(WWJ) An incident where a man claims he was fired from a Detroit company for posting a joking meme on Facebook about pooping on company time has entered the legal system.
The company says he was fired for other reasons.
Representatives of Roman Stone Works in Detroit say they've hired legal counsel and are discussing the possibility of pursuing a case against a young man who posted a series of nasty screen shots from a guy he says is the boss. The texts were in reaction to a joke meme the employee posted on a Sunday on his personal Facebook page that had the message, "Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That's why I poop on company time."
The company was flooded with bad online reviews after the employee posted the exchange on social media, and had to shut down their phones.
See the full exchange below.
Many comments among the thousands on the alleged victim's Facebook post urge people to leave bad reviews everywhere they can and troll the company. One man posted the cell phone numbers of leaders at the firm.
"...Its still a pussy move and we should bully him and destroy his reputation till his business fails, he cant feed his family, and he kills himself. We don't need laws, we need to look out for each other and utterly exile useless power tripping freaks till they and their seed self eradicate," Thomas Clark wrote.
Another Facebook user named Victor Ulloa wrote, "I now see the company has 81 negative reviews already, here is another note to "Employers" it would be helpful and wise to be professional when dealing with your employee(s), it isn't appropriate to talk down on someone who is expressing an opinion, because this is the end result when you think you can bully a worker and demean someone as a person. You get what you give in life (most times) make it a good one."
But things are not always as they appear on the internet, or at least not as black and white.
Someone who answered the phone at a number tied to Roman Stone Works said the incident is not as it's being portrayed.
"I can confirm that he was not fired (for the meme) ... People are rushing to judgment and it's not been fun."
The man added "we've got a case against the young man," and referred all questions to a Bingham Farms attorney. The attorney did not immediately respond to messages from WWJ Newsradio.
Attorney Jan Rubenstein added the man in question wasn't fired for the meme, he was fired for walking off the job several days after he posted the meme.
Rubenstein added he didn't know where the screenshots saying Hidalgo was being fired for the meme -- reportedly from the boss -- came from.
"To suggest he was fired for putting out the meme on Sunday, it's verifiably incorrect," Rubenstein said, adding the company and its owners have been unfairly harassed. "It's crazy that this has gotten so ... so viral, it's really harmed my clients. My clients and their families are getting threats, it's just not right."
The employee's post has 4,300 comments, 8,000 shares -- and counting.
"Can't leave reviews on their Google page anymore, but its stuck at 1 star now," Edward Dee-Dawson Tivrusky wrote.