Update: Gawker reporters there is no Jenny. My original post remains below.
It’s been quite a week for dramatic exits when it comes to quitting your job.
First, JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater decided he had enough after being hit on the head with some luggage and being yelled at by passengers. He quit his job by yelling obscenities over the airplane intercom, followed by deploying the plane’s emergency slide, grabbing a beer and taking off.
And became an Internet hero.
Then on Tuesday, “girl quit” and “dry erase” became two of Twitter’s top-trending topics thanks to the girl who allegedly quit her job via messages written on a dry erase board about her boss which she allegedly emailed to the entire company (I saw alleged, because this is the Internet, so you never know).
And now she has been crowned the Internet’s latest hero.
In the span of 24 hours, the discussion has gone beyond whether the flight attendant was right to quit the way he did (the Star‘s Jim Byers argues that airline passengers are too entitled nowadays). Instead, what we should be discussing is whether either of these “heroes” should have done what they did.
Resignation letters are so 2009.
When Conan O’Brien decided to leave the Tonight Show instead of have it pushed back, he went on a parade of anti-NBC comments for his final shows. The network ignored it, and Conan was a hero to the common man.
But everyone seemed to remember that “normal” people shouldn’t do such things when it comes to leaving their jobs. For one, a lot of industries are small nowadays and word gets around. And you never know when you might need a reference from that horrendous employer you trash-talked before.
Which brings us to the great Quit-gate of 2010.
Why are these people heroes? Slater took a beer from the plane and took off driving. Which is a crime. (Slater was later arrested for criminal mischief and reckless endangerment). As for Dry Erase Girl? We don’t even know her name — so at least she’s being smart about that but her pictures are all over the Internet, and the Internet never forgets.
Behaviour like this should not be rewarded. We should not be commenting about how great these people are because of these Internet memes. The flight attendant will likely never work in the airline industry again (even if he wanted to). Both him and Dry Erase Girl will have to overcome being these Internet memes when it comes to getting a new job.
Sure, we all want to stick it to the man. And so when we see someone else do it, we’re automatically in their camp. But there are limits when it comes to real life.
What both of these cases illustrate is just how selfish the human race has become. Am I defending the actions of the airline passengers that contributed to Slater’s tantrum? Not totally, but I’d be willing to wager the one who hit him in the head with their luggage didn’t mean to. And the ones who yelled at him are also illustrating how selfish we are as a society nowadays.
As for Dry Erase Girl? Work is called work for a reason. If she felt she was being sexually harassed at work for the way she looked, then there are avenues for that. Making a jackass of your boss to the world wide web is crossing a line and is (almost) no better than what he (allegedly) did to her.
So let’s nip this in the bud before it really gets ridiculous. End the quitting memes. Please. My Twitter feed appreciates it.
(Photo courtesy of Sighthound on Flickr. See more of his photos in his photostream.)
Toronto mayoral race loses its only woman
Sarah Thomson dropped out of the Toronto mayoral race on Tuesday, throwing her support behind George Smitherman in an attempt to stop current front-runner Rob Ford.
Thomson held an early morning news conference at her campaign headquarters where she made the announcement, saying:
Some will applaud Thomson’s move, considering she was trailing in the polls and was not likely to win.
Sarah Thomson dropped out of the Toronto mayoral race to endorse George Smitherman.
However, there’s no doubt that others will see this as another blow to women in politics — losing the only woman who was considered one of the five front-runners will no doubt cause some people concern.
As a woman, I never really got behind Thomson because she was a woman — it’s not how I vote. This being Thomson’s first attempt at politics, it’s also hard for me to get behind her as a genuine candidate (who can forget the kerfuffle when she used her magazine, the Women’s Post, to announce her candidacy?)
The question really boils down to this: Can a woman really run Canada’s biggest city?
Well, they did before amalgamation, but since 1998, both of Toronto’s mayors have been men (Mel Lastman and David Miller). Has the city grown and changed enough that a woman would be unable to handle the portfolio?
Not necessarily.
Was Thomson that woman?
I don’t think so.
Sarah Thomson is a successful business woman, much like Belinda Stronach and others who have entered politics before. But I think she failed to really get the public’s trust before throwing her hat into a big, political job (much like Stronach when she ran for the leadership of the Conservative party).
In order to get a woman elected as mayor in Toronto, I think that woman has to be a councillor and prove herself to the electorate before trying to become mayor of Toronto.
And while even that does not guarantee anything (just look at former mayor Barbara Hall’s failed bid against David Miller in 2003 and former councillor Jane Pitfield’s failed bid in 2007), I think it’s something that will come with time.
It just wasn’t the right time and Sarah Thomson was not the right woman.
(Photo courtesy of Sarah Thomson’s flickr account. See more of her photos here.)