Near the beginning of the movie Arthur, Arthur (played by Dudley Moore) is asked what he does for a living. He answers, "I race cars, I play tennis, I fondle women, but I have weekends off and I am my own boss."
Forty years later Apple executive Tony Blevins was asked the same question as he exited his Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren at a car show. He answered, “I race cars, play golf and fondle big-breasted women. But I take weekends and major holidays off.”
Naturally the Blevins version showed up on TikTok:
@itsdanielmac Quite the occupation this man has ✍️ #mercedesbenz #supercarstiktok #slr #car ♬ original sound - DANIEL MAC
A few days later Apple fired Blevins. The Wall Street Journal tells the story:
Mr. Blevins said he was asked to resign and he declined. Days after the video surfaced Sept. 5, he was fired....The firing has left him in disbelief that something he intended as a joke, uttered to a non-Apple employee while he wasn’t working, could erase a lifetime of dedication for a company he loved and believed in, Mr. Blevins said. He said he is sorry to those he offended with the comment, but he sees his firing as a blunder by Apple and a capitulation to broader cultural pressure.
Some of his former employees support him and say that while he sometimes would use humor to deflate tense situations, they hadn’t witnessed any other sexist comments or unprofessional behavior.
....In his two decades at the company, Mr. Blevins had emerged as one of an essential cadre of executives who helped build Apple into a colossus through deals with suppliers of chips, displays and other parts that were mostly assembled in Asia. With brazen tactics—such as once putting two companies competing for the same deal in neighboring rooms in a hotel while he went back and forth between them—Mr. Blevins helped Apple keep costs down and the supply of its iPhones and other gadgets secure.
....After his firing, company executives were still planning a going-away party for him with invitations extended to more than 100 people, but the party was canceled when communication began breaking down between Mr. Blevins and Apple, said Mr. Blevins. He also said he didn’t like the idea of Apple throwing him a party after having just fired him, calling it a “hypocritical” action. He said he didn’t receive severance upon his departure.
I've never heard of firing someone and then throwing a going-away party. That's very peculiar behavior.
But the big question, of course, is whether Apple should have fired him in the first place. His joke was only risque in a 1950s Borscht Belt sense, it was off campus, and obviously part of a TikTok routine.
But then again, stuff that flew in the 1950s (or in 1981) doesn't fly today. Maybe Blevins should have known better no matter where he happened to be.
For myself, I'd say it was worth a slap on the wrist and an apology, not a dismissal after 22 years with the company. Opinions?
Seems dumb, but there is something fishy about the story: sounds like he was leaving anyway (going away party?) and this might’ve just pushed him out earlier than expected. He’s wealthy enough, I’m sure he’ll be ok personally.
In a world where conservatives are arguing they should be able to fire anyone for any reason including characteristics that the person has no control over, I’m sure the outrage from the right will be all over this story for weeks. Hypocrisy officially died years ago.
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As goes Danton, so goes Robespierre.
I look forward to/hope that Mr Blevins is the type who holds grudges and spends his next year airing an awful lot of dirty laundry...
And what EXACTLY is it that flew in 1981 but no longer flies these days? Humor? Men admitting that they enjoy fondling large breasted women?
Once upon a time we were told that "Don't ask, don't tell" was inhuman because part of natural human sexuality was being able to talk about that sexuality in public. But is this where we are now? That it's OK/encouraged to talk about gay or trans sexuality in public, but not to admit to even one single aspect of "mainstream" male sexuality?
Pretty sure no one said gay men should be able to talk about fondling the private parts of other men, so nice little strawman you've got there.
OK, let's say that what Mr Blevins said was "I race cars, play golf and fondle dicks. But I take weekends and major holidays off."
That's equally tacky. But I can pretty much guarantee you that there would be no "public pressure" to fire Mr Blevins, and that if there were a few such calls Apple would not heed them.
So...
What exactly about my comment do you consider to be a strawman?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_Cabin_Republicans_v._United_States was about precisely the point you claim to be a strawman.
"autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression, and certain intimate conduct."...
he would have been fired just as quickly.
you are full of grievances and martyrdom, way to go!
Nope, definitely not. Because Apple would get accused of homophobia if they did,
Who really cares. Apple is a company and can fire anyone they want for any reason (as long as it does not run afoul of government anti-discrimination laws). That whole at will thing and all.
Plus, he was a top executive, a direct report to Tim Cook, with who knows how many people in his organization. Execs are expected to be role models, on and off the job. Once the video went viral (months ago), he was a big risk for the company. Imagine any sexual harassment cases in his org, and the evidence that his video would provide for the kind of culture permitted at Apple.
The company may not care as much about his poor sense of humor, but the business liability that would come with his continued employment made the decision necessary.
Hmm.
Where was this attitude when it comes to bakers and cakes, or website designers, or pharmacists? Or are we going to engage in some sort of transparently dishonest shuffle where "private companies can do what they want when it comes to employees, but have to be limited the following ways when it comes to the public"?
literally no-one has ever argued that the bigoted baker should not be able to make hiring or firing decisions.
your strawman are comically terrible.
but you do have so many GREIVANCES!!
Pro tip: If you want to tell a joke, make it funny.
BTW, this was news back in Sept. Why is Blevins becoming a conservative cause célèbre now?
Cynically I'd say because they aren't getting the outrage they wanted out of Hunter Biden's laptop.
No doubt. It's also to get in some Apple-bashing while they can, since Tim Cook is in the crosshairs of the right's new fave, Chief Twit Elon.
I'm a bit surprised (or maybe not) to see KD and other commenters here sympathetic to the Blevins case. Anybody who know much about working in a corporation these days should know that Blevins really had to go. It's not a case about people losing their sense of humor nowadays. It's about an exec who said something highly offensive. He's not a lovable movie character who redeems himself in the end. He's a role model for thousands of people in the company. He was asked a simple question on camera and he should have known better. He's entirely at fault.
I'm somewhat sympathetic to the idea that some old jokes aren't funny anymore. It was easier when we could just laugh, right? But context is everything, and times change. Even in the old days, organizations weren't as people today might think.
A recent WaMo article on Jake Powell, a baseball player in the 1930s, who got in trouble making a joke in a radio interview. He was asked how he stayed in shape during the off-season, and he said: “I’m a policeman,” who gets his exercise when “I beat n___ers over the head with my blackjack” before “throwing them in jail.” Baseball suspended him for his offensive comments. Which was somewhat ironic, since MLB at the time banned Blacks from playing ball (certainly a more harmful and disgraceful injustice to Blacks than anything Powell said).
"weren't as forgiving as people today might think"
What's offensive about the joke? Blevins did not say or imply that the big-breasted women did not consent to being fondled. Isn't consent the important thing?
There's the Harry Shearer rule, leave the comedy to the comedians (at least if you're in some public visibility). Also see "Grace and Frankie" 7:12 "The Casino"
Why now? Because Twitter blue is $11 in the app store, and apple is taking a cut of Elon's move to the right at twitter. So anything to paint them as a too woke company.
Seems like a big overreaction on Apple's part. His remark was tame, and doesn't obviously shed any light on how he treats colleagues.
Mangling quotes from antique movies is lame, but he's an executive and not a professional comic: Being unfunny and lame doesn't undermine his work.
Seems heavy-handed to me, but demographically, I am very similar to a much less wealthy him.
I'd also note that Apple, like a lot of (all?) companies, fires people over things that aren't necessarily related to the firing offense. I don't know enough about this to wager, but I'd say there's a reasonable chance that this was cover for garden variety office politics.
Beyond that, assuming the story really is as simple as it is presented, it seems slightly iffy. But the idea that companies shouldn't or don't fire execs over off-duty behavior doesn't pass the laugh test. Happens all the time.
The press angle here is that it is perennially trendy to believe our John Galts shouldn't be hassled over petty, unimportant things like sexism. Because He-men are a company's real assets, not good will or an environment that allows you to recruit smart people who may not possess genitalia that 70 year old Fox viewers consider appropriate for engineers.
" there's a reasonable chance that this was cover for garden variety office politics."
ding! ding! ding! We have a winner! If they wanted to keep him, they could easily have let this blow over. Ergo, they didn't want to keep him.
I'm kind of ambivalent about this; on the "I'd get rid of him too side" I think you could argue that in today's world of online video everywhere an exec who isn't smart enough to keep his mouth shut when a guy asks him a dumb question while holding a video camera is better off retired... Apple has to recruit lots of engineers, and a lot of them are women, and this is just bad publicity for the company.
My guess is that they wanted to get rid of him anyway and this was the last straw or at least a convenient excuse. Any executive that announces publicly, even in jest, that they spend their days fondling women is likely to be a target for harassment complaints, and perhaps for good reason if they lack self-awareness.
If you are a high level executive at one of the world's biggest corporations, you were never really off duty, especially if you do something on camera.
Exactly. The man had to go. This is not even a close call. It's a sad thing that so many so-called smart people here don't seem to understand that.
How do you feel about De León remaining on the LA City Council?
So you're up for getting fired when the fashionable morality shifts yet again, and you make an offhand comment that would have been acceptable 10 years ago and someone gets in a twist about it?
You can't realistically expect people to think through every single thing they say in detail before they say it. Humans do not work that way. The level of self-policing that you apparently expect from people is inhuman and unrealistic.
Its was a nice quick take on the movie line, but his problem is "fondle big breasted women" when part of a response of what YOUR JOB is, in 2022 is over the line.
What makes it close is you could walk it back in the context of it being an exact quote from a movie, which makes it, in a way, more than just "a joke," -- you could argue its not even your joke.
In the movie, Arthur didn't have a job, which is part of what made it funny.
In the context of a public company, one of the top executives arguably bragging that all he does other than the fondling is "play golf" and that's his job isn't the greatest either. Considering Musk is being sued for not spending enough time at Tesla and its not even due to golf or fondling but other companies.
People expect highly paid public company executives to work, at least.
People don't necessarily expect executives to work. Some 40 years ago, I read an article - recommended to me by a biz school grad student - about an executive who spent all his time playing golf, but who was highly valued in his company because his was the best-performing division in the firm. So what was his secret? The article didn't really say, but it suggested that he told his subordinates "Work out all your problems yourselves, don't bring them to me," and that this was responsible for the great performance.
Then there are occupations such as law where bringing in business is largely unrelated to being a good lawyer, and far more valuable to the firm. I had an instructor years ago who had been a paralegal at a downtown firm. She was assigned to one of the senior partners, who was from the right family but a total moron. Her job was to keep an eye on the guy whenever he tried to do actual lawyer stuff, and report to the competent partners as needed.
Even without the quote he seems like a super gross, rich man, d-bag.
There is more to this story. If they were happy with him he would have been punished. They weren't happy and are fine with losing him even in a state where non-competes are illegal. And no you don't get severance when you are fired for cause. He I'm sure was offered a generous severance if he resigned.
Seems like the story is why was this idiot allowed to get so rich for so long, not why was he finally ejected.
This is not the exact sort of dumb thing I'd say but I know I'm not perfect and never have been. If all of my off hand utterances were to be filmed and promulgated across the internet, I'm sure someone would find something to be outraged by. It's a wonder to me that all reasonable people can't see the same thing about themselves. But I guess that's how scapegoating works.
Is this executive a good guy? A great executive? I have no clue. Should companies fire people over something like this? I'm gonna say no.
Probably not just over "ill considered joke." For a senior executive, the man showed pretty poor judgment. That, and the fact that Apple wasn't eager to defend him or just ignore the incident, suggests there is more to the story than a joke in bad taste.
Cancel culture at its worst. We've just gotten way too unforgiving these days. People make mistakes, they should be allowed to apologize and move on. Judge not, lest ye be judged.
Brings to mind the old saying: “While f**k you if you can’t take a joke”.
So, one is always on the job?
"He said he didn’t receive severance upon his departure."
This guy had a contract with Apple. No doubt if he was fired "at will" he would have received a generous severance payment. It sounds like the contract he signed allowed him to be fired without a severance under specific circumstances, which presumably included publicly "embarrassing" Apple.
I conclude that Apple wanted to fire him, didn't want to pay his severance, and seized upon the first opportunity to do so, but they also didn't want to look vindictive and thus planned a "farewell" party to show the other employees that there were no hard feelings.
Also, if you are making millions a year in an executive position at Apple, and you have signed a contract saying that if you say or post something dumb online you can be fired without severance pay, maybe you would be smart not to say or post something dumb.
It's absolutely insane that they fired him over this one joke. of course, in situations like this I wonder if there were other reasons they were looking for an excuse to fire him, but even if that's the case, giving the perception that they would fire a valued member of the company over one dumb joke is also bad.
I think most "cancel culture" bugaboos are overblown, but this kind of thing gives progressives a bad name.
I think you should re-read that quote with a nuanced perspective. One ever starts off a defense by saying "some of his former employees" and finishes it with a claim that they "hadn't witnessed" offensive behavior. Put together, WSJ told us, "some of his former employees hadn't witnessed" offensive behavior.
Think about that.
*never, not ever
What he did was remarkably unremarkably. Depending on the contract and other factors (e.g., personal affiliations), I think he should consider suing Apple for putting him in a bad light. I mean even here a lot people assume something more must be going on (and may well be).
Assuming he's as filthy rich as could be assumed, who cares? Apple's just about over anyway. And who is this guy anyway to anyone? What does it matter if he meant what he said whatever it meant? Whoever he is. More blather into the puddle. I suppose he has friends that might ... well hard to imagine he's got friends that would care either way more-or-less than anyone else.
Generally, senior executives need to be under more scrutiny, and fired more often than they are generally. I've never liked Apple, so I'm biased, but this looks like progress for them.
Seems like an overreaction to me but I agree this guy would have made Apple a target for sexual harrassment claims. Better to get rid of him. No one is irreplaceable. And a guy like him will probably fail upward anyway. I'm sure Samsung will snap him up, or maybe he'll go on the anti-woke grifter circuit.
And a guy like him will probably fail upward anyway. I'm sure Samsung will snap him up...
In 2022? Seems unlikely.
For myself, I'd say it was worth a slap on the wrist and an apology, not a dismissal after 22 years with the company.
Agreed.
Maybe Blevins should have known better no matter where he happened to be.
Obviously he should have known better. He'd still be employed were that the case.
I don't necessarily have an answer, but I do have another question:
When you hear the sentence "I fondle women", do you infer a lack of consent from the women?
I understand at an intellectual level that the word "fondle" doesn't strictly imply that. But I'm also 40 years old and I don't know that I've ever heard someone use the word "fondle" in a scenario where consent was given.
I'm curious if there's a disconnect here
Yes, in the 2020s we prefer a different eff word.
Maybe the guy has become a bit senile? The social filter can weaken. Stuff someone thought but never said gets said. My mother at age 80 said the man down the hall needed "a good swift kick between the legs." This was so out of character for my mother that the rest of the family concluded she might be losing it. This turned out to be accurate.
We libz are justifiably gratified and amused by the way their Great God Trump is tearing down a once-great political party (well, maybe in the mid-1800s...), we continue to eat our own on the altar of Too Much Sensitivity (but only towards The Right People).
On the other hand, Mr Blevins is a highly paid (overpaid?) top exec and being fired will not hurt him in any way, compensation package or no. (But wait until he's had his days in court...)
And on the gripping hand, he managed to misquote in a way that made it sound even worse in 2022: instead of "I fondle women", he said "I fondle BIG-BREASTED women." Egregiously nasty. Had he been quicker witted and mangled the quote into "I fondle CONSENTING women", maybe he could have kept the corner office.
And, like I said, he's one of the top fat cats. Don't cry for him.
Consenting makes it a lead balloon.
At least phrase it as "I fondle any woman who'll let me."
Okay, I like that one, too.
There has to be something else because TikTok videos of you being stupid would something that would reduce the workforce faster than the COVID shutdown did.
sure seems like a fireable offense. the guy chose to broadcast this specific message to the world. he could have said anything.
of course he was fired.
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