why not make a flag that says "i love cunt" and fly that, if you are suddenly the arbiter of what is allowed at a place you dont own? in fact why dont you invite yourself over to my house and start placing **** on my floor, if you dont give a damn what is yours and what isnt? stop being stupid, this isnt some goofy opportunity to see who can win the "i'm a big patriot i love amurrica". it is about private property and your boss or the property owner's right to tell you what to do.
FROM A LEGAL STANDPOINT, it's not a rule unless it's in a policy AND the hospital has documented proof that the employee accepted said policy. The supervisor (read: not the owner) has no business making up the rules to live by in someone else's place of business. Owner's make policies, supervisors make sure people follow them. Even if the owner would have stood by the supervisor, there is no legal ground to stand on unless they write it down and have the employee accept it.
this is simple: private property owners can dictate what happens on their property. you listen to your boss when he tells you what to do.
The "boss" in the example was not the private property owner. You seem to keep missing that simple fact. The supervisor, for whatever arbitrary, non-policy reason, decided he/she didn't like the flag. The owner sided with the person who put the flag up. You listen to your boss when he tells you what to do when it is within the policy of the organization. This was not policy, it was personal. Everyone knows you like to stir up sh!!t martin, but this position you have taken is pretty lame.
the supervisor is clearly working as an agent of the company who is leasing the building or whatever, and has the right to dictate the policies inside the building. if you came in wearing sandals, because the policy never explicitly banned them, and you said "oh look at me i never signed an anti-sandal policy!" and continued to be a jackass, you would be fired. you dont make the rules in your workplace. this isnt hard to understand.
People assume authority that they don't have and they often are stupid about it. In the 80's one of my colleagues here used a Confederate battle flag (starred X shape) as a curtain in his office window. LSU had no policy about this that I'm aware of, but the department director ordered him to remove it because it might offend somebody. So, he replaced it with a Confederate national flag (stars and bars) and it remained there for years until he replaced it with an LSU flag. I once asked the director why the new flag wasn't found to be offensive and he replied, "It's a Texas flag, just a regional pride thing". Oh.
imagine if your coworkers wanted to fly a flag with a muslim crescent on it in their office. and imagine if some of your christian coworkers were annoyed. and imagine you are the boss and you really just want to maximize profits so you can buy your son a new batting cage, not engage in a religious free speech battle, you just want to shut it all down and get back to work.
pen, meet paper. so it is written, and so it shall be done. we call these things "channels". when you do it properly, "rules" are in place. with "rules", come "order". then the new batting cage. and possibly, gloves.
This is exactly right. Forget about personal liberties. Express yourself on your time. When you are on the clock you are there to contribute to the business. If you being expressive causes a distraction it is a boss's duty to remove the source.
You don't have to explicitly define what types of clothes can't be worn. You are taking it too literally and completely missing the point because of it. The executives (owner) of a company define policies and procedures. The supervisors (middle management) do not. They are there to make sure they are adhered to. In your sandals example, you don't have to put in the policy what you aren't allowed to wear this, this, this and this. You create a dress code policy that generically defines what is acceptable for one's personal appearance. In our flag example, the executives (owner) did not have a policy in place that prohibits people from flying flags or expressing themselves in that way, therefore there is nothing the supervisor can use as a precedent to enforce the flag removal that he/she just arbitrarily made up on the spot. It would be perfectly acceptable for the supervisor to go to the owner and say "Hey, we have a problem with people being offended with flags. We should make them take it down." It is then up to the owner to put it in a policy, regardless of the reason (even if it says you can't post anything anywhere in the building), and then require the employees to accept it. Then and only then is it considered a rule. If the employees don't want to accept the policy, then you can tell them to GTFO without having to worry about getting raped in court.
