Frank Kollman

I just read a case where 4 employees over 50 were fired for using the company's email system to transmit pornographic photographs "on almost a daily basis."  They sued, claiming age discrimination, and their case was just dismissed by a federal appeals court.  Apparently, there was some evidence that a supervisor had made comments suggesting he might have a bias based on age.  It seems someone, probably the lawyer for the old guys, failed to notice that they were SENDING PORNO OVER THE COMPANY'S EMAIL SYSTEM.

When will our lawmakers finally understand that minorities, older workers, women, and other protected groups have members who deserve to be fired.  Equal rights goes both ways, you would hope.  Unfortunately, these anti-discrimination laws give extra rights to the people they are supposed to protect.  This employer, who would have surely been sued if a group of women claimed sexual harassment because they intercepted these pornographic emails, probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending this case.

I will continue to argue that our anti-discrimination laws are a failure.  They do not give equal rights; they create avenues for cranks and opportunists to (1) keep their jobs, (2) get nuisance settlements, and (3) terrorize their employers.  If the civil rights laws were working, anti-discrimination lawsuits would be on the decline.  They are not.

I will be 60 soon.  If I were an employee, that would not give me the right to goof off, send porn from my desk, or act like I was entitled to my job.  Unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way.  I shouldn't complain because these laws give me a living.  It's just getting harder and harder to feel good about the state of the workplace.