Used Company Stationery : Clerk Claims Anti-Smoking Stand Led to Firing

A clerk with a dislike for cigarette smoke said Friday he was fired for writing a letter on his company’s letterhead in support of a proposed nonsmoking ordinance in Anaheim.

Tom Tarbell, 29, a clerk in the personnel department of Kwikset Powdered Metal Products, said he was fired Thursday morning after writing a letter to the Anaheim City Council, which is scheduled to vote on the proposed law on Tuesday.

Tarbell said personnel director Pat Patterson fired him because he wrote the letter on company stationery. Patterson, a longtime member of the Chamber of Commerce, has publicly spoken before the council against the proposed ordinance, which would regulate smoking in both public places and the private workplace.

But Tarbell, who has worked for the company 10 months, said he doesn’t believe that his use of the company letterhead was the true reason Patterson called him into his office Thursday morning and fired him.

‘Wrong Side of Issue’

“I don’t buy that all. If that was the real issue, they would have called me in, sat me down, and said: ‘Listen, young man, you made a mistake, and we’re going to take some disciplinary action,” Tarbell said.

“I think the real reason is because I took the wrong side of the issue on smoking,” Tarbell said, adding that his job evaluations have been “outstanding,” and Patterson gave him no other reason for the firing.

Patterson declined Friday to discuss Tarbell or his dismissal. Without acknowledging Tarbell’s letter, Patterson said: “We’re here to protect the company assets and not to use them for our own use.”

In reference to the proposed smoking ordinance, Patterson said: “I don’t think we need any more governmental interference.”

Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood, a staunch supporter of the smoking ordinance, said Friday night that she was “shocked” to hear of Tarbell’s firing.

Remembered Letter

“What? Oh, for heaven’s sake. So much for voluntary programs,” Kaywood said. “Is that their policy? To fire an employee for writing one letter on company stationery? Or only if it’s anti-smoking?”

Kaywood said she remembered reading the Feb. 26 letter. She said she knew that it was from an employee and not the company, especially since the writer spoke about problems with another employee who smokes. At a recent council meeting, Kaywood pointed out that two employees (one from Kwikset and one from Rockwell International Corp.) wrote to support the ordinance, while both their companies oppose the proposal.

“I find it shocking. When a company says they have no problems, and an employee says he has a problem and then he gets fired, I’d say that’s a major problem,” Kaywood said.

Tarbell said he mailed a second letter, on plain stationery, to Mayor Pro Tem Irv Pickler on Wednesday--one day before his firing--thanking him for his stand on the proposed smoking ordinance and stating: “I have been hesitant to be too bold on this issue for fear of reprisal from certain smoking superiors. I like my job, and I will like it even better without the harassment of constant smoke.”