[LETTERHEAD]
Accu-Weather, Inc. [Note: The name has been changed to AccuWeather]
619 W. College Avenue
State College, Pennsylvania 16801
814/237-0309 * FAX 814/238-1339
Joel N. Meyers, President Elliot Abrams, Sr. Vice President
Barry Lee Myers, Exec. Vice President Evan A. Myers, Sr. Vice President
Michael A. Steinberg, Sr. Vice President Joseph P. Sobel, Sr. Vice President
October 17, 1995
Mr. Robert W. Clark
[P. O. Box 222
State College, PA 16804-0222--this represents my current address]
Dear Rob:
When we met the other day you had requested that I send you a
letter reviewing specifically the reasons for your termination
from employment at AccuWeather.
As you know, when we met on Wednesday, October 4th and I showed
you the various messages containing obscene language, which
could also be interpreted as threatening and intimidating that
were originating from our facilities. [1] You acknowledged
the fact that on work time you were preparing and sending
these messages from our facilities out on the Internet. [2]
This was the third incident in several months of misbehavior
at work and I viewed it to be sufficiently serious, on its
own to terminate your employment. [3] When coupled with
prior infractions this decision was further supported.
Therefore, the reasons for termination can be considered
as follows:
1. Prior incidents of misconduct at work for which you had
been given specific verbal warnings and in fact, the last
time I met with you I told you that I could not have a
situation recur and that was the final warning. [4]
2. An incident of misconduct did occur involving the above
mentioned profanity being sent out on the Internet from
our computer facilities. You admitted responsibility
for it. [5]
3. These activities besides reflecting upon AccuWeather and
placed [sic] AccuWeather in a bad light and could have
potentially lead [sic] to legal liability of the company.
4. These activities were conducted on work time when you
should have been devoting yourself to AccuWeather tasks
rather than consuming many hours of time on the Internet. [6]
We consider these actions to be intentional and willful
misconduct. [7] It is therefore, with regret that I felt
we had no choice but to terminate your employment immediately
as of October 4, 1995. A check has been prepared and is
available to you to pay for the work that you performed
through that day plus accumulated comp time and vacation
time. It is available for you to pick up at your leisure.
Very truly yours,
Barry Lee Myers
BLM:jlc
CC: Employment File
A:\101695.WPD\T
[1] This is very cleverly worded to appear other than it is.
I never acknowledged sending any threatening email whatever.
I refuse to give credence to the notion that the posts
I had made to alt.angst could be interpreted as threatening
or intimidating by even the veriest of idiots, and these
seemed to comprise the large part of the posts which I
was presented. It is also neglected that the only message
which could be interpreted as threatening or intimidating
is a message I never sent.
[2] Furthermore, none visibly emerged from
AccuWeather, and numerous of the messages were in fact
not originated from AccuWeather facilities at all. Those
which were not could certainly not be considered, and the
others would, I assume, have to be judged on a message-
by-message basis.
[3] While I am certain that should there ever be a hearing
concerning these 'several months of misbehavior,' during
which I had volunteered to work Christmas and Thanksgiving,
and never once refused additional hours or to change shifts
on no notice whatever, as AccuWeather often does, they
will be able to produce something, the only incident in
which I was ever warned by a direct superior of anything
of consequence was in regard to checking my voice-mail.
Never did I received a written warning concerning any
of these incidents, and I don't remember any other verbal
warnings. Certainly, if one is to deliver a verbal warning
it ought to be recognizable as such.
[4] I assume this is a reference to the specific matter of
voice-mail. This was, as is well-known, immediately
rectified when brought to my attention.
[5] I believe 'an incident' is quite unclear, as earlier
he had alleged 'various messages,' which would indicate
several 'incidents,' had it been true. Therefore, I
can't respond to this, as I have no idea which 'incident'
is alleged to be misconduct, or, for that matter,
'profanity.' I will further note that profanity and
obscenity were fairly common elements of language in
my work environment, particularly when working on the
archaic and outdated equipment used by AccuWeather,
which requires continual jury-rigging and quick-fix
solutions.
[6] I had made no secret of spending time on the Internet.
Indeed, on most occasions that I came in for a shift
change, it was very common for the person I was relieving
to be looking around on the World Wide Web while others
who were off the clock played Doom or Magic. No direct
superior of mine in my department had ever questioned
this, and I had even discussed it with coworkers, specifically
an incident in which someone claiming to support a racist
organization called the "National Alliance" had sent
unsolicited email to tens of thousands of people.
[7] I will note only that 'willful misconduct' is a legally-
recognized phrase given force by, among others, the
Unemployment Compensation, thus mandating its use
despite the fact that it is hardly clear whether or
not this has been established in a reasonable manner
to be the case.