Fairy Intern Bust

November 13, 2007 1:59 PM

Bank Intern Busted by Facebook-- Kevin Colvin e-mailed his boss to say that he'd miss work due to what colleagues took to be a 'family emergency.' His boss turned to Facebook and found a photo of Colvin, dressed as a fairy at a Halloween party -- one which he apparently missed work to attend. The boss attached the image to his reply, copying the rest of the office as he did it. An Internet star/meme is born in this 'Age of Global Viral Embarrassment.'
posted by ericb (89 comments total)

"But is it real? We received the email many times. Sometimes Kevin was an intern at Goldman Sachs. Once at Bear Stearns. Most frequently, however, he worked for Anglo Irish Bank, which has offices in Boston. The confused details—including a Yankee cap supposedly at a Worcester party—left an air of implausibility about the email. And, what’s more, it seemed almost too perfect to be true.

...Surprisingly, the email seems to be authentic. Yesterday we spoke to a man named Paul Davies—supposedly the name of Fairy Kevin’s boss—at Anglo Irish who seemed not at all surprised by the story, or that his name was attached to it. He declined to comment on the story, and gave us the number of his press relations person. This is fairly typical behavior in well-trained bankers but there was something about his manner which suggested that—however improbably—this story actual might have some truth in it. Our suspicions were further raised when the spokesperson for Anglo Irish never returned our phone call.

What inspired us to follow-up on this story—rather than just ignore it—is that ValleyWag had actually decided to run with it. While we have no insight into the fact checking apparatus at ValleyWag or its parent, Gawker Media, we assume they don’t just print these things willy-nilly. We continue to investigate but aren’t drawing any firm conclusions yet. But we’re less skeptical this afternoon than we were when we started."^*

posted by ericb at 2:02 PM on November 13, 2007

Your FaceBook or MySpace Profile Could Cost You Your Job.
posted by ericb at 2:03 PM on November 13, 2007

While we have no insight into the fact checking apparatus at ValleyWag or its parent, Gawker Media, we assume they don’t just print these things willy-nilly.

Well, there's your problem right there.
posted by william_boot at 2:08 PM on November 13, 2007 [4 favorites]

Your FaceBook or MySpace Profile Could Cost You Your Job.

Typical puritan behavior.

Can you do your job? Great! Are you professional at work? Outstanding. Do you have outside interests that are outside the mainstream or might indicate a fun streak? Well, sorry, we don't need you.

What shit.
posted by John of Michigan at 2:12 PM on November 13, 2007 [26 favorites]

Maybe one day people will learn to lock out their profile to all but peoples they trust..?
posted by i_cola at 2:13 PM on November 13, 2007

who is friends with their boss on facebook?
posted by p3on at 2:13 PM on November 13, 2007 [6 favorites]

I'm still waiting to lose a job thanks to Metafilter. Soooooooo, I have that to look forward to.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:14 PM on November 13, 2007 [8 favorites]

Who would want a job at a place like that?
posted by francesca too at 2:15 PM on November 13, 2007

BTW -- Colvin didn't lose his internship. "Rather than reprimand him, the manager decided to have a little fun."^*
posted by ericb at 2:15 PM on November 13, 2007

Who is friends with their boss on Facebook?

More importantly, will they still be "friends" after this crap?
posted by wires at 2:16 PM on November 13, 2007

Looks like the intern might enjoy partying with this guy.
posted by brain_drain at 2:19 PM on November 13, 2007

The boss's response was pitch-perfect, actually. I admire that.
posted by rokusan at 2:20 PM on November 13, 2007

Also, BTW, he never claimed he had a family emergency. He used the much less dishonest "something came up" ... which it surely did.

Your privacy is an illusion ... if you post your information online. Well duh. This would be a little more interesting if Fairydude wasn't the one who posted the picture.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:21 PM on November 13, 2007

The place I saw this story listed had the location as New York, and there is a Worcester in New York and Massachusetts.

Either way, people do wear Yankees hats in Massachusetts. People who like to hear nasty words hurled at them.
posted by inthe80s at 2:22 PM on November 13, 2007

"News of Colvin's botched excuse comes on the heels of yet another self-induced Facebook embarrassment. This time it was a group called '30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night,' though a better title might be 'How I Ended Up Out of Work.' The main page features a list of chuckle-lite reasons a young lady might want to stop drinking and go home. But the real eye-grabbers are the nearly 5,000 pictures of just such girls in various poses of drunken debauchery -- plucked from their Facebook public albums. At last check, the group had 166,570 members.

Time will tell how many of those photos will come back to haunt their subjects. But according to a new survey from career management company Vault.com, 82 percent of employers say information they perceive as negative from an online profile would affect their decision to hire an applicant. Yeah, and listing 'Able to chug a bottle of wine in 10 seconds" on your resume may not be a good idea, either.'" ^*

posted by ericb at 2:22 PM on November 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Hah. My facebook profile is so inflammatory it will cost you your job!
seriously though, I've never even looked at facebook
posted by adamrice at 2:25 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Embarassing e-mails, tastless jokes, etc. being sent around by investment bankers have quite a history. Lest we forget the saga of investment banking applicant Aleksey Vayner. Original MeFi thread and recent update thread on him.
posted by ericb at 2:27 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Either way, people do wear Yankees hats in Massachusetts. People who like to hear nasty words hurled at them.

I think the guy in the fairy outfit probably provides some attention-deflection, there.
posted by rokusan at 2:34 PM on November 13, 2007

I look forward to the utter hypnotic banality of a Big Brother-style show with Colvin, Vayner, Chung, Swire, etc. Possibly presided over by Çağrı.
posted by meehawl at 2:35 PM on November 13, 2007

Typical Puritan behavior. Can you do your job? Great! Are you professional at work? Outstanding.

Exactly. Tell that to Bush and the right-wingers trying to block the 'Employment Non-Discrimination Act.'

ENDA Passes House, Awaits Senate Action, Bush Veto Expected.

[Previously on MeFi - 1, 2].
posted by ericb at 2:35 PM on November 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

As mentioned above, the fact that there's a Yankees hat in the background doesn't necessarily mean that this isn't Worcester, MA. This is a college town, and front-runner poseur Yankees fans do occasionally go to college, believe it or not...
posted by rollbiz at 2:37 PM on November 13, 2007

Yankees fans "front-running poseurs"? They haven't won a world series in 7 years..

A Red Sox fan is more of a front-runner, since they've won two WS since 2000.
posted by wfc123 at 2:44 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Maybe one day people will learn to lock out their profile to all but peoples they trust..?

Ahh, but the problem is that your friends can "tag" pictures they take of you with your name, and then everyone stalking you all your friends get notifications that someone has tagged you in an image. That's what happened to this girl.
posted by delmoi at 2:46 PM on November 13, 2007

That first link is blocked as a phishing site.
posted by wfc123 at 2:47 PM on November 13, 2007

John of Michigan: "Can you do your job? Great! Are you professional at work? Outstanding. Do you have outside interests that are outside the mainstream or might indicate a fun streak? Well, sorry, we don't need you."

Are you in a public position in the company (salesperson or some such)? Do you have a publically available place that comes up high on a Google search for your name where photos of you doing unprofessional (or explicit or illegal) things and posts of you saying unprofessional (or explicit or illegal) things are posted? Well, sorry, we don't want you.

Everyone's replaceable.

I have a Facebook account, a Flickr account, and a blog that all come up very high on a Google search for my fairly unique real name. My MetaFilter account probably does, too. And I even say some stupid shit and use some goddamn swears and do other things I wouldn't do at work. But if I'm going to do something really stupid, I either 1) don't do it on the Internet, or 2) don't do it attached to my real name, or 3) do it privately.
posted by Plutor at 2:48 PM on November 13, 2007

rollbiz: "As mentioned above, the fact that there's a Yankees hat in the background doesn't necessarily mean that this isn't Worcester, MA."

I've seen Yankees hats on the street in South Boston, and nary a holler. A good friend is a big Yankees fan and lives in Brookline. Do people think there's some sort of Customs checkpoint on the MA/NY border?
posted by Plutor at 2:52 PM on November 13, 2007

Can you do your job? Great! Are you professional at work? Outstanding. Do you have outside interests that are outside the mainstream or might indicate a fun streak? Well, sorry, we don't need you.

He didn't get canned, and it wasn't his "outside interests," it was the fact that he lied that he couldn't work because he had to go to New York (implying it was something of a serious personal nature, even if he didn't explicitly say so). To me, the boss's "nice wand" response was awesome. Lighten up.
posted by pardonyou? at 2:53 PM on November 13, 2007

While we have no insight into the fact checking apparatus...Gawker Media, we assume they don’t just print these things willy-nilly.

Gawker Media will print anything they find funny at the expense of another person, whether it is true or not.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:54 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

As mentioned above, the fact that there's a Yankees hat in the background doesn't necessarily mean that this isn't Worcester, MA. This is a college town,

Amen. There were plenty of guys at WPI—local and out of town—who would flaunt a Yankee cap or whatever just to start conversations/arguments/fights with BoSox fans, which worked out for all involved, probably. A rivalry's no good if there aren't any rivals around, after all.

I was mostly playing Counter-Strike, mind you, and pleased when the Blazers were actually in the news every once in a while.
posted by cortex at 2:56 PM on November 13, 2007

Take off the dress and I would hit that so hard.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:00 PM on November 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

I'm a Yankees fan going to school in the Boston area, and I've gotten more comments from fellow New Yorkers than angry Sox fans.

Then again, I started college in 2004.
posted by danb at 3:03 PM on November 13, 2007

I am a TA for an undergrad pre-major required course. We grade on a true distribution.

Last year I had a student who claimed to have been sick to turn in the final paper. She had never showed up to section, so I was a little suspect. She turned it in 5 days late with a note from student health (which says "this is not authorization that the student is ill, rather that s/he visited student health."

I facebook'd her. TONS of photos of drinking on the 5 days before, during, and 5 days after the paper was due. Lots of wall postings of: "OMG, you were totally making out with that dude last night" "I can't believe that you drank that many shots" and "I found your phone under my trampoline!"

I printed out her facebook page and wrote on it "You may want to think of how you present yourself publicly online before you claim to be ill. No late excuse for being 'sick' accepted." Then I stapled it to the back of her paper (which people pick up at the final exam.) and gave her the grade that she deserved, minus the late penalty.
posted by k8t at 3:12 PM on November 13, 2007 [15 favorites]

That first link is blocked as a phishing site.

With it being a link to Valleywag, perchance do you work at Weblogs, Inc. ; )
posted by ericb at 3:13 PM on November 13, 2007

"You may want to think of how you present yourself publicly online before you claim to be ill. No late excuse for being 'sick' accepted." ::cries tears of joy:: So beautiful!

Meanwhile, every time I read a story like this, I double-check that my MySpace and Facebook privacy settings are set to the strictest guidelines. I don't post pictures of myself drunk on trampolines, but better safe than sorry.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:16 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

The boss's response was pitch-perfect, actually. I admire that.

I would agree, if he didn't BCC it to everybody else. That seems wrong to me. It's the same as if a friend had photos of me in a social setting and then sent them to everybody in the building I work with. It's a violation of trust.

Yes, I realise that the intern lying to the boss in the first place is also a violation of trust, but two wrongs not making a right and all that...
posted by kisch mokusch at 3:20 PM on November 13, 2007

I knew a guy once who after a week of relentless bong loading found himself in a make or break proposition regarding a late paper for a required class. He bypassed the mysterious illness, hurdled over the dead granny and went straight to the best friend who just died of AIDS. I was horrified, sincerely shocked and appalled; but underneath all of that I was a little (a little) bit impressed.
posted by The Straightener at 3:21 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

TPS, so all of these photos of you drunk on a trampoline are forgeries?
posted by k8t at 3:22 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow, that guy's boss is kind of a shithead.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:22 PM on November 13, 2007

WFC123: I wasn't saying that all Yankees fans are poseurs, but they do exist and they're generally the type of people that flash their gear around here until things go badly. I lived basically on the campus of Clark University and close to Holy Cross when the 2004 ALCS happened. After Game 7, I watched for the next few days to see who still had their NYY stuff on. Those were the real fans. To be fair, the same thing happens with kids who come to school in Boston or Worcester and are suddenly "diehard" Sox fans. They're usually the ones fighting drunk and getting arrested on Lansdowne after playoff wins.
posted by rollbiz at 3:25 PM on November 13, 2007

I don't post pictures of myself drunk on trampolines, but better safe than sorry.

What's in a trampoline? Seems like it would have triple sec.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:25 PM on November 13, 2007 [5 favorites]

TPS, so all of these photos of you drunk on a trampoline are forgeries?

Ok, I won't lie- that last one is me (I would link to it, but I think that guy is gonna be scared enough to see a picture of his daughter get that many views).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:27 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

I would agree, if he didn't BCC it to everybody else. That seems wrong to me.

Agreed. A CC to a few people might have been appropriate in the context of funny ha-has, but a BCC to a large group is not very nice.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:29 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

...the same thing happens with kids who come to school in Boston or Worcester and are suddenly "diehard" Sox fans.

Yeah -- like when, all of a sudden, Rudy Giuliani became a Red Sox fan on the eve of this year's World Series.
posted by ericb at 3:34 PM on November 13, 2007

Wow, that guy's boss is kind of a shithead.

Good Christ, have you ever worked for a living, or have you only had bosses who gave you backrubs and free trips to Cancun? It's hard to imagine him handling it better, unless you think adolescent employees should get free passes to do whatever the fuck they want. If I were this guy, I'd be vastly relieved.

people do wear Yankees hats in Massachusetts. People who like to hear nasty words hurled at them.

Or people who live in Western Mass, where the Red Sox tend to be resented as symbols of the imperial Bostonians who lord it over them.
posted by languagehat at 3:39 PM on November 13, 2007

a BCC to a large group is not very nice.

Well, duh, it's not supposed to be nice—it's supposed to teach him a lesson. Amazing how many people are looking at this purely from the employee's point of view. I'm no fan of bosses myself, but come on, if you're going to goof off, you have an obligation to be smarter about it. You are getting paid to do a job, you know.
posted by languagehat at 3:41 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Good Christ, have you ever worked for a living, or have you only had bosses who gave you backrubs and free trips to Cancun?

Oh, let us not rag at ME, good sir. Listen, I'm willing to bet there isn't one single person reading this who has never called in under false/flimsy pretenses. I'm willing to bet this guy's boss has done so himself. Had he, as others said, sent the exact same email to fairy dude -- and no one else -- here is me, piloting the lolocopter, thundering down the multivarious twists and turns of the lollercoaster. CCing the whole office? Asshole.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:43 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Who is friends with their boss on Facebook?

They don't have to be friends - they may have been in the same network (city or company) and Peter Pan didn't bother to restrict privacy settings
posted by barrakuda at 3:48 PM on November 13, 2007

I'm willing to bet there isn't one single person reading this who has never called in under false/flimsy pretenses

Oh, sure, I've done it many a time. But if my boss had caught me at it, he'd have had the right to do worse than this, and I wouldn't have whined about it. You takes your chances and pays up when you lose. I was once caught making out with my girlfriend under my desk, and nobody in the office let me forget it for weeks. My then boss still rags me about it. It taught me a valuable lesson!
posted by languagehat at 3:49 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Who is friends with their boss on Facebook?

I am. Although being drunk on a trampoline is not frowned upon at my workplace.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:53 PM on November 13, 2007

Well, duh, it's not supposed to be nice—it's supposed to teach him a lesson.

Well, I think at the very least it's unprofessional. He's sharing information from a personal relationship with work colleagues just to "teach him a lesson". He can use the information to suspend him, fire him or whatever, but this stuff doesn't need to be shared with everybody else.

Of course, I'm imagining what it would be like if it happened at my place of work. It's entirely conceivable that everybody BCC'd was also a facebook friend, and everything is cool.
posted by kisch mokusch at 3:56 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Take off the dress and I would hit that so hard.

Yeah, makes me want to get some interns myself.

CCing the whole office? Asshole.

Public humiliation is far better than, say, firing. The guy made a joke out of being lied to. So, not asshole.
posted by me & my monkey at 3:56 PM on November 13, 2007

CCing the whole office? Asshole.

In my mind, not necessarily so. There may well be a 'tight-knit' group culture at the Anglo Irish Bank (Boston) office which views this entire affair between boss and intern as "funny." Heck, Colvin was caught in his deception and "The Boss" chose to handle it lightly and with humor ("...nice wand"). No reprimand. No firing.

That the e-mail has been shared beyond the walls of the office should not condemn "The Boss." As has been noted in some other online accounts, the e-mail and attached photo were likely "leaked," as a result of an Anglo Irish Bank employee forwarding it to someone outside of the firm. It has taken on "a life of its own." I suspect that Anglo Irish Bank employees -- throughout the firm -- are enjoying watching the meme spread. If anything, Colvin and Davis are likely to go down in company history. No harm, no foul.

Kevin Colvin and his understanding boss, Paul Davis (who could have 'shit-canned' him for lying, but chose to handle the affair humorously) should be putting their heads together to come up with a joint costume idea for the company's Holiday Party. Santa Clause and an Elf?
posted by ericb at 4:00 PM on November 13, 2007

Amazing how many people are looking at this purely from the employee's point of view. I'm no fan of bosses myself, but come on, if you're going to goof off, you have an obligation to be smarter about it. You are getting paid to do a job, you know.

I wouldn't be surprised if boss and intern go out for a few drinks and laugh about this entire affair!
posted by ericb at 4:02 PM on November 13, 2007

Or people who live in Western Mass, where the Red Sox tend to be resented as symbols of the imperial Bostonians who lord it over them.

I SMELL ANOTHER SHAY'S REBELLION AMIRITE!!!!11!
posted by rollbiz at 4:02 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

It taught me a valuable lesson!

Yeah, and...well, yeah, there IS that. The guy should have known better than to provide the world photographic evidence of what he was doing when he was supposed to be at work. I'm sure he won't do that again! But I kinda feel like there's ribbing and then there's making someone the target of ridicule in his workplace (and beyond his workplace, though I don't think the boss intended that). It's a matter of degree.

(Granted, as Eric said, this depends a lot on the office culture -- if they're all friends who generally are cool with each other, that's a little different. Of course, the person who disseminated the email hither and yon does by the sheer fact of his/her existence -- anonymous existence, I might add! -- imply that not everybody there is all that cool.)

And yeah, it is better than firing him, but really, firing him sounds kinda hardcore to me. I mean, the boss could do it -- anymore, a large number of employers are legally entitled to fire their employees for any reason they want -- but it sounds like a serious dick move unless the guy was an otherwise poor worker.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:08 PM on November 13, 2007

My boss is on my Facebook and MySpace friends list. Then again, I've posted pictures of him as a half-naked goat boy on my Flickr, so we likely don't have a typical work relationship. I'm honest about my call in sicks, though.

When I did a Google search to find out more about a company I was going to go work for, the only references I could find to it besides their own website were in the employer section of the Facebook pages of girls who worked there, drunk as hell at sorority parties. Looking back, that should have been all the info I needed right there.

Some people think it's a bad thing that employers can look into the personal life you want to make public. I think of it as qualifying leads. If a job likes me more because I'm a dork who blogs about my D&D weekend and posts pictures of my kid, it's got a better shot of being the job for me. If that rules me out, I would have been miserable there in the first place.
posted by Gucky at 4:18 PM on November 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

If nothing else, as a result of this incident I -- and many others -- have become aware of the Anglo Irish Bank Corp. PLC. With the dollar "in the shits" and the "Celtic Tiger" on a rebound, maybe I should move some of my investment dollars to your bank; to the Euro, etc.

Colvin and Davis -- you're in for a nice year-end bonus. This Internet meme cost "little-to-nothing" for brand recognition --- likely better than the return on what your company has been spending on advertising and P.R.
posted by ericb at 4:20 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

This kid is an idiot. But I understand.

I got seriously busted for ditching work two times.

Once was in high school when I worked for a Chinese Restaurant. The Best Job Ever for a high school kid in the 1970s.

I ditched because I had joined choir when I heard they were going on a trip down to California. And I had the hots for a girl who was going. But it was all last minute shenanigans.

Like an idiot I didn't tell Mr. Hung I was going to California and instead I called in sick the first shift I missed and had found coverage for the second. But the guy I thought that would cover for me got knocked unconscious and got a concussion at a tough man contest the day before he was supposed to work for me. When I found out I was already in California. I call him to try and talking him into still working, even though clearly he was approaching brain death.

"C'mon, Kevin, man you gotta go in... you promised..."

"What... promised what? This bandage is too tight... My head is all swolled up..."

"What? To go to work for me. You're coving for me."

"....I'm so tired... so sleeeeepy...."

"Dude. Drink some coffee and go to work"

"Hey... don't you work tonight? I'm going to go lie down..."

"NO! Kevin! Kevin? Uuuuhhhh..."

So I hung up on Kevin and called my boss from the Cosmic Age Hotel outside Disneyland pretending to be sick.

Mr. Hung let's me go on, faking the cough and all that, I was really milking it.

Then after acting all sympathetic he goes "Aw. That too bad...

(he pauses...then...)

...MISTA ASSHO! I know you fake it! You in Disneylan! MISA ASSHO! Kevin tell me after he got knock out! You such ASSHO! YOU FIRED!" Click.

Damn. Harsh.
posted by tkchrist at 4:27 PM on November 13, 2007 [6 favorites]

I'll see you one Anglo Irish Bank and raise you one Stephen Ireland - professional footballer (ok, soccer) and millionaire. Now that is how to beg off work.
posted by Sk4n at 4:32 PM on November 13, 2007

I always took my boss to Disneyland. He bought me mouse ears and everything.

True story.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:37 PM on November 13, 2007

Of course, the person who disseminated the email hither and yon does by the sheer fact of his/her existence -- anonymous existence, I might add! -- imply that not everybody there is all that cool.)

"Hey, Janice -- take a look at this. It's an e-mail exchange between our boss (Paul -- the great guy I told you about who takes time with all of us interns) and Kevin.

You remember Kevin!!!! He works with me here at Anglo. He was the cute blonde, drinking Busch Lite, in the fairy costume at the Halloween Party. I think he's sooo dreamy. Still can't figure out if he "bats for my team," or not.

As you can see from the e-mail exchange, Paul and others at the office knew that Kevin was full-o'-shit about his reason for missing work. It's so funny. We're all cracking up.

People have sprinkled Kevin's cubicle with "pixie dust." Paul brought in one of his daughter's "fairy wands" and left it on Kev's desk. Jason bought a copy of "Peter Pan" and has uploaded it to the intranet.

Forward this onto others you knew at the party!!! They'll likely get a kick outta it. So, what ever happened between you and that guy from Goldman that night? Did you get some -- or, not?"

posted by ericb at 4:37 PM on November 13, 2007

I recently was trying to find a new babysitter. I posted an ad on craigslist, and one of the responses seemed okay. She sounded a little off, but if someone really had their act together they wouldn't be available to babysit my kids, right?

But then I looked up the username part of her e-mail address on Google. She's not just a babysitter -- she's also a prostitute, with photos and her name and her hourly rate listed on websites.

I decided against hiring her to look after my kids not so much because she was a prostitute, but because she was dumb enough for me to catch her.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:40 PM on November 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow. I’m a workaholic. I pretty much call in and just straight up ask for a mental health day.
Bloody fairy.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:44 PM on November 13, 2007

But then I looked up the username part of her e-mail address on Google. She's not just a babysitter -- she's also a prostitute, with photos and her name and her hourly rate listed on websites.

Oh, hey, you know what? I'm looking for a babysitter.

E-mail in my profile. ;)
posted by rokusan at 4:45 PM on November 13, 2007

When I worked at a computer games store during uni, I called in sick from my friend's car, parked in the car part at Alton Towers.

Got away with it, too. Suck that, tkchrist.
posted by armoured-ant at 4:52 PM on November 13, 2007

Amazing how many people are looking at this purely from the employee's point of view.

It's more amazing the people who think the intern did anything wrong.

He e-mailed "Something came up at home and I had to go to New York this morning for the next couple of days."

As a boss, I'd be a little peeved at the lack of information, but I'd call him up and make sure he's OK and see what's up (i.e. how long will you be out). I'd also mostly accept his excuse at face value (assuming it's a normal company that allows sick days).

We have nothing but a Halloween photo to indicate that something *didn't* also come up at his family's home that required his presence. Just b/c grandma's sick doesn't mean you can't hit a Halloween party for fun.

In short, the intern did nothing wrong. The boss is a minor asshole for cc'ing his colleagues, but it's an investment bank, i.e. post-college fraternity. It goes with the territory.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:08 PM on November 13, 2007

...MISTA ASSHO! I know you fake it! You in Disneylan! MISA ASSHO! Kevin tell me after he got knock out! You such ASSHO! YOU FIRED!" Click.

Wow. Not only has Lee Majors peed on your leg, but you used to work for Mickey Rooney? Wow.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:09 PM on November 13, 2007

Actually, I thought the boss was right on the money. I thought the comment and the BCC were exactly right. The employee did deliberately mislead his boss ("something came up at home") and judging by his boss's response, he could just as well have said, "I'm going to a wild party and need to take a day off."

Funny story -- I had almost perfect attendance at a company I worked for -- one night I got very drunk and called in the next morning saying I had a hung-over. The next day the boss was slightly shocked... I pointed out that I had an almost exemplary record there after many years, that my work had been going fantastic, that I really had a hangover and wasn't going to be good for much. He conceded all of that -- but told me I should have lied to him!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 5:21 PM on November 13, 2007

er, "going very well". I haven't forgotten the use of the adverb...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 5:23 PM on November 13, 2007

Pardonyou?, please go back and look at my response. Please, do.

I was responding to ericb's link to Your FaceBook or MySpace Profile Could Cost You Your Job.

I said nothing about the Wall Street boss's dick move.

I'll lighten up if you learn to read. Deal?
posted by John of Michigan at 5:40 PM on November 13, 2007

My wonderful friend Fernando once called in sick for some obligation (maybe a class he was teaching) to go windsurfing -- on a rare windy day in our town. So rare that...

the next day, a big photo of him on his windsurfer was on the front page of the local paper.
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:18 PM on November 13, 2007

I called in sick from Mexico once. A spontaneous weekend trip suddenly ran long and I left the most sheepish message ever, praying that they didn't have caller ID that would display international calls.

I didn't get busted, but the day after we got back I had to call in sick again BECAUSE of Mexico...
posted by hermitosis at 6:39 PM on November 13, 2007

PS, dnab: good luck getting the glitter out of your sheets.
posted by hermitosis at 6:41 PM on November 13, 2007

Eric -- The thing is, we know what the person who disseminated the email had to say about it, because his/her email is included in the article. It's not exactly brimming over with love for the fairy guy (who's referred to as "this new intern"); I get the impression he's someone the emailer barely knows, and cares about less. It's nice to imagine this was a friendly thing that got out of hand, but I think it was just kind of a basically shitty thing that got out of hand.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:00 PM on November 13, 2007

This post actually made me think about how once being in the closet may still affect me. I do use my real name on facebook, and have personal pictures of myself kissing my boyfriend, but I do censor myself. It wouldn't occur to me to make my profile available to anyone at work, and I wouldn't publish photos that I would be embarassed showing to my mom and boss.

I am glad the kid didn't get fired, though being chassed out of a career in banking may well be the kindest thing you could do to a college grad right now.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 7:01 PM on November 13, 2007

This may represent the Rise of the Creative Class.
posted by anthill at 7:54 PM on November 13, 2007

Pardonyou?, please go back and look at my response. Please, do.

I'll lighten up if you learn to read. Deal?

You're absolutely right. My sincere apologies.
posted by pardonyou? at 8:14 PM on November 13, 2007

I think there are two lessons to be learned here:

1. Don't work at a place that's going to fire you for doing your thing.
2. Don't lie; or if you do lie, don't do such an abysmal job of lying that you get caught and force the people you lied to, to make an example of you to save face.

I've always liked the "work hard, play hard" corporate culture; work during the day, kick loose at night, and don't discuss business at the bar or what happened at the bar last night at work.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:25 PM on November 13, 2007

And I'm aware the guy didn't get fired in this case. Point 1 was just a general rule.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:26 PM on November 13, 2007

who is friends with their boss on facebook?

Actually, this happened to me quite unintentionally.

I accepted a friend request from this girl at work. Days later, I look back at her profile, and I see that she's friended a bunch of other people at work, including our boss.

Better believe I adjusted my privacy settings right quick. Good thing I don't have anything embarrassing or even remotely true on my profile page.
posted by Elmo Oxygen at 9:21 PM on November 13, 2007

Metafilter: Being drunk on a trampoline is not frowned upon
posted by lukemeister at 9:28 PM on November 13, 2007

unless you think adolescent employees should get free passes to do whatever the fuck they want

Yeah, 'cause Lawd knows the only good excuse for the American Corporate World is a grown up excuse like "my kid's sick".

Fuck that. Boss-man was just jealous of intern-man's obviously superior social life. If boss-man had any kind of strength of personality, he wouldn't care that intern-man was having a great time at a Halloween party, drinking and carousing and having plenty of out-of-wedlock-sex.

This is America, goddamit. Our employees will not have personalities!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:02 PM on November 13, 2007

You know, I wonder if they were all in a corporate network on facebook? That would explain how the boss accessed all the photos without assuming the guy has friended him, slightly excuse the boss from sending it to everyone else at work (since they could access it anyway if they wanted) and send my opinion of the intern's intelligence into the negatives.
posted by jacalata at 10:06 PM on November 13, 2007

If you read the e-mail quoted at the first link, it says that a co-worker looked up the Facebook page, not the boss.
posted by Locative at 11:14 PM on November 13, 2007

This is the reason I have my robot post for me.
posted by robot at 7:14 AM on November 14, 2007

Amen. There were plenty of guys at WPI

My Gawd, cortex, did you attend WPI? Did you spend four years in my hometown of Worcester? That explains a lot!
posted by madamjujujive at 1:01 PM on November 14, 2007

Class of '01. Four years of Worcester was enough to make me really miss Portland, I have to say, though now and then I pine for the splendors of the Greendale Mall.
posted by cortex at 1:06 PM on November 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

I don't know if this has already been pointed out, but what if the picture was from a party he'd been at the preceding weekend, and he just got around to posting it during the day he had off from work?
posted by hermitosis at 1:23 PM on November 14, 2007

Wow. Not only has Lee Majors peed on your leg, but you used to work for Mickey Rooney? Wow.

You need to get your racist stereotypes straight. Micky Rooney was mocking the Japanese.

While I was mocking an actual real individual. Hr. Hung (Not his real name) was Vietnamese by ethnicity—though from Hong Kong. English was very much a second language. And he sounded exactly like I wrote. Except when he swore in French.
posted by tkchrist at 3:26 PM on November 15, 2007