Terminated for Inappropriate Behavior

During a phone call three weeks after the meeting, a Delta representative told her the carrier was terminating her employment "based on inappropriate photographs in the Delta uniform on the Web site." According to Simonetti, Delta never explained what made the photos unacceptable or where in the employee manual it said that posting pictures in a Delta uniform was forbidden.

Simonetti never learned how Delta stumbled upon her blog in the first place. "By the time I was suspended, I was only getting 150 to 200 visitors a day," she says. "I felt very comfortable with the blog, because 'nobody read it.' But when people would Google 'flight attendant,' I guess it would come up."

In between the suspension and dismissal, Simonetti filed a sex discrimination claim with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, which provided a "right to sue letter" she could use in a lawsuit later. "I found pictures of male Delta flight attendants and pilots on Match.com in their uniforms with particulars of their intimate lives listed. And some of them even mentioned they worked for Delta," she says. Yet the airline apparently took no action against them. Because Delta flight attendants don't have a union, she hired a private lawyer in an attempt to get her job back.

Simonetti's suit against Delta is pending, and she was never able to get another job in the airline industry, despite the media attention she received after the firing. (Her appearances on TV and mentions of her in articles were usually sympathetic to her predicament.) She now works selling real estate and is back in school, studying radio, TV, and film at the University of Texas at Austin. However, she says she still misses her flight attendant job and her old co-workers and is upset about the blog episode.

The question remains: Did Delta take gratuitously drastic measures over a bunch of silly pictures on the Web or was Simonetti guilty of irresponsible behavior that could have harmed the carrier?

*G-Rated - suitable for all ages

Ex. 1 Skim through the text and answer the questions.

1. What kind of information did Simonetti place on the Journalspace.com blog?

2. Why did she do that?

3. What was the reaction of Delta airlines on her photos?

4. Why did Delta airlines terminate Simonetti’s employment?

5. Why did Simonetti file a sex discrimination claim with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission?

6. Did Simonetti win the suit against Delta?

Ex. 2 Read each statement carefully and decide whether it is true or false. If it is false, tell why, or explain how the statement can be changed so that it will be true.

1. As Delta flight attendants had the union, Simonetti was to hire a private lawyer in an attempt to get her job back.

2. Simonetti won the suit against Delta, and now she was can get any job in the airline industry.

3. A Delta representative told SImonetti that the carrier was terminating her employment "based on inappropriate photographs in the Delta uniform on the Web site."

4. There was a policy in Delta airlines against taking pictures in uniform on a plane and posting them on the Web.

5. In the blog, first titled "Diary of a Flight Attendant" she referred to herself as Ellen Simonetti.

6. As soon as Simonetti removed the pictures from her blog, she was assigned to her regular trip to Italy.

7. Although Simonetti never gave her last name or mentioned her employer's name in the blog, she was wearing a Delta uniform in the photographs.

Vocabulary

Word list

1. mundane	обычный, приземлённый
2. to alter	изменять; менять; видоизменять, вносить изменения, переделывать
3. racy	пикантный
4. to suspend	(временно) прекращать
5. to get back to smb	перезванивать
6. to terminate	завершать
7. to stumble upon	случайно найти, натолкнуться на (что-л.)
8. pending	незаконченный, ожидающий решения
9. predicament	затруднительное положение
10. gratuitously	беспричинно, необоснованно, непростительно, неоправданно

Ex. 1. Discuss your word list, definitions and examples with your team members.

Ex. 2. Complete the sentences using active vocabulary.

1. Even though Simonetti removed the pictures from her blog, the airlines ______________________ her without pay a week after the meeting.

2. Delta airline took ________________________ drastic measures over a bunch of silly pictures on the Web.

3. Simonetti’s appearances on TV and mentions of her in articles were usually sympathetic to her ___________________________.

4. A Delta representative told her the carrier ________________________ her employment "based on inappropriate photographs in the Delta uniform on the Web site."

5. Simonetti’s journal captured _______________________ events from her day-to-day life.

6. Simonetti's suit against Delta ________________________, and she was never able to get another job in the airline industry, despite the media attention she received after the firing.

7. Simonetti never learned how Delta _______________________ her blog in the first place.

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