We all like to think that when we are not on company time, we’re on personal time and we can be who we are, instead of who we should be when in the office.

Yes, your time is your own. Unless, of course, you act “stupidly,” as the President of the United States once said.

I hate to see it, because we should have all been trained by now. But every once in a while, we see an example or a reminder that while your time off work is your time, there are still some company standards to which we should live up, because we are representing our employer even when we don’t have the suit or uniform on when we’re around family or friends.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik via a Creative Commons license] While time off the work clock is yours to spend how you wish, if you are a resident of Jerk City, you may find yourself spending your time in other places than you might want. Like the unemployment line.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik via a Creative Commons license] While time off the work clock is yours to spend how you wish, if you are a resident of Jerk City, you may find yourself spending your time in other places than you might want. Like the unemployment line.

Hopefully working for the company won’t force you to change who you are in a wholesale way, but if you do act like a jerk off the clock, there’s a decent chance that you are a jerk while on the clock. And that will not look good to the company, any way you spin it.

I mention this because one guy at Hydro One in Ontario lost a $100,000-per-year job because  he thought it would be fun to heckle a female TV reporter who was just doing her job.

According to a video account of the incident, CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt, working in Toronto outside the stadium at a Toronto FC soccer game, was being heckled by a group of men with lewd comments being shouted toward her. While the cameras were rolling!

The video seemed to capture Shawn Simoes, the Hydro One employee, who seemed to be defending the epithets and in some way participating in the incident. As the reporter reported the incident (and caught some of the men on camera), the search was on for names and identities of those involved, and Hydro One got word and fired Simoes. Not only that, but the parent company of the Toronto FC soccer team, Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), issued a ban on Simoes and the other men from all MLSE facilities.

That means they will not be allowed on the grounds or to attend any event held in any of the arenas which MLSE controls, which include the home site not only of the soccer team and Toronto Argonauts Canadian football team, but also for the Tornoto Raptors basketball team and Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. And this includes any concerts or conventions that may be held in those facilities as well.

There was no word on whether Hunt filed any charges against the men, but that could certainly add to the fun of Simoes and his friends. Hope it was worth it!

In a statement, MLSE officials said, “Our organization is committed to an environment where everyone can feel safe and included, and discrimination or intolerance of any kind will be met with

[a] swift and serious response.”

Ouch. The painful cost of acting like a jerk. Lose $100K and can’t see the Maple Leafs in person at home. Maybe he should renounce his Canadian citizenship?