...at least that's what one US arbitrator has decided

A journalist who was fired when his bosses found out he was a part-time stand-up comic must be given his job back, arbitrators have ruled. 

Jad Sleiman was fired from his job as a reporter on Philadelphia radio station WHYY when his employer found clips of his comedy online.

However the local unemployment office has now told the broadcaster needs to reinstate him – because his jokes are funny. 

WHYY fired Sleiman because they said his material – with ‘sexual connotations, racial connotations, and misogynistic information’ – breached their social media policy about ‘inflammatory, unethical or illegal’ posts that would reflect badly on the company.

However the arbitrator ruled that a reasonable person would  have accepted the comic or satirical intention of Sleiman’s material,  which covered the likes of racism, Israel  and oral sex. They said one joke was ‘simply funny’ – though the feedback on other gags was more lukewarm, describing them as ‘somewhat amusing’ and even ‘not very funny’. 

The Arab-American comic said his victory was an important one in the context of separating work from other activities.

However, the arbitrator did say that Sleiman should remove all inflammatory or offensive social media posts as a condition of any future employment.

He told Vice: ‘We’re always online, on Slack, so when are we off the clock? Couple that with ever widening definitions of racist, sexist, whatever and you have an atmosphere where you’re always at work, which is a place you can say less and less.’

WHYY  told Philadelphia Magazine  they were considering their position.

Published: 6 Jan 2024