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Somerville woman claims she lost job because of iPhone alarm bug
By adamg on Wed, 01/05/2011 - 11:36am
And a skeptical Davis Square LiveJournal is trying to figure out which local restaurant canned her.
UPDATE: Restaurant identified and tips on how to avoid a situation like this from Doc Brown local Twitter users, in the comments.
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Comments
two points
I've work both professional and food service jobs and good employees are never fired for being late once.
How about a little personal responsibility and setting two alarms when you know it might be tough to wake up after a double shift?
Exactly.
I wrote this comment, but HuffPo never published it for whatever reason:
No offense, Lindsay, but I am kind of suspicious of this. There has to be more to the story. In what universe would an employer get rid of a "wonderful" employee over one alarm-clock glitch?
Jobs may be hard to come by, but so are good employees. In a bad economy, it can be even harder to find good people because so many who are unqualified or unsuited for the job will lie incessantly during interviews (and on their resumes) just out of desperation.
I'm not saying you're lying, but are you seriously saying you got fired for one thing after having a perfect track record?
--
I've been in the unique position of working for a variety of businesses, as well as running one. The business I ran was in Tennessee, an at-will employment state that tends to side with employers. Even still, no employer with a brain would ever fire someone for a first offense (provided it wasn't serious)/without proper documentation of other offenses. People don't seem to realize this, but unemployment benefits are paid mostly by the employers.
I always had a very hard time of letting terrible employees go. I held on to the "wonderful" ones with everything I had.
This story keeps getting weirder...
now Anthony Bourdain is involved:
http://twitter.com/#!/NoReservations/status/227286...
And the restaurant is ...
Foundry on Elm.
Someone needs to teach that
Someone needs to teach that little hipster snowflake some personal responsibility. Guess her workplace decided enough was enough.
A cellphone should always be your backup alarm, never you main one.
Redundancy seems to be key
The story has struck
midnighta chord among the local Twitterati. Some reactions:Michael Ratty: My backup alarm clock in the North End is the 8AM USS Constitution cannon blast. Not kidding. It works!
Bri Mac: No cell phone alarm for me! Regular digital clock with batt back up, if that fails, the 7 and 4 year old have never failed!
John Pouliot: Adults who need to be somewhere on time set multiple alarms. Adults get fired for being late. Wake up, real life is waiting.
Stadol: I set my iTouch to go off @ 4:30 am, and my BlackBerry to go off @ 5 am. (That's how I get to work @ 6:30 am!)
Liz Fong: The wilderness lodge in Alaska I worked at requires all employees to bring 3 battery-powered alarms. It works.
Andrea at WBZ: Never rely on just one! I set 3 alarms. 2 on the clock radio and my phone. snooze every 10 mins. Makes for a wonderful AM. :)
Ben Jackson: Buy a clock with a battery backup. Mine has it. Mains go off, display goes off but the timer & alarm keep going.
Meghan Kelly: I have a great alarm clock, it's called a toddler. She's up every day at 6 a.m. (sad trombone)
On the issue of her being fired for being late just once
Jeff Clark: Hard to think someone gets fired for 1st tardiness offense. Somerville woman likely left out details?
Anne Hjortshoj: That restaurant overhired in the first place. Probably looking to cut people.
BarHavoc: My bar would let someone go for oversleeping the am shift after new years eve. It's one of shifts you can't miss.
Metroid Baby: It's not unheard-of. When I was a waitress I very nearly got fired for my first and only schedule mishap.
On the generation gap
Bob Sassone: It also stuns me younger people don't wear watches anymore, they use their cell as their clock. I'll never understand that.
Erin Bowles: I use my cell as my clock. I used to wear a watch but it interfered with the wrist rest i use at the office.
Marti V.: I feel like a LOT of people use their cell phones as alarms. I know I do. As does my boyfriend. And others I know.
Sean Roche: What's a watch? What does an alarm clock look like? Are those Android/iPhone apps?
LifeStar7: Once we passed the fad of the Swatch back in the 80s, my generation and those later didn't want to repeat the fashion faux pas.
Richard Aronofsky: I am 53 and do not wear a watch... haven't for at least 10 years.. Cell phone and computer are all I need to tell time.
I'd bet you 100 bucks
This resturant was looking for a reason to fire her.
In my experience
When someone let let go for tardiness it is never their fault. (No matter how many times they've been late, nor how many warnings they've been given...)
Having had to fire people in the past for absenteeism and/or tardiness, it never ceases to amaze me when the warnings are not taken seriously. If you job is on the line, wouldn't you make triple sure not to be late?
At which point ...
Doc Brown looks at the watch on one wrist, then looks at the watch on his other wrist, and exclaims: "Great Scott!"
You forgot
The watch around his ankle.
I did say triple check! ;)
Ted, don't forget to wind
Ted, don't forget to wind your watch!
anthony bourdains driver gf
Lindsay Garvey does not have a bf. She was not the drivers gf.
So....
You're calling Bourdain a liar?
Saw this on HP and laughed. I
Saw this on HP and laughed.
I used to use a windup alarm as a backup back in the day. Can't trust the battery b/u. The whole unit could fail.
My iPhone alarm failed as well. Trusty alarm clock did the job though.
iPhone as primary is nice b/c I can choose something to my liking to wake up too.
We might find this funny now
However, I expect when she starts shipping her resume around she will not get any call backs. Or does she not realize employers will be doing a web search on her name.
Not that she was all that employable before but after this I doubt she can get a job at McDonald's. I think she should have stayed in New Orleans Lindsay Garvey bio where she was doing some good. Instead of moving to Boston to wait tables. Wonder what her student loan debt is? Mom and Dad must be so proud!!
I think the opposite
This publicity may be what she needs to be found by a better employer. I don't think it will hurt her future at all.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing your experience with repeatedly gaining and losing low status jobs. I bet you have gotten really good at that by now with your wonderful attitude and opinons of anybody not you.
Is there an iPhone stopwatch app?
To count down her 15 minutes of fame?
There's an app for that
It's the same one as the alarm, so it might be buggy:
Now's it hit Boston.com and NECN
Who describes her as a "writer and actor". I'm confused, I thought she lost her job as a waitress, not a writer or actor?
The pinnacle of stupidity, this woman should realize you can't make phone calls with the thing, why would you trust your job to it?
Another thing you can't rely on an iPhone to do
Write legal pleadings. Bob Ambrogi, who is legally entited to put "Esq." after his name, reports an app called iPleading would be kind of stupid even if it did work, which he says it doesn't.