One former employee of Universal Music Group learned that sometimes being woke has consequences, a lesson it appears he is none too happy about.
Michael Lopez was fired from the company after bragging that he was refusing to do his job because he was too busy “mourning” the loss of Roe v Wade. In a note on LinkedIn, he described his attempt to virtue signal his personal political views in the workplace only to be met with the might of HR.
“I’m a queer brown person and I was fired during Pride month for speaking up in defense of abortion rights at Universal Music Enterprises (a subsidiary of Universal Music Group),” he started his post.
“Last Friday, like countless other folks, I was devastated by the news of the supreme court’s attack on abortion rights,” he whined. “Paired with the flood of anti-queer and anti-trans legislation, it’s been hard to process how company’s [sic] expect us to be productive while our rights are being stripped away. Especially when our company has been donating to several of these politicians.”
He goes on to explain his job, and how he sent an email to 275 people detailing how he refused to do his job because he was caught up in his feelings about politics. He freely admitted that he didn’t know who was on the email list and who might see his screed, but that it was all the power he had at his job so he used it for his own purposes.
“Every Friday, one of my tasks was to process reports for upcoming releases. This is an email list that goes out to 275 people. I don’t know who’s on it, I just knew it was the email list with the most people I had access to.”
He sent the following message:
“I didn’t do them today. I’m in mourning due to the attack on people with uteruses in the US. Federally guaranteed access to abortion is gone. Vivendi and Universal Music Group must stop donating to anti-abortion, anti-queer and anti-trans politicians. Politicians like Marsha Blackburn, Ken Buck, Victoria Spartz, etc. Or expect more unproductive days. Yours in fury, Michael Lopez.”
Perhaps Lopez genuinely thought that his “fury” was scary enough to prevent his bosses from acknowledging the fact that he didn’t do his job, and then bragged about it to 275 other people. And then threatened to do it again if they didn’t give in to his political demands.
But that’s not what happened.
The second half of his post detailed the consequences of his actions.
“The immediate aftermath was several supportive emails from other co-workers and a manager calling to tell me to take the rest of the day off,” he revealed. “I appreciate the love from my coworkers, and I figured, based on management’s response, there was a good possibility I might be fired as a result. But I was proud of letting allies know that our company has been donating to these politicians.”
Getting fired for virtue-signaling on company time? Who could have seen that coming?
“Around 9:30-ish today, I got a surprise Zoom video chat with HR. I was being let go for (paraphrasing) ‘Not doing your job, disrupting the day of 275 people and poor judgement.’ I was told to log out and that a courier would be there to pick up my laptop from my apartment within the hour.”
But instead of acknowledging what he had done was maybe not the most professional thing, Lopez doubled down and sent yet another email to the same list, explaining that he had just gotten fired for abusing said list, and whipped out the race card for good measure.
“Hey y’all. Just got fired for this email from Friday, so they’re letting you know where they stand on employees speaking out on politicians that support marginalization for folks like me,” he wrote. “A brown queer person terminated during Pride month speaking out in support of abortion rights. Seems like that’s exactly what America is all about right now. Peace out, Michael Lopez.”
He closed out his post by saying his firing is indicative of where the company stands, instead of a punishment for not doing what he is being paid to do and using company resources to push his own personal political agenda.
“I don’t speak for my former company. I speak for myself and employees that will suffer under these discriminatory laws. Their actions today, their silence on Friday are indicative of their motivations,” Lopez accused. “Profit at all costs. Solidarity, only if it’s profitable. And above all of that is maintaining the status quo and saying f**k you to the working class. Because that’s what happened today.”
Social media users were less than sympathetic to Lopez’s plight:
This whole thing where people do something wrong, then jump on identity to claim victim status…we need less of that. It trivializes true cases of bias.
— Chris Ferguson 🐉 (@CJFerguson1111) July 5, 2022
Bye Felicia 👋
— FRVDG01 (@RVDG01) July 5, 2022
— Vic DeGrammont (@votedegrammont) July 5, 2022
that it’s not parody is an achievement in itself
— Jonathon Snyder (@JonathonSnyder) July 5, 2022
— robmillertime (@robmillertime) July 5, 2022
Well he can mourn that the states are getting their rights back, all he wants now
— Mike Suchman [the Ole Sarge] (@SgtDad) July 5, 2022
That’ll look great on the résumé
— PhilDvnpt (@PhilDvnpt) July 5, 2022
Company’s positing their wins.
— david b. white (@dBWengineering) July 5, 2022
I can hear this guy pouting thru my phone. 🙄
— Mike Towers (@miketowerstweet) July 5, 2022
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
BPR INSIDER COMMENTS
Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!