Rene said "IF (a big IF) Joe's place of employment has a WRITTEN policy stating, for example, that "no employee is allowed to publicly express opinions regarding to procedures used in the work place", then they had the "right" to reprimand Joe regardless if his comments were positive or negative."

I would interpret that as precluding an employee from criticising practices and procedures in use at their place of employment, that is to say, essentially, criticising the employer.
Such would not be the case here.

Dr Terry L Marshall, B.A.(Law), M.B.,Ch.B.,F.R.C.Path
 Consultant Pathologist
 Rotherham General Hospital
 South Yorkshire
 England
        terry.marshall@rothgen.nhs.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: Rene J Buesa [mailto:rjbuesa@yahoo.com]
Sent: 24 October 2006 15:31
To: Janice Mahoney; histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu;
jnocito@satx.rr.com; ander093@tc.umn.edu
Subject: Re: [Histonet] Good Bye


Janice:
  I totally agree with you and appreciate what happened to Joe, but let me play the Devil's advocate now:
  IF (a big IF) Joe's place of employment has a WRITTEN policy stating, for example, that "no employee is allowed to publicly express opinions regarding to procedures used in the work place", then they had the "right" to reprimand Joe regardless if his comments were positive or negative.
  This is not if that policy curves the constitutional "free of expression right"; IF such a policy is in place it is an internal one and IF all employees know it and signed to obey it, then the reprimand has to be accepted (as Joe did, by the way).
  Just my opinion!
  René J.

Janice Mahoney  wrote:
  Joe said this situation "almost cost him his job". 
As a manager I can't imagine an employer firing someone for stating an opinion about a product or methodology. (Now, if Joe were spending all his time on the net and not doing his job, that would be a different story. Those of us who keep up on this net know Joe to be a very dedicated professional so I doubt that is the case.) We are all in this together and as far as I'm concerned it is about one thing; PATIENT CARE. It does not matter if you are in research or in a clinical lab, it is all about the patients. Any time a one of us says anything negative about a product it is because we are striving for quality patient care. It is like I tell my staff; We have to leave our egos outside the lab. If your quality is not up to snuff it is not about you, it is about the patient.
My point to the vendors is this; If we are not happy about your products leave your ego outside. We want products that will help us deliver quality slides. That is all that matters. Take the criticism and make your products better or more consistent. 
Enough, I'll get off my soap box.

The above opinions do not reflect those of my employer, boss, dog or maybe even me.

Jan
Omaha


>>> LuAnn Anderson 10/23/2006 11:15 AM >>>
Joe,
I would say that it is your companies loss and that the vender in 
question probably hasn't done themselves any good here!! Good luck to 
you--with your knowledge and experience, you should be able to find a 
better position in no time, hopefully with a company that will value 
your opinion.
LuAnn



At 02:46 PM 10/20/2006, Joe Nocito wrote:
> Just as I expected, some one called my place of employment. Not 
> only did I get flamed, I was burned to a crisp. I hope you are 
> happy. You think you may have won, but all you did was hamper a so 
> called open forum so people could exchange ideas and opinions. Now, 
> many people will be afraid to give their honest opinion for fear of 
> retribution, Sleep tight tonight. You almost cost me my job. Losing 
> my job over a vendor is just not worth it. I don't need any help, I 
> can do it just fine by myself.
> Netters, it's been fun. I had many laughs and received a lot of 
> information. I pass the baton on to someone else. It's sad that 
> people can not give their honest opinion.
> We'll be meeting again, you can be sure of that. Good bye and good luck.
>
>
>Joe Nocito
>_______________________________________________
>Histonet mailing list
>Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu 
>http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet 
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