Originally Posted by rivrrat

An employer has every right to fire any of their employees for any reason they want, IMO.

That said, they're ****ing idiots. She didn't misrepresent herself. She wasn't doing anything illegal. She wasn't doing anything wrong. It didn't adversely affect her credibility or anything related to her job as a journalist.

Originally Posted by 1069

What does this mean?




...

Originally Posted by 1069

Fired for stripping, Houston reporter files discrimination complaint

By msnbc.com staff

The former Houston Chronicle reporter who was fired after another publication exposed her second job as a night club stripper announced Thursday she had filed a federal gender discrimination complaint against the paper that let her go.

In her complaint, Sarah Tressler, 30, is asking the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to look into the Chronicle's decision to fire her. Tressler says an editor told her she was let go because she hadn't disclosed her side gig in her job application.

"I was very upset that I was fired because I had been told by many editors that I was doing a good job," Tessler said in a statement. "There was no question on the form that covered my dancing. I answered the questions on the form honestly."

Tressler announced she filed the complaint at a news conference with her lawyer, Beverly Hills celebrity attorney Gloria Allred. Later, Tressler tweeted: "Couldn't ask for anyone better by my side ... So grateful."

The Houston Press, an alternative weekly, first exposed the "double life" of Tressler in a feature story with the headline "Writer by day, stripper by night." It also drew attention to Tressler’s blog — Diary of an Angry Stripper — which included pictures of her scantily-clad self, as well as rich detail from the inside of the gentlemen's club.

During her two-month reporting gig, Tressler covered high society, human interest stories, and fashion. She had previously worked as a freelancer for the Chronicle. Tressler "very rarely" worked as an exotic dancer, a skill that helped her pay for college, she said at the news conference, according to local TV station KPRC.

Tressler said she occasionally went to the club for exercise.

"And I didn't have a gym membership. So, on days off I might just go in there in the afternoon and do a couple stage rotations and knock it out," she said.

KPRC reports that Tressler, who has a master's degree in journalism from New York University, also teaches part time at the University of Houston.

"Most exotic dancers are female, and therefore to terminate an employee because they had previously been an exotic dancer would have an adverse impact on women, since it is a female dominated occupation," Allred, who is a self-described feminist lawyer, said in a statement.

"Sarah’s work as a dancer is lawful and is not a crime. It does not, has not and will not affect her ability to perform her job as a journalist," the statement read.

U.S. News - Fired for stripping, Houston reporter files discrimination complaint

What do you guys think?
Did they have a right to fire her?
If they never asked, was she misrepresenting herself not telling them?

I quit dancing about a decade ago, and I did not seek other employment until my dancing days were done; I never attempted to work a straight job while stripping on the side. But I was very paranoid, at first, that someone would recognize me and tell my boss, and I'd get fired from my straight job.
This never happened, though, and over time I worry about it less. At this point, I look so much different than I did back then that I doubt anyone would recognize me, unless they'd known me very well. And few did.

Still, if someone had ever recognized me and outed me as a former dancer and gotten me fired from a straight job, I think I would've just accepted that and looked for another job. I mean, I always figured it was an employer's right to fire you for whatever reason (although I personally have never been fired from any job. No reason to fire me: I'm hard-working and reliable).
I never considered that it might be "sexual discrimination" to fire a woman for being a former (or even current) exotic dancer.
I'm kind of on the fence about it now... but leaning more toward the "that's bullsh!t" side of the fence.

I think that even if she won her suit and they weren't allowed to fire her over being a dancer, they'd find some other reason.
They probably hate her now.

I do have to wonder, however, if they'd fire their male employees for patronizing strip clubs.

Originally Posted by AzMike

Actually she did cause the problems. It's not good when your employer sits down in an early meeting to check on the competition and there's the competitor with an article about your reporter stripping.

Originally Posted by rivrrat

why is that not good? What problem did it cause?

Originally Posted by MrLiberty

It goes to credibility.

While you and others may not have a problem with what she does/did, others are not so forgiving.

Originally Posted by rivrrat

why is that not good? What problem did it cause?

Originally Posted by AzMike

It creates a problem with the publics perception of the papers reporters and the paper itself. If she worked for Hustler not a problem but for someone wanting to present a respected news source it is.

Originally Posted by rivrrat

How does it create such a problem? Do you have evidence of this hypothetical problem? (or rather, does her employer?)

Originally Posted by AzMike

Well it is a hypothetical problem I suppose but not one you would want to wait to prove out in losses of subscriptions or the decay of your work environment.