Comments on: Metro Fires Politicking Driver

By: Robis

Robis — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:25:21 +0000

LARIR, if you lied on your resume, yes, you should be fired, along with half your co-workers and most of your bosses. Honesty is not negotiable, but the fact that you and so many others think it is exposes one of the reasons that the world is such a mess right now.

By: Like A Resume is Reality?

Like A Resume is Reality? — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:09:49 +0000

Davis lied on his app. He deserved to get fired.

Whaaa! There goes my job, along with half my co-workers and most of my bosses!

By: Robis

Robis — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:26:30 +0000

Hey, I didn’t say anything about whether WMATA should have done a more thorough background check (or maybe even done one at all). But you said, “Goes to show, if they’re looking to fire you, they’ll find just about any reason under the sun to do it.”

It wasn’t “any reason under the sun”. It was a valid reason, and one that every company does.

What I’m suggesting is, let’s not pretend that WMATA was wrong to fire Davis. Davis lied on his app. He deserved to get fired.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:45:57 +0000

“Unless they were made aware of a conviction” Why are they not making themselves aware of it? Unless they don’t really care, in which case: why are they asking about it on an application?

By: Tom Bridge

Tom Bridge — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 19:37:17 +0000

So, is WMATA blameless here? I understand that WMATA does background checks on all their drivers, how did they miss his felony murder conviction as part of their hiring process?

By: Robis

Robis — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 18:39:49 +0000

“So, what is the point? That their driver was fired for failing to disclose a criminal record, something that apparently they were not checking on their own? How “routine” was the personnel file review, if it resulted from the Post’s initial story on Davis? Goes to show, if they’re looking to fire you, they’ll find just about any reason under the sun to do it.”

Actually, Tom, he didn’t “fail to disclose a criminal record” he actively lied about that criminal record (as detailed in Tangerlini’s letter to Orange).

And any time one is up for review (as Davis had been), they take a look at one’s personnel file—the fact that they do this any time you are up for review is what makes it routine. Unless they were made aware of a conviction, they would have no reason to note that Davis had lied on his app. But because the Post story revealed the past conviction, it wasn’t something that WMATA could just ignore.

Far from being WMATA looking for a reason to fire Davis, they really had no choice once the Post revealed his past conviction, and the lie on his app was obvious.