You're Fired!

You are at work everyday on time and never leave early. You don’t call in sick and you don’t surf the web on company time. You never run your personal mail on the company postage meter. You are the perfect employee and your evaluations reflect it. Think your job is safe? If you work for the city of Warren, Michigan the mayor says, “Not necessarily” Mayor Jim Fouts want his employees to buy American or find someplace else to work.

The mayor hasn't said he'll fire or lay off someone who doesn't buy American.Yet when asked if he would, he has said things like "they are at-will employees in a strong mayor form ofgovernment... and they can be terminated at any time. I believe they know that and with that in mind I strongly urge that they buy American."

Should employers be able to fire employees for non-work related ‘offenses’? We already allow employers to fire smokers, justifying it by statistics that say smokers cost employers in increased health costs and lost productivity. The same logic could be used against any employee whose ‘lifestyle’ could be considered unhealthy-drinkers, meat eaters, and the obese. Mayor Fouts bases his decision on the fact that revenues from GM and Chrysler account for 15 percent of his annual fiscal budget.

I don’t favor telling employers who they can or can’t hire. Employers should be able to fire non-performing employees without being forced to jump through government mandated hoops. At the same time, good employees should not have to worry about losing their jobs because of their personal choices.
h/t Autoblog via Instapundit