Dooced over Dilbert?

A Fort Madison man who posted a “Dilbert” comic strip on an office bulletin board has lost his job for implying his bosses were a bunch of “drunken lemurs.”

Of course, it’s not quite as clear-cut as “man posts cute cartoon, gets fired for it.” I’m not sure the casino was justified in firing him, but I also don’t think I would post any of the cartoons I’ve saved to a shared office bulletin board — much less a cartoon like this, which is clearly critical of management. Steward posted the cartoon “shortly after company officials announced that the casino would be closing and 170 workers could be laid off,” and it’s not hard to see his doing so as a direct response to that.

Ask yourself this: if Steward had, in conversation, called management “drunken lemurs,” or if he had posted an anonymous opinion to the company bulletin board to the same effect — essentially if the whole cartoon was taken out of the equation — would management be justified in firing him? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it definitely seems like they had cause to be upset with him. It seems like it goes beyond cutting out a Dilbert cartoon, taping it to the wall, and getting fired because somebody objected.