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Ash Wednesday Slur Costs Hotel Manager His Job

sazerac

sazerac

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Ash Wednesday Slur Costs Hotel Manager His Job

March 26, 2009

A New York City hotel executive was fired for making a curse-laden demand to a Catholic employee to remove ashes from his forehead on Ash Wednesday, reports the New York Daily News. The slur was considered such a serious infraction that Niklaus Leuenberger, the managing director for the New York Palace Hotel, was removed from the job personally by the head of the London-based corporation that owns the hotel.

"We take the well-being of our employees extremely seriously and that is why our CEO, Mr. Cowdray, went to New York in person to deal with this matter," the company said in a statement. Leuenberger was a 45-year veteran in the luxury-hotel business.

On Ash Wednesday, Catholics receive a cross of ashes on their forehead from their priest to commemorate their own mortality. Mike Murray, bell captain of the hotel and an observant
Catholic, said that his priest had liberally applied the ashes that day to his forehead.
Click to expand...

amd_checkout.jpg


"Get that fu...ing sh.. off your face!"

He couldn't have been ignorant of this custom, could he? In downtown Manhattan? If you see someone with a dark smudge on their forehead you assume it must be Ash Wednesday! Good riddance to him! I bet his employees are rejoicing.

Did any of you Catholics ever cheat when you were a teen and put cigarette ashes on each others foreheads? Or am I the only one going straight to hell? ;)

The bellman, Murray, says he has no plans to sue.
 
I always take stories like this with a grain of salt. While there's no doubt there's some truth to it, there's also no doubt much more going on here than meets the eye.

For those who've ever fired an employee, or witnessed a firing in a large organization, especially when that firing is of a top executive... you know that there is generally a history of problematic behavior. And I'd bet that's the case here.

;)
 
Even if it is, the lack of judgement exhibited by the manager in question makes the result not only inevitable but quite called for.
 
sazerac said:
Ash Wednesday Slur Costs Hotel Manager His Job

March 26, 2009



amd_checkout.jpg


"Get that fu...ing sh.. off your face!"

He couldn't have been ignorant of this custom, could he? In downtown Manhattan? If you see someone with a dark smudge on their forehead you assume it must be Ash Wednesday! Good riddance to him! I bet his employees are rejoicing.

Did any of you Catholics ever cheat when you were a teen and put cigarette ashes on each others foreheads? Or am I the only one going straight to hell? ;)

The bellman, Murray, says he has no plans to sue.
Click to expand...

Good riddance to bigots.
 
Are the employees usually allowed to have something on their faces like that?

If I worked there and went in with mud on my face, would it be acceptable?

If not, then the only possible thing wrong was the language that was apparently used.
 
MrFungus420 said:
Are the employees usually allowed to have something on their faces like that?

If I worked there and went in with mud on my face, would it be acceptable?

If not, then the only possible thing wrong was the language that was apparently used.
Click to expand...

It is NOT mud, and if workers are allowed to wear make-up or religious symbols, then why not?
 
MrFungus420 said:
Are the employees usually allowed to have something on their faces like that?

If I worked there and went in with mud on my face, would it be acceptable?

If not, then the only possible thing wrong was the language that was apparently used.
Click to expand...
Millions and millions of American workers have ashes on their forehead one day a year. How a grown man could be so ignorant is startling. No, you can't go to work looking however you want but on Ash Wednesday it is expected that Catholics will have ash on there forehead put there by a priest. And every single guest at that hotel knows that. And you don't tell people to wipe it off unless you are a mindless idiot.

Maybe New York needs to have a big Mardi Gras parade to remind people of Ash Wednesday and Lent and Easter.
 
I'm not Catholic. Until a few years ago, I had no idea what was on people's foreheads on Ash Wednesday. Until I read this thread, I had no idea what Ash Wednesday represented. I am not, in any way condoning what the manager said...it would have been far more appropriate to have asked, courteously. However, no one need assume that everyone knows about another's religious practices.
 
MrFungus420 said:
Are the employees usually allowed to have something on their faces like that?

If I worked there and went in with mud on my face, would it be acceptable?

If not, then the only possible thing wrong was the language that was apparently used.
Click to expand...

I'm willing to bet that if he told an employee to "get that ****ing yarmulke off your head" he'd have been fired too.
 
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