I want to start this post by saying that I don't for one second buy into the media scare tactics. I don't walk around town looking over my shoulder expecting something tragic to happen at any random moment. The way I see live is what will happen will happen and I refuse to live my life in fear. I wish I could say that for all the people around me.
About four months ago we hired this guy at work, on his first day it was apparent there was something odd about him. My first memory of this kid is him crouched down in the hallway outside of the lunch room with his elbows on his knees just glaring around. At the time I just thought perhaps he is shy and doesnt feel comfortable enough to sit in the lunch room with everyone else. As time has gone on some more weird events have come about. For example, we will all be busy at work and the phones ringing and I will look around the room, this kid will be doing push ups behind his desk. He also comes in everyday tracking mud through the office, mud caked up to his ankles. He has been seen leaning back against the wall eyes to the sky in a prayer stance behind his desk. The little bit of history I know of this young man is that he was born in Haiti and chose to adopt the muslim religion. He is serious about his choice and prays more often then the remainder of the muslim staff working for us. To me this kid is just a little strange, not dangerous.
It is brought to our attention that one of the staff members saw him visiting a terrorist website while he was working. With that we decided to track his internet usage and have over 900 site hits in just the last four days. All staff sign an agreement upon hire stating that we are not to use the internet for personal use while at work. So to me just the fact that he has visited over 900 internet pages in four days is a major offence. But what the company is looking for is evidance that he was visiting terrorist web sites. There is a number of hits for Al Jazzeer which for those who dont know is a television station similar to CNN in the Middle East. I would expect that if he was watching Middle Eastern news reels they could be mistaken for terrorist web sites. My thoughts and feelings on the matter is that this whole situation is being blown out of proportion. People are scared. Yesterday I was involved in our weekly management meeting and was shocked at just how fearful people really are. The meeting consisted of the management piecing together pieces of an invisable puzzle to come to the conclusion that this kid is involved in terrorist activities. I work in a place that has access to some confidential information, we have access codes to important Canadian buildings etc... Which has just heightened the fear within our management team. Every attempt I made during that meeting to difuse this fear was rejected. They have themselves convinced that this guy is an imediate threat to the safety of our workers.
The conclusion to our meeting is I have to go in this morning at 8am and terminate this employee, on the basis that he has violated our policies by using the internet for personal use during working hours. The company has hired armed guards to protect the property for months to come in the event that this young man is a threat. The guards will be in the building this morning when I terminate him. They will be standing by in the event something terrible happens. To me this is excessive. My fear is that this kid is no harm at all and the company is discriminating against him. My problem is that I have to be a part of something I dont believe in. I agree that his employment should be terminated but not on the basis of imagined terrorist involvement but on the basis that he violated a company standard. We have terminated other employees while this young man has been employeed with us and we have never had armed guards present. The other thing that I just cant get past is, if the company truly believes that this kid is involved in this type of organization why are they not involving the police? Why do they not have the police look into his activities? No we are just going to set him free from our little piece of the planet and call it a day. We are going to assume based on some of his oddities and hearsay that he is involved in this type of organization and remove him from our work space.
I pray for a day when people can co-exist on this plannet, when we stop assuming things about people based on our own ignorance and fear, when people will be innocent until proven guilty. Until then I will go to work today and terminate this young mans employment for his personal internet use. Not because I believe he is involved in anything dangerous.
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