Because Coke’s My Coke Rewards was performing dismally, some employees – all of whom were expressly forbidden at the outset – were asked to participate in the brand’s My Coke rewards online promotions. Seemingly to boost activity on the site, the request seems to have backfired for employees who exceeded a pre-set limit of 2,000 points.
When one employee, Frank Grant, who did what he was told and participated in the program noticed he had accumulated more than 2,000 points and was made aware of the 2,000 point limit – likely buried deep within the fine print, he offered to return the merchandise he acquired from his points. Sounds fair enough, right? Wrong. Rather than rectify the situation in a normal fashion, Coke told Grant to resign or face getting fired. According to the Vellejo Times, many other employees faced the same situation.
Coke tossed the whole thing off with uncaring corporate indifference saying, “The company has policies and procedures and a clear business code of conduct, and any employee who violates these, we’ll take the appropriate action, up to and including termination, if necessary. Coca-Cola has always and continues to treat our employees with fairness, dignity and respect. Our people are the core of our business and remembering that is a top priority of this company.”
You can’t ask employees to help you out and then fire them. That’s just wrong. And stupid. And uncaring. And idiotic. Some things never change.
