.

The photog was an idiot who forgot who he was working for.

 

[Rockbottom]

Uh yep. Hit the bricks. Sorry.

rb

 

[Ace]

The photographer took the shot with his own camera while off-duty.
The photo was not exploitative.
The victim isn't identifiable.
The accident took place in public.

Why kill the messenger?

Vail should be happy the guy wasn't hurt.

Yes and thrilled that people are seeing evidence of their skiers being depantsed.

 

[Drip]

Hope the guy who got depantsed didn't get frostbitten.

 

[forever_town]

Perhaps that link should have carried a NSFW warning?

 

[Double J]

Seems to me the guy is proud of the photo and happy that it got enough of a reaction that he is losing his job over it. He isn't whining about how "unfair" he thinks his situation is.

I say that's a great attitude, and hopefully he lands on his feet somewhere.

Unlike the upside-down depantsed guy.

 

[SF_Express]

ringer, not to pick on you, but it bears repeating:

Except for cases of discrimination and other narrow criteria, employers generally can discipline an employee for whatever they want unless prohibited by a contract or they're protected by a union, as OTD said.

The biggest mistake people make on this is the "free speech" claim. Take it to extremes: If you go into your blog and write that your company is terrible and your manager sucks, you think that speech is protected? Or, simply, you go to said boss and say, "**** you!"?

You say -- or in this case, shoot a picture of -- something your employer doesn't like, and the employer has a right to do whatever they want, pretty much.

 

[Shaggy]

I'm confused: Who does he work for? The Vail paper or the ski resort?

If it's the paper, then it's bull**** to suspend him.
If it's the ski resort, well, I understand him being suspended.

 

[Write-brained]

I'm confused: Who does he work for? The Vail paper or the ski resort?

If it's the paper, then it's bull**** to suspend him.
If it's the ski resort, well, I understand him being suspended.

He was hired by the resort to shoot happy, smiling skiiers for its magazine. He freelanced that photo to the newspaper.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Basically, the photographer shot a news photo during his time off (with his own equipment) and sent it to the local paper.

Even if his employer (the photo company) has the right to suspend him for no reason ... shouldn't there be some sort of wrongdoing involved? Otherwise, the employer just looks like a douche for firing its employees at random.

Journalistically, what was the off-duty photographer's crime?

Journalistically, nothing. But it wasn't the newspaper that punished him, it was the ski resort. And taking photos that run at cross purposes with your job description (make Vail look good, not good 'n nekkid) gets you in trouble.

 

[slappy4428]

404 error on the link... someone took it down...

 

[Write-brained]

404 error on the link... someone took it down...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0106091vail1.html

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

I'm confused: Who does he work for? The Vail paper or the ski resort?

If it's the paper, then it's bull**** to suspend him.
If it's the ski resort, well, I understand him being suspended.

He was hired by the resort to shoot happy, smiling skiiers for its magazine. He freelanced that photo to the newspaper.

BUH-bye

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Must have been terrifying for his little one, but, ****, knowing that the skier is OK..... that is about as funny as something can be.

I only hope that that guy is some ultra-rich asshole who deserves humiliation such as that.

 

[Ace]

Must have been terrifying for his little one, but, ****, knowing that the skier is OK..... that is about as funny as something can be.

I only hope that that guy is some ultra-rich asshole who deserves humiliation such as that.

Couldn't he be an upper middle class asshole who deserved it?

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Or a poor asshole? Poor people can be assholes too. What they'd be doing at Vail I dunno, but still