This isn't the right way to deal with porn-surfing Starbucks customers.....

Xan Gordon says he was fired for turning off the Wi-Fi at his store in Atlanta. Here's a letter he sent me (and my comments follow).

Xan Gordon, a Starbucks employee of three years, was fired on Aug 29th for turning off the Wi-Fi at his workplace. Two days prior, a number of men had been using Starbucks' new free Wi-Fi to watch pornography while customers, some of them children, could see and hear. In order to verify whether or not it was within his power as a Starbucks employee to pull the plug and after a number of complaints from customers, Xan went through all the steps, asking supervisors, calling managers, and even looking through the employee handbook (which not only said nothing about this act being against policy but actually explained how to do it) before cutting the public Wi-Fi. His firing comes after three years of employment in which Xan, a Coffee Master, Learning Coach, de-facto equipment technician and tinkerer, had no history of disciplinary action. What he did was not against policy.

First off, you don't "just say yes" to customers who want to view porn at the store. And you don't "punish" customers doing legitimate work on the Internet by cutting off their Internet.

Here's what you do: You tell the customers to stop viewing porn, or leave the store -- now!

It's as simple as that.

Gordon's letter continues:

"Xan is an active member of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union who was known in the community for being intimately familiar with all of Starbucks' policies, as well as local and federal labor laws. It is assumed that his firing came as a result of his association with the famous labor union, not for his actions related to the Wi-Fi."

I don't know if Gordon's union activism came into play here, but I do know that he didn't handle this correctly. You don't shut off Wi-Fi because of a few "misbehaving" customers; you tell them to get lost. (By the way, I'm not anti-union -- I was a union member, in the Newspaper Guild, for years -- I'm pro-common sense.)

>> Jump to the fourth page of comments.

Comments

[ATLpartner]

Ever since we launched our free wifi we have had people (not customers) in our cafes for hours taking up valuable seats and tables. This has frustrated many of us from the barista to SM level. I have many times been tempted to cut off my wifi when there are a dozen people in my cafe, none of which purchased anything, using their computers. It wouldn't surprise me if this was Xan's motive for turning off the wifi. The pornography just makes it seem like it was the right thing to do, so why not make that up as an excuse? Xan is getting exactly what he wanted; a big commotion.

And to touch on the Turner Field incident. Xan asked why partners were being told the company was in trouble when we were posting the biggest profits we had ever seen as a company (also why our healthcare costs went up and the way we earned vacation was altered). And the RVP answered with (paraphrasing) "that is because we were, and we made the necessary adjustments to get to where we need to be to sustain a profitable economic model." She answered his question and he kept trying to dig to make it seem like the partners were being cheated out of our companies current successes.

Xan is just one of those entitled partners that thinks he is owed something. He thinks he can be late to a shift and it is ok. He thinks he can follow his own rules and bend policies around to what makes him happy and how he thinks a store should be ran. This is why he is no longer a partner. Not because his SM and DM were against him as a union-member (if he ever really is a member of the union, I would like to see a card). In Atlanta we could care less about the union. They don't have any pull here. The union thing really sounds just like "they fired me because I'm black/gay/female/ugly". And too bad for him that GA is an at will state and really the most he could get out of this without showing some sore of discrimination/EEOC violation is unemployment. And I doubt he will get that.

I don't know why I even come to this site when the majority of it can be so negative. It makes my blood boil to hear how some of these so called partners talk about our company. If you aren't happy here THAN LEAVE. We don't need or want you here. Good for Tim that he finally got rid of Xan. His store will be a better place for it for partners and customers.

[Spider Jerusalem]

ATLPartner: If you'd like to see his Red Card, I can more than certainly arrange a meeting between the two of you.

Furthermore, pornography was a well-documented problem at that store. Ask the former SM (she's now SM at the SSTC) about the number of times police had to be called during her stay there - two to three, at least, which is in my opinion two to three times too many. Furthermore, most of us know that Tim buys things off of one of the primary offenders, who also bootlegs movies. But I'm sure you knew that, too.

Now, let's talk about Turner Field. That is indeed accurate. You fail to mention, however, that the question was then rephrased as "Why did Starbucks decide to pay dividends to its stockholders rather than reverse its staffing cuts and increasing health insurance premiums?" The response was along the lines of "we didn't cut staff, we implemented optimum scheduling." Followed with a "as you know, our new mission statement outlines our commitment to our shareholders, and they deserve just as much as our partners to share in our newfound success."
Please, tell the whole truth instead of worshipping your corporate masters. Maybe you'll need a union when they fire you for something stupid, too.

[uh_mericano]

ATLpartner:

for someone willing to talk some serious trash about a specific individual, i'd like to see YOU post your real name and store, so we can all stand around and watch you be a perfect little barista, You seem to know a whole lot about Xan, his store, and his work habits. Your entire post screams of a very personal dislike for Xan.

[Lilly Pretty]

@ Waltie and Xan Gordon is definitely one of those employees that should have been let go long time ago.

[James Connolly]

Yessir, that Xan should have been let go a long time ago, what with all the corrective actions he has accumulated in the last year. For instance,

Um...

Oh wait, he has no recent corrective actions! And of course Sally...I mean, Lilly, you are an expert on who belongs with the company and who doesn't, having worked for it for four months.

How about you talk about the captive audience meeting that happened just the other day? Or the retaliation going on against partners who stood with Xan?

[Sally]

LMAO. This is Sally. I'm not going to say anything about the situation or state any opinions - I'm only here to say that I am not Lilly. I don't know who it was. Someone sent me this link today, and I just think it's funny that I was accused of posting on here... I don't have the internet at home, so I'm not usually lurking around on gossip Web sites when I do have a chance to get online.

[spence]

Well, I'm glad that some of these partners are passionate about something.

[Hipsterdufus]

@ James plenty of 'bad' partners don't have any corrective actions.

Sometimes they are bad in a way that isn't black and white. Or they are bad in a way that you hope it will go away, and you think you don't need to document them for. But months later you are kicking your slelf wishing that you did document them for those few incidents!

I had a partner that was super awesome at some things, but there were about a dozen incidents that he could have been document for, and as things got worse in the store I wish I had documented him for to make a separation easier! However, he was still separated. Just because you weren't written up oversomething doesn't mean you can get fired for it!

[hipsterdufus]

and I agree where is the 'old media' news about this?!

Usually if there is even a peep of a possible STarbucks story the press is all over it!

[Sun W. Kim]

Maybe Starbucks should fire AT&T for not having proper filters up. Go get opendns and set up adult filters. Baristas have no business policing Internet activity, that has to be a business decision and implemented by it.

[...]

Usually I find the bad partners that stick around the longest without separation are SM's. When they are best friends with their bad DM it does not matter how bad of a store leader they can be. They are there for good.

[winterene]

> Maybe Starbucks should fire AT&T for
> not having proper filters up.

BOO!!! Boo on this sentiment.

Starbucks and AT&T should not advertise that they are offering free wi-fi and then try to dictate what customers can do with the wi-fi, so long as that activity is LEGAL.

Yes, AT&T can choose to block/censor, but they are going to piss a lot of customers off who are going to find a different wi-fi network that respects liberty.

And let me reiterate, I'm talking about LEGAL activity.

[Aaron]

Here's what I'm struggling with after reading this whole thread:

Xan: It's mentioned at the very top that you discussed this with both a supervisor and a manager. Midway through this thread you commented that supervisor told you "to go ahead and do it". Can you give us more detail about these two conversations? What did the manager say?

I don't get why you're not being more insistent about the fact that your supervisor told you to "go ahead and do it". I don't get why your supervisor wasn't also fired for instructing you that this is okay.

It calls into question two things:

1) What exactly did your manager say? is this the manager who ultimately fired you?

2) Did your supervisor *really* say that "go ahead and do it"? You seemed to mention it fairly casually given that it's a pretty important fact if true.

I don't know, this whole story isn't quite adding up to me, but I'm definitely interested to learn more about it.

[Chris H]

Not sure about Georgia, but in Texas it is a crime to make pornography available to U18 minors.

Xan, I am proud of you for taking action in your role and trying to make a difference, even if the cost was your job. Many employers would be glad to have you as an employee.

It also sounds like you have enough of a following (and enough technical skill) to compete with your former employer in your own store.

[ABDULA]

What I want to know is how many people swallowed back!!??

[mike]

Frankly, the most effective way to discourage the porn watchers would be to take some video of them watching the porn and post it to YouTube. Then, your managers can hardly deny the problem, and the porndogs get publicly embarrassed.

[Erik]

Yeah, it seems like the only one in this picture with a shred of integrity is Xan. If his manager and DM had been doing their jobs, they would have told Xan and all employees the best way to deal with this problem. Xan should be commended for taking action to deal with a persistent problem in the community.

It's despicable that the Manager, DM, RDO, and Partner Resources Manager not only did not take action against the customers who were watching porn, and not only fired Xan for dealing with the problem (however imperfectly), they even are going out of their way to demonize him. That's disgusting. It's even more disgusting that they are smearing him because they are afraid of employing a union member.

[Ann B]

Confronting someone who is watching porn may not be a smart idea - it could be risky. They may even argue that it was not porn.
Calling the police also doesn't seem very effective - the offender can simply turn off the laptop - they may have even left before the police would bother to arrive.

Very iffy judgment call - but the bloke should not have been fired for it, only counselled!

[ivecommentedonthisthreadtoooomanytimesalready]

Ann, even if they weren't watching porn when the officers arrived they would still have been asked to leave. THey have no 'right' to be in a starbucks...

[barista07]

the saddest part is that the so-called "union" is being run by young self righteous morons. all you guys are doing is bashing managers and it seems like 99.9% of you didnt even work at that store!! this isnt reported on the news because nobody cares. "employee makes a bad choice and gets fired" wheres the story? some things just arent adding up to me. i work for starbucks (but not dumb enough to put my name up here hahah) and cops used to show up all the time for drinks, so how is it bad for business to have cop cars in the parking lot? if they can be there as customers they can be there to do their jobs and it will look the same from the outside. and if it was *really* a fact that the manager instructed him to turn off the internet, they definitely would be the one to get fired.

[Waltie]

"Confronting someone who is watching porn may not be a smart idea - it could be risky."

You're right. You might walk right into a money shot.

[5 year SM]

As a current store manager, I have had to deal with many issues with customers, and at the end of the day, all of my partners know through consistent communication with them that they are only to take such actions after contacting me--because at the end of the day, as a store manager, I am responsible for anything that "goes on" in my store. If the store manager was not contacted and asked what to do beforehand, then sadly enough it is the fault of the partner. A partner can not take such corrective measures without any sort of repercussion. Now was firing the correct repercussion--without being the store manager, I couldn't answer that but without anything previous corrective actions relating to this incident, this is an issue for partner resources. If they ignore you, then the government and unemployment might be your answer. Of three partners that I have fired, even with paperwork, who tried to file for unemployment, two were hired back to the company.

At the end of the day though, any action such as turning of the WIFI should be done by the store manager. If the SM ignored the issue, then personally call the DM and ask what to do. If the issue is still ignored, call your RVP or RM. There is a chain of command, and I am sure if you talk to your RVP about how both your SM and DM ignored the issue, your SM might be the one fired or written up, not you.

[ABDULA]

The best thing is to never get involved in ANY situations. I once stopped someone from stealing at our store by shouting them out in front of a rush, well they tried to write me up for this B.S. So now I don't give 2 ishts what happenens in the store, I man my station, take care of my employees, and do it all again the next day....same shit keeps happening...but they want it like that, so be it!

[formermanager]

WHY didn't someone just walk up to the porn watchers and say, "Please choose another website to watch, or we're going to have to ask you to leave. That is private viewing material, and it's made quite a few of us, customers included, uncomfortable." Or, trip over their power cord, unplugging it. Find the breaker in the back room for that outlet and trip it. Was it really that big a deal? So he clipped the internet temporarily. It was put back on. It was the passive way to deal with the situation, but it was dealt with. Forget the rights of those using the internet. What kind of person watches porn in public?????

[Presto!]

Unfortunately the breaker wouldn't work because it's a laptop and has it's own battery supply.

I work in the next district down. I know people who work at the store in question and haven't heard any good things about Tim Hightower. He seems one to make a folly decision such as this. I'm surprised by three things. 1) That Xan got fired by the people who approved his actions, 2) That almost no partners outside that immediate area have heard about this and 3) that even the local media hasn't picked up on this yet. That may change though (wink wink).

The union angle creates problems for Starbucks. Unfortunately for Xan, who I've met only once, in this state when you're fired you're fired. I can't see him getting his job back. But I can see a lot of people getting in a tiff about this if the public gets wind of it.

I say way to go Xan! Sucks you got axed, and if I was your shift I think we could have figured something else out. Action should have been taken in the past, and your DM and SM should be held accountable for this. I can't see Howard Shultz being okay with this.

[Kat]

Whether Xan overstepped boundaries turning off the service a few moments or not, I think firing is extreme. If he actually broke any rules, why couldn't they just write him up instead?

As a customer, I personally would be very unhappy if others were browsing porn in public. There is a time and place for that, and it's NOT in a coffee shop.

[Anastasia]

I believe if the company provides its users with WI-Fi access, it should think about the way to protect users. There is so much new at the market now - many filtering programs, from traditional text based, to state-of-art image-based filters, for example piFilter (www.pifilter.com). Then there would be no such problems, and poor Xan would happily work at his place. I wonder why nobody of Starbucks customers have ever complained about this?

[Siren's Bitch]

I, as a shift supervisor, would have secretly called the police informing them that some adults were exposing pornagraphy to children in the store via internet. When the police arrived, custumers/parents could have pressed charges, or at least caused the offending party to walk off publicly shamed. Underhanded and deviously funny, yes. Still protecting your customers within SBUX policy in requesting civil help, absolutely.

[Waltie]

Another view point:

I don't think the problem was just that Xan turned off the internet. Part of the problem was that -- according to him -- the customer threatened him with violence after being asked to turn off the pornography, and Xan didn't call the police. When a customer is threatening anybody with violence, it is completely irresponsible and dangerous to not call the police. Even worse than that, Xan went and exasperated the situation by choosing to cut off the internet, which could only make an already dangerous situation that much worse.

That's why he was fired. Not just because he shut off the internet, but because he put himself, his partners, and the store's customers at risk. That's not a partner with whom I would want to work. And, frankly, if the union is helping him, then it's hard to believe that the union actually cares about partner rights.

[spence]

I think they whole story about being fired for this issue was BS. Starbucks (as I've witnessed) does not share with its partners why one was fired. Heck. He could have been stealing and got fired. Then he made up a story and it got out of control.

[Jordan 6]

If thoughts is a wisp of smoke, let wind to you, let you know how much I miss you, If you are a drop of caring, let the rain on your head down and let you know how much I miss you.

[Willie Wifi]

It was too tedious to read through all of this having come across it a while on so if this was mentioned already, sorry---but Panera simply blocks adult sites on their free wi-fi and has been doing so for years.
Carry on.

[CommonSense]

Why does sbux install filters like McDonalds does?

And how about limiting free internet to 2hrs based on MAC address (ie: network card)

[CommonSense]

er.. Why *DOESNT* sbux use filters like McDonalds does?

[anon.]

As a SM who has had to deal with many situations, I would NEVER have my partners deal with this type of inapporiate behavior. I would have pulled up a chair, sat down with them and called the porn watching pervs out. What they do on their own time is NOMB but they are not doing it in MY store with MY customers seeing/hearing what they are doing. I would have told them to move on or I would call the cops for lewd public behavior. Even if it is not a legal offense (viewing in on their personal laptop), I think just having the cops show up (which in my store they are there 24/7) would be enough to shut them down.

[barista b]

just fyi: i work at this store. and xan turned off the wireless repeatedly just to annoy customers. he told everybody that's why he was doing it.

[Bananas]

wow, you guys are so funny. i wish you all worked in my starbucks. btw, i have shut off the wifi for many reasons and im still employed. five years running. i dont see how he got fired for that. seems to me they didn't like him and used that as a long waited excuse to get rid of him.

[ExSbuxManager]

It was a poor decision, sounds fluffed, but not something I'd find a terminable offense unless there was paperworkd as the other ex sbux manager stated.

Poor... because the logical, adult thing to do, would be to appraoch the people, shut their lap top screens, politely ask them to leave. There should be no "please turn it off." Viewing porn in a public place is illegal I think in all 50 states.

Sometimes the green apron has to come off and the kick ass boots come on.

[LE Matson]

I travel several times a month I-40 between Nashville TN and Statesville, NC. Tonight while driving back towards Nashville I stopped at 9:55PM (I know this was the exact time because I check by watch and clock in my car) at your store in Cookville, TN off I-40 at exit 287. I purposely left the interstate to visit your Starbucks store there before closing time. Upon arrival at the store at 9:55PM the doors were locked. I checked the store hours sign by the door. The store hours were posted next to the door. Guess what, the store was supposed to stay open until 10PM. The staff clearly saw me. I tapped on the door and tried to ask why they were not open, one of the staff member rudly yelled "we're closed" turned around and walked off. The other staff members ignored me standing at the door. So much for customer service. I have been going to Starbucks for a long time - I have never been treated so rudly. Matter of fact, I don't think I have ever been treated more rude anywhere. Anywhere!!! I will NEVER stop at that Starbucks store again. Of course the staff there don't care. They made that clear tonight. I hope this gets to the right person. Your website directed me here (Digital Network Comments) instead of customer service. I employee and know a lot of people. I have always spoken very highly of Starbucks, the great coffee and service. What a disappointment.

[zevgoldman]

"It is assumed that his firing came as a result of his association with the famous labor union, not for his actions related to the Wi-Fi."

I believe infamous rather than famous is a more apt description of IWW.