Worth getting fired over?

Best Buy will apparently be looking for someone new to join Twelpforce. Employee and aspiring graphic designer Brian Maupin—as much as the current spate of online drag and drop tools makes someone a *designer*— got his ass in trouble over a video and follow-up he made disparaging the iPhone 4 when compared to HTC’S EVO 4G. He put some videos up on his YouTube channel under a made-up name of tinywatchproductions.

Best Buy corporate got wind and fired him for disparaging those brands (and in previous videos he made). While you can argue if that’s the case or not all day, the main point becomes at what point does someone stop being an employee and start their private lives and thus are able to do whatever the hell they want?

Was he posting this stuff during work hours? Checking his views constantly from the floor while ignoring customers? (What’s missing from the story is whether Best Buy gave him a chance to take the vids down first, chalking it up to an innocent prank. They explain nice-nice privately, he agrees, and we’re not having this discussion.)

I’m guessing that sit-down never happened though because they plan on firing him. Unless some intrepid fan wants to start a Save Brian Twitter campaign. Which, they might given the majority of the comments support the dude. Probably less out of love for the big box and more out of love for someone taking on iGod’s latest creation, something that’s not hard to tap into. He should’ve known more brands trace not just what’s being said by consumers, but their own employees. He knows now. His biggest mistake here? Best Buy was running Twelpforce from Crispin for crying out loud, they of all brands know how to search for terms relative to their stores.

Much as I feel bad for him, the vids do go heavy on the language. Lesson one for future satirists: Less swearing, more clever. Lesson two for any employee wanting to bitch online: You better be far more removed from your *whatever* page in terms of identity than Brian was.