Sometimes, people ask me why I have an alias, and my first answer is that I want to be able to speak my mind without becoming a victim of the secular leftist. What might they do to me? Well, aside from the obvious – threats, vandalism, violence, theft, murder – they might also like to go to my employer and ask to have me fired. And that that actually happens a lot in America.
Here’s an example of it, reported by Newsweek:
California woman says she lost her real estate job after speaking out against a new sex education curriculum at a school board meeting.
Janet Roberson, a mother of three, said she had spoken out at a meeting of the Benicia Unified School District’s board on April 20 to express her concerns about the program of study.
Her employer is Compass, a real estate broker:
Roberson said that after she spoke at the meeting in April, critics launched a campaign to get her fired from real estate broker Compass, according to a video posted on her website.
[…]Roberson said the treasurer of the Progressive Democrats of Benicia also contacted Compass and gave a May 1 deadline for answers to questions about Roberson’s conduct.
“Sure enough, like clockwork, Compass informed me that I could no longer be associated with them by her deadline date,” she said in her video.
“How can it be that in America, a mom who speaks at a school board meeting can be targeted and canceled, losing her livelihood?”
It appears to me as though Compass made their decision based on her personal, political or social beliefs. That’s not a company for Christians and conservatives to do business with.
The Benicia Unified School District doesn’t seem to be open to engaging in dialogue with parents about their programs. They don’t seem to want to offer a platform to parents to speak about the school curriculum. They seem to want to refuse to hear and consider all voices when making decisions about what to teach.
It’s important for Christians to understand that it’s not optional for us to speak our minds, and try to influence people around us. I know so many Christians who consider it a virtue to keep their mouths shut. The trick is to make a difference without letting the intolerant, bigoted fascists of the secular left come after you. Never tell them your real name, where you live, or where you work. Don’t let yourself be photographed. Don’t put photographs of yourself on the Internet. It’s really important to oppose the secular left in a disciplined way.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
While I agree with you that the choice not to hold this woman’s license was due to her public stance, it was because her team leader saw it as negatively effecting the team’s business. Compass as a national real estate company has absolutely zero ability to choose whether or not to hold her state real estate license. Assessing responsibility here starts with the team leader/rainmaker. This person has invested time, money, energy, relationships, into building their business using a team model. The team leader should have the ability to make decisions about who they choose to do go into business with, and to not to do business with someone who causes harm to the members of the team.
You could argue that the broker could be given some responsibility as well, but again if we’re going to argue for the freedom to choose who to do business with, it seems strange to pick and choose.
Finally, from what the story tells us, this agent hasn’t lost her license or her ability to buy and sell real estate. She is free to associate with any other broker in her area, or she is free to get her broker’s license and start her own independent brokerage.
While it’s clear that the team leader/rainmaker did act because of the actions of the agent, to claim that she was fired or lost her livelihood is simply not accurate.
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Craig, is your alias Legion? Because my church is full of folks like you who are missing the forest by your examination of the trees. I heard the exact same argument from elders about masks, vaxs, global warming, and CRT.
I am sure you think you sharpened WK by saying he wasn’t accurate and missed the basic facts of the story. You probably go further and think such corrections are necessary so the gospel is clearer to readers and so they don’t associate sloppy writing with a Christian site. Lastly, you would find it laughable to be called a lefty.
I admit this, your mindset is in control and has the power of the American church at this time. Good thing you approve of yourself.
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Dumb,
No, it’s not. I fail to see how my pointing out the obvious, that WK chose to inaccurately represent the Newsweek story, could possibly be seen as demonic.
Further, his mistake of assuming that a real estate agent is an employee of the national company (ReMax, EXP,Compass, etc), is a common one.
I’ve been following WK for quite a while, and almost always agree with what he says. Even in this instance I agree with his greater point. However, his inaccuracies seem to undermine the primary point of the post.
I’m confused as to how any of this relates to your anecdotal experiences with COVID, masks, vaxs, warming, and CRT. I’d argue that accurately reporting the facts on any of those topics should always be the goal, wouldn’t you?
I certainly appreciate your ability to make these generalizations about me, and to label me based on one comment, on one post of one blog, when I overwhelmingly agree with the author. But if you think that this is edifying, building up the Body of Christ, and moving the Kingdom of YHWH forward, then you do you.
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I thought it more likely you were a WK follower than a troll and you meant well with your comments, as I would if he has an article touching on my experience.
Insert pregnant pause.
However, you say you got his main point but his inaccuracies undermine it, but by your own admission, it didn’t stop you from getting the main point.
I don’t agree the two issues were WK’s inaccuracies, but he didn’t disagree, so maybe you are right. I saw the two points originating in the woman’s quote, not from WK.
Lastly, you said you were confused how it relates to the things I brought up. I appreciate knowing that. You say it’s wrong of WK (I think you should say the woman) to say she lost her livelihood because she can still work in real estate in her area. Yes and no. Yes, she wasn’t banned from working anywhere, so a bit hyperbolic to use that word. But does your insider knowledge inform you that she won’t have a problem getting hired locally? Hopefully that’s the case. What about all of her contacts? Is that a major loss?
It relates to Vax because of a conversation I had in an elder’s kitchen with him and a deacon. I said it’s wrong to fire people and make a mandate and they said, “why? They can get another job?”
The other issue (not related to Vax, etc) was that you said it was inaccurate to say Compass fired her, but that her team leader did. Is that based on knowledge of Compass? I remember reading that Berkshire instituted some woke policies last year maybe, either about Covid or transgender stuff, so I can think it’s okay to pin it on a company. I do think they’ll want plausible deniability from anything that could cause them legal costs though, so a soft persecution.
Then one thing I am unclear about something you said was that the team leader fired the woman because it might cost the team money. You didn’t say if you agree with the decision or whether you were trying to educate WK/readers. Is it one of those two?
That’s the nub of my anger with what you wrote -are you justifying the decision and not seeing it as part of as a persecution of your sister because of her faith in Jesus? I do see it that way, which is in line with what WK has often written about. Are you saying it’s better to have a private faith and cover our light under a bushel if it would lessen profits?
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“I don’t agree the two issues were WK’s inaccuracies, but he didn’t disagree, so maybe you are right. I saw the two points originating in the woman’s quote, not from WK.”
I’m not really paying attention, but yes, I disagree with Craig. The title of my blog post correctly states that the woman SAYS that she was fired. One thing for sure: she was working and now she is not.
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Well, as long as she “claimed” she was fired, then what else matters? Facts, accuracy, Truth, who cares about any of it.
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Dumb,
Let me start by saying that I almost always agree with WK, and regularly quote or link to his posts elsewhere. He usually does a great job of researching and providing excellent resources.
In this case, however, the Newsweek article he referenced clearly contradicts his headline.
Let me also point out that I was very clear in my comment that I agree that the what happened to the woman was a direct result of the public position she took.
Let me start by explaining how the real estate industry works in most states, including CA.
1. Agents are not employees. They are 1099/independent contractors in virtually all cases. Therefore they cannot be fired.
2. Compass (as a national company) did not have any role in what happened to the woman.
3. Local brokerages affiliate with national companies for the branding and other resources, but are not owned by the national company.
4. The woman’s license was held by the broker who was the local franchisee, although not her employer.
5. Further, the woman was on a team within her brokerage. Her Team leader/Rainmaker is the person who initiated the action against the woman. (Again, not her employer)
7. These affiliations are all very loose and voluntary, not employee/employer.
8. If a member of a team who is under performing, or is causing the team to lose business, the team leader has the absolute right to sever ties with that person.
9. In most cases the team member keeps their contacts, leads, and data, unless they agreed to a different arrangement when they started.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that there are dozens, if not hundreds of brokerages in CA that would welcome this woman with open arms. If not, it is incredibly easy and inexpensive to get a broker’s license and strike out on her own. In other words, she has plenty of opportunities to continue her career in CA, and even has the option to relocate if she wants.
To be clear, the Newsweek article that WK referenced was actually pretty clear about all of this. Part of my problem with WK’s piece is that it misrepresented things the article was pretty clear about.
I agree that the team leader has the right to shape their team however they want based on whatever criteria they want to use. I also agree that if a team member is causing the team/team leader to lose money that they absolutely have the right to sever their connection. I am not going to demand that people who might not share my beliefs be compelled to act as if they do. I don’t like the fact that the team leader did this, nor do I like the reason, but the team leader absolutely had the right to do so. In this case, I suspect that WK was unclear about how things work in the real estate industry and was hoping to shed some light. WK is obviously a highly educated, very intelligent, successful person but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to learn.
In closing I am “justifying” the action because it was not inappropriate, I am not denying that the action happened because of the woman’s beliefs. I find the reason for the action distasteful, while understanding that the action was not a problem. I further find the attempt to place the responsibility on Compass instead of the team leader and/or broker problematic.
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