A car salesman was fired for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie to work in suburban Chicago a day after the Packers ousted the Chicago Bears from the NFL playoffs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Tuesday.
John Stone told the newspaper that he wore the tie with the Packers logos to work in Oak Lawn at Webb Chevrolet in tribute to his late grandmother, a Packers fan, but was told by his boss, Jerry Roberts, to remove the tie.
Roberts, fearing unhappiness from customers who were likely to be fans of the Bears and not their Super Bowl-bound arch-rivals, told the Sun-Times he offered Stone five chances to remove the tie, but he refused and was fired.
“If he loves the tie more than his job, he’s welcome to keep wearing it — elsewhere,” Roberts told the newspaper.
Stone, who said he has already been hired by another Chevrolet dealership, says the conversation was much shorter.
“He said: ‘You have two options — remove the tie or you are fired.’ When I didn’t, he said: ‘You can leave, you’re fired.’ Does that sound fair to you?” Stone asked.
Roberts said Stone sold 14 cars last month and that no customers had complained about the tie, but Roberts told television station WLS that he did not want to wait until there were complaints before taking action.
“I was just showing my love for my team,” Stone said. “None of the customers minded. They had a sense of humor about it.”
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