Jeri, my wife's aunt who recently lost her job at ACS in North Bend, Oregon after receiving a Halloween gift the day before which included a miniature "body bag" with an official North Bend Coroner's Office toe-tag, wishes to clarify, and defuse, the situation with the following statement:
Regarding the incident at ACS North Bend, OR I would like to clarify a few things.
First of all no one needs to be fired or have their job in jeopardy due to what started as a Halloween joke. No, I do not feel it was in good taste to give anyone a toe tag but that is what makes the world different. If we all thought the same it would be a boring world. What seems funny to some does not seem funny to others.
The supervisor who made the toe tags and body bag thought it was a fun thing to do and so did a lot of others and that person put a lot of effort into this. Myself and others who have had to deal with the death of close friends and family members every year and sometimes multiple times in one year would not have entertained the idea of that as a joke.
The supervisor that made those did not know nor did anyone else at ACS but myself know that I would lose my friend that day (I spoke to my friend the night before and knew she would not make it). I still think it was in poor taste but that person does not deserve to lose their job over it nor was that the intention. ACS corporate received my contact information from my nephew, and I would have clarified that with them, but they never tried to contact me regarding this. I am also forwarding this to the investigating person in charge. I feel the employees involved are being punished wrongly.
I was crying and stressed at the loss of my friend, one more loss. After having lost serveral family members and friends lately I did not think this funny when on the phone with my neice. Two teams received them as a joke . I did not clarify to my niece and nephew the exact circumstances. That is my fault. I will have them forward this email to the web.
When It was handed to me saying cause of death average handle time I did say "does this mean I am getting fired".
The next day my immediate supervisor told me she did not know I was going to be fired for not meeting criteria in one area ,however , I think we all knew from the warnings that it was inevitable. I could not meet the criteria set forth by the company as with a lot of others.
It was a poor set of circumstances and my nephew and neice are at no fault either. I do apologize for anyone having their job in jeopardy and over a Halloween joke at that. Regardless of the things that took place, my friends death and my being fired, no one needs to lose their job, they are both good employees.