Best Buy Trying To Lower The Hammer Over Video

Best Buy corporate – lighten up !!

From a report, originally posted on TechCrunch this afternoon, it appears that the corporate brass at Best Buy is all up in arms about the viral video depicting the iPhone vs. the HTC  EVO (I wrote about it earlier this week here).

Why is Best Buy trippin'? Because apparently the creator of the video, Brian Maupin is a 25-year old, Kansas City, Missouri employee of the company.

Best Buy has suspended Brian indefinitely so he's technically still an employee today, but corporate is taking steps to officially terminate him over the video. That really sucks.

According to the TechCrunch report, Maupin says he was asked to quit, which he declined to do, and so they suspended him telling him that he would most likely be terminated after they review the situation with HR. He expects the decision in the next day or two. “I issued a statement to them explaining that the video was intended to be comedic and hence, not taken seriously by them or all these stockholders and customers they are worried about [being] turned off to buying from them due to the video,” Maupin says in his defense.

Regardless of if he keeps his job or not (which he doesn’t expect to), Maupin is optimistic. “I see it all as a blessing in disguise. I’ve wanted to start my career in graphic design/animation for so long, I see this as my kick in the pants to go get it,” he says.

What do you think? Obviously, Best Buy as a corporate entity has the right to hire and fire employees at will. But do you think that this is warranted?

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