So what do you think?

[Anonymous]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6682827.stm

[Gone_Away]

Fire his A$$.
 
If there's a written company policy and he deliberatly breaks it he should be fired. Perhaps give the guy a warning but then that's it.. Show him the door.

[Coaxafkone]

Quite sad that really. As most major companies offer support services to their  staff who are under alot of stress. Surely IBM have a HR department too? I sympathise with this guy, if what he says is true; then really he should have been put into some sort of treatment program, rather than just getting the "axe".

However, bit of an odd obsession to have after such a terrible experience as Vnam? I suppose there could/would be worse things to worry about him being obsessed with; i.e. murder?

Edit:

The stated reason was that he visited an internet chat site for a sexual experience after he had previously been warned.

Ok fair enough he had been warned before. But even then, how will this help matters if he is fired. Won't that just ruin his life even further? Who knows what that would lead him to do? Whats worse; (a) Discipline him, however give him treatment. (b) fire him and leave him to do other things a.k.a if he's obsessed with sex, then who knows if he's going rape or kill young teens/children?!

Clearly this man needs help.

[suicidal_monkey]

If the internet usage:
a) was frequent, effectively meaing he was spending a lot of time not working.
b) was visiting sites that fell outside the company's internet usage policies.
c) continued after he had been warned previously.

Then I don't see how the company acted in the wrong. Unless he brought up this addiction and had some sort of backing up from some sort of doctor when he was warned about the use I reckon he's been legitimately fired. They could perhaps have suspended him initially and advised him to seek help. The US legal system makes it very easy to bring ridiculous lawsuits against just about anyone for just about anything in the hope they will settle out of court to avoid the time/effort/money that will inevitably be spent fighting. Something bad happened, it needs to be someone's fault, compensate me damnit.

[delanvital]

Interesting that he claims to use it as self-medication AFTER being fired and having consulted a lawyer. If he had said so prior to being fired and used the lawsuit to emphasize it then ok... but...

[Nefertem]

Interesting that he claims to use it as self-medication AFTER being fired and having consulted a lawyer. If he had said so prior to being fired and used the lawsuit to emphasize it then ok... but...

:withstupid:

Whats worse; (a) Discipline him, however give him treatment. (b) fire him and leave him to do other things a.k.a if he's obsessed with sex, then who knows if he's going rape or kill young teens/children?!

Going around raping and killing people is a bad thing alright, but if he starts doing that I think it would've started wether he was fired or not..

And as S_M said, he had already received one warning, so he could've brought it up there to receive the help he needs, instead of waiting till after he got fired..
The fact that he visited those sites during work hours, doesn't mean the company knows about his trauma and its 'Self-medication'.. If he haven't told them, he might just aswell have been another pervert to them..

The article doesn't actually mention wether or not he told them, but by the looks of it, he didn't.. If he did, well then I guess he's right in suing them..

 I do however find it rather difficult to believe that spending his day on adult internet chatrooms, will help him after what happend in Vietnam, but I suppose people deal with problems in different ways..

[Gone_Away]

.. If he haven't told them, he might just aswell have been another pervert to them..

 
Who said the guy's a pervert?? don't see how you draw that conclusion tbh.

[Nefertem]

Who said the guy's a pervert?? don't see how you draw that conclusion tbh.

Well yea might be a strong word in this connection, but to me a 'sex addict' and a pervert aint that far from each other..

EDIT: I didn't actually call him a pervert.. at least thats not what I meant.. I said that the if the company didn't know that he used it for that self-medication stuff, they might think he was one..

[noevra]

kinde are...
a pervert is in my mind someone that looks under scurts ore somting...
 
a sexaddict is just some one that is in need of a lot of sex...