Employees Behaving Badly Part II

In September, I asked the question about how responsible are employers for the actions of their employees, especially in their private lives?

I mentioned the power of phones and how important it is to speak and write like everybody is listening and reading.

With this in mind, what on earth was English Premier League referee David Coote thinking when he allowed himself to be filmed expressing his thoughts about Liverpool?!

He has been suspended, but it’s highly doubtful that Coote will referee ever again.?He made his position untenable.

People have biases - they wouldn't be human if they don't.

When we're watching sport, it only works if we believe that all is true and fair and any outcome is possible. If it’s revealed that this isn’t the case, it will all implode.?

We maintain this charade even though we know it's susceptible to not being true and fair.

From Tim Donaghy in the NBA to the 1980 Italian Football scandal there are countless examples from all over the world in every kind of sport where the results have been fixed. Then on top of this, throw in instances like Barcelona casually paying referees or NBA player Jontay Porter manipulating his own stats in order to satsify a bet. ?

We just try to ignore this otherwise what's the point of it all?

And this is why every sporting body in the world does whatever they can to sweep any allegations of biased officiating or match fixing under the carpet. People in Seattle are still upset about Super Bowl XL. When everyone in the world could see something was fishy, the NFL still came out and tried to stick everyone's head in the sand giving it a tick of approval and saying nothing to see here, even though the official in question admitted that mistakes were made!??

If you’re a referee or umpire you’re going to have interactions with the players and you’re going to develop relationships with these players. In turn, you’re going to like some of them, while others are going to annoy you.?

But just like if you’re a judge, a juror or anyone who changes people's lives because of judgement you make and decisions you cast, you have to leave your personal preferences at the door and be able to rule in favor of someone even if you don’t like them and vice versa.?

Because of the significance of these decisions, people are willing to pay good money to get them in their favor.

That Coote was dumb enough to be recorded expressing his personal thoughts on one team, we doubt that he could referee said team without these personal feelings influencing his decision making. Sure enough, people are going through his history with Liverpool and the decisions he made against them don’t look so good now.?

The moral of the story is never ever record something that can come back to bite you. You can’t trust anyone. As tennis commentator Jon Wertheim just demonstrated, people can barely trust themselves.

Without trust you have nothing. Just ask Wikipedia.

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