A reporter’s stand-up got him fired — until his jokes were deemed funny
January 11, 2024 7:38 PM Subscribe
[Jad] Sleiman, 34, was working as a reporter at WHYY, a Philadelphia-based NPR member station, last January when he was fired because executives had seen clips of his stand-up, which he said they called “egregious” violations of the outlet’s policies. [Washington Post]
“When a news organization says you’re a racist, bigot, whatever, people believe them,” he said. “So it was a lot of abuse from a lot of people who have never met me, who’ve never seen my stand-up just saw what WHYY said about me, which is not great.” [ABC News]
Through SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents some WHYY employees, Sleiman filed a grievance with the American Arbitration Association. He made many of the same arguments that he presented to the unemployment office and stated that WHYY had terminated him without just cause. An arbitrator held hearings in August and October and accepted legal briefs from both sides on December 1st. And on December 29th, the arbitrator found in favor of Sleiman and ordered WHYY to give him his job back, with full seniority and back pay. [Philadelphia Magazine]
Of “Kind of Racist,” the arbitrator wrote that it was “a powerful condemnation, in a funny way, of what [Sleiman] calls corporatized racial consciousness.” About “Trump vs Muslims vs Jews,” he wrote that “much of the clip is somewhat amusing.” Another joke was “simply funny.” [VICE]
Jad Sleiman [Instagram]
“When a news organization says you’re a racist, bigot, whatever, people believe them,” he said. “So it was a lot of abuse from a lot of people who have never met me, who’ve never seen my stand-up just saw what WHYY said about me, which is not great.” [ABC News]
Through SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents some WHYY employees, Sleiman filed a grievance with the American Arbitration Association. He made many of the same arguments that he presented to the unemployment office and stated that WHYY had terminated him without just cause. An arbitrator held hearings in August and October and accepted legal briefs from both sides on December 1st. And on December 29th, the arbitrator found in favor of Sleiman and ordered WHYY to give him his job back, with full seniority and back pay. [Philadelphia Magazine]
Of “Kind of Racist,” the arbitrator wrote that it was “a powerful condemnation, in a funny way, of what [Sleiman] calls corporatized racial consciousness.” About “Trump vs Muslims vs Jews,” he wrote that “much of the clip is somewhat amusing.” Another joke was “simply funny.” [VICE]
Jad Sleiman [Instagram]
Almost sounds like that first manager was just pissed that Sleiman a) used adult language and b) got to work from home. Then some horrible game of telephone happened amongst the higher ups and the last person heard "sexist and racist"
posted by Baethan at 9:05 PM on January 11
posted by Baethan at 9:05 PM on January 11
I'm pretty sure a full day of work in an office is a very different beast than doing a bit on stage. Performing wasn't a new thing either, he's pretty experienced at it apparently. Comparing a whole ass job to doing (seemingly short) comedy routines doesn't seem reasonable.
(And it seemed like he was WFH? Not skiving off?)
posted by Baethan at 9:17 PM on January 11 [32 favorites]
(And it seemed like he was WFH? Not skiving off?)
posted by Baethan at 9:17 PM on January 11 [32 favorites]
So if someone is legitimately disabled enough to deserve wfh, why would their off-hours activity need to be seen as skiving off? Because it's in another physical location? So if someone does in-person youth consultant volunteer work in the evenings, is that just more moral?
posted by cendawanita at 9:23 PM on January 11 [27 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 9:23 PM on January 11 [27 favorites]
I firmly believe all employees should be WFH, abled or not. We're in a climate crisis, all corporations should act like it!
This reminds me of a case at APHRA I heard about (this is the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) where a doctor issued a 2 week (I think) medical leave of absence for an employee so he could take paid sick leave. It was a white collar office job.
Then the employer was watching the news and saw the employee win a golf tournament while supposedly too sick to come in to work. So he complained to the medical body, how could this be the case. They convened and basically said, well it was the doctor's judgement that the patient was too sick to work, but not too sick to win a golf tournament.
posted by xdvesper at 9:35 PM on January 11 [14 favorites]
This reminds me of a case at APHRA I heard about (this is the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) where a doctor issued a 2 week (I think) medical leave of absence for an employee so he could take paid sick leave. It was a white collar office job.
Then the employer was watching the news and saw the employee win a golf tournament while supposedly too sick to come in to work. So he complained to the medical body, how could this be the case. They convened and basically said, well it was the doctor's judgement that the patient was too sick to work, but not too sick to win a golf tournament.
posted by xdvesper at 9:35 PM on January 11 [14 favorites]
If they wanted to fire him, they should not have reached for offensive language as an excuse. If he wanted a comedy career, he should have not tried to claim disability at his day job.
They didn't want to fire him, they did fire him. You're saying management lied about their real reasons for firing him, but he's the one in the wrong. I don't follow.
It's not up to his employer to say what's good for his health or not. He has a health related issue, it's up to him and his doctors to decide what's healthy for him. This is completely fair to his coworkers.
posted by UN at 9:57 PM on January 11 [16 favorites]
They didn't want to fire him, they did fire him. You're saying management lied about their real reasons for firing him, but he's the one in the wrong. I don't follow.
It's not up to his employer to say what's good for his health or not. He has a health related issue, it's up to him and his doctors to decide what's healthy for him. This is completely fair to his coworkers.
posted by UN at 9:57 PM on January 11 [16 favorites]
We have to be super careful about potentially ableist comments.
Travelling to work and then working in an office for 8 hours may be very different from conducting a stand-up set in the evening. He may have better access to parking in the evening, and may not have to be seated uncomfortably for extended periods of time.
We just don't know the details.
posted by greenhornet at 1:35 AM on January 12 [27 favorites]
Travelling to work and then working in an office for 8 hours may be very different from conducting a stand-up set in the evening. He may have better access to parking in the evening, and may not have to be seated uncomfortably for extended periods of time.
We just don't know the details.
posted by greenhornet at 1:35 AM on January 12 [27 favorites]
I don't want to continue the weird derail, but for those wondering, Sleiman has multiple sclerosis. He used to to musical comedy, but switched to stand-up (which he sometimes does sitting down) because of how MS was affecting him. This happened at about the same time he started working from home. I honestly don't really see what his disability has to do with the story.
posted by Kattullus at 1:48 AM on January 12 [33 favorites]
posted by Kattullus at 1:48 AM on January 12 [33 favorites]
Many disabilities have ups and downs, good days and bad days, and can be exquisitely context sensitive. I can be talking and laughing with my friends on Discord perfectly normally, but then I have to go upstairs and it's a minor crisis. It's a simplistic "gotcha" that relies on stereotypes and assumptions to make a claim. When we picture "disability" and "accommodation," we don't picture someone who can, under the right circumstances, go to a nightclub and do a comedy act. This is not because the latter is impossible, but because we have crude and inaccurate models in our brains that get activated by key words and flatten the nuance of actual lived experience.
posted by Scattercat at 2:27 AM on January 12 [31 favorites]
posted by Scattercat at 2:27 AM on January 12 [31 favorites]
It is just gross to imply that having any kind of social existence outside your home is incompatible with receiving accommodation for a disability.
posted by The Manwich Horror at 3:29 AM on January 12 [50 favorites]
posted by The Manwich Horror at 3:29 AM on January 12 [50 favorites]
Yeah, society has a very messed up perspective towards people with disabilities (visible or not). If you are too sick to work, then you have to be too sick to leave your house ever. Like, my dudes, that is not how life is.
posted by Kitteh at 4:24 AM on January 12 [15 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 4:24 AM on January 12 [15 favorites]
So if someone is legitimately disabled enough to deserve wfh
Everyone deserves to work from home if they prefer it and their job can be accomplished that way.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:47 AM on January 12 [24 favorites]
Everyone deserves to work from home if they prefer it and their job can be accomplished that way.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:47 AM on January 12 [24 favorites]
Yay unions.
I don't want to continue the weird derail
I don't think it is a derail. It sure looks like management knew they couldn't fire him for his disability and subsequent need to provide accommodation so they went after his speech as justification. Which a arbitrator has ruled is equally wrong. Sort of considering the requirement to remove the recordings from public access.
There are strong vibes of "FOO doesn't need a ramp because I saw him stand up out of his wheel chair once" and other sorts of ableist bullshit employers spout to side step their legal and moral responsibilities.
Also probably time to look for a different job considering the ruling was on lack of due process rather than protecting his non work activities.
posted by Mitheral at 5:44 AM on January 12 [18 favorites]
I don't want to continue the weird derail
I don't think it is a derail. It sure looks like management knew they couldn't fire him for his disability and subsequent need to provide accommodation so they went after his speech as justification. Which a arbitrator has ruled is equally wrong. Sort of considering the requirement to remove the recordings from public access.
There are strong vibes of "FOO doesn't need a ramp because I saw him stand up out of his wheel chair once" and other sorts of ableist bullshit employers spout to side step their legal and moral responsibilities.
Also probably time to look for a different job considering the ruling was on lack of due process rather than protecting his non work activities.
posted by Mitheral at 5:44 AM on January 12 [18 favorites]
What's scary here to me is that the social media panopticon has sucked all the slack out of this guy's life. As mentioned above disability isn't binary, but this is even more than that. A previously hazy boundary that existed because it was hard to enforce has solidified into a wall.
It's why I don't add coworkers to social media and have weird names, because who knows what boundary might materialize because now someone gained new visibility.
posted by Typhoon Jim at 5:44 AM on January 12 [7 favorites]
It's why I don't add coworkers to social media and have weird names, because who knows what boundary might materialize because now someone gained new visibility.
posted by Typhoon Jim at 5:44 AM on January 12 [7 favorites]
If he wanted a comedy career, he should have not tried to claim disability at his day job.
I know people who are not capable of a 40-hour in-office workweek but are capable of many other things including standing and talking for short periods of time. And know that there are disabled comedians.
This is ableist bullshit.
posted by entropone at 5:57 AM on January 12 [27 favorites]
I know people who are not capable of a 40-hour in-office workweek but are capable of many other things including standing and talking for short periods of time. And know that there are disabled comedians.
This is ableist bullshit.
posted by entropone at 5:57 AM on January 12 [27 favorites]
From the WaPo article:
"Over the next few weeks, the concerns about his comedy were relayed to multiple WHYY executives. When one of them inquired about why Sleiman was allowed to work from home, his supervisor defended the exemption..."
1. Dear WHYY execs: There's almost no need for a reporter to be in the office; you don't need to be at a desk to make phone calls, and you can't be at a desk when you're gathering tape. If you've got a good setup at home, you don't even need to be in the office to record your voiceover and cut your pieces.
2. Good work by his editor/producer defending him. I'm guessing that his supervisor was still low enough in the chain to be part of the CBU.
posted by god hates math at 6:08 AM on January 12 [2 favorites]
"Over the next few weeks, the concerns about his comedy were relayed to multiple WHYY executives. When one of them inquired about why Sleiman was allowed to work from home, his supervisor defended the exemption..."
1. Dear WHYY execs: There's almost no need for a reporter to be in the office; you don't need to be at a desk to make phone calls, and you can't be at a desk when you're gathering tape. If you've got a good setup at home, you don't even need to be in the office to record your voiceover and cut your pieces.
2. Good work by his editor/producer defending him. I'm guessing that his supervisor was still low enough in the chain to be part of the CBU.
posted by god hates math at 6:08 AM on January 12 [2 favorites]
From what I've heard from friends with MS, their abilities to do things vary from day to day. It's probably not as bad for him to do a tight ten or whatever on a few days a week/month/whatever as it is slogging to the office every day for the rest of your work life.
Also, now that it's not 2020/2021 any more, I doubt there's too many places that let you do standup comedy on Zoom still.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:22 AM on January 12
Also, now that it's not 2020/2021 any more, I doubt there's too many places that let you do standup comedy on Zoom still.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:22 AM on January 12
If he wanted a comedy career, he should have not tried to claim disability at his day job.
Do people know how much most stand-ups DON'T make?
An Open Mic is unpaid and
A local opener is maybe $25-$50
A local feature is maybe $50-$100
A local headline is maybe $150
Emceeing for a club may mean an additional bump in pay, but it may also mean that you aren't funny enough to make it elsewhere.
In a city, you appear at 3 or 4 different clubs if you are good enough that they'll have you... and you don't get that until you've really paid dues on the unpaid end of that. Also, I hope you like performing to an empty room at 3:00 AM as that 4th and final show...
Touring? Touring expenses to small clubs are an out of pocket expense to start but don't think more than the feature for payment...
Then maybe you are an opener for someone - they'll pay your T&E, but it is still that $25-$50 per show...
All you are doing is increasing your visibility. People showing up to your comedy show is the original like button. You are working for likes... you are promoting yourself in everything you do. Everything becomes performative.
What we see on Netflix or on a tour in a smaller city is the exception to the rule. Standup is a challenging career where you don't quit your day job until you aren't just a local headliner. But - and here's the kicker - listen to the announcer for comedians for their specials 7 out of 10 times, they will be introducing themselves with an announcer voice.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:33 AM on January 12 [6 favorites]
Do people know how much most stand-ups DON'T make?
An Open Mic is unpaid and
A local opener is maybe $25-$50
A local feature is maybe $50-$100
A local headline is maybe $150
Emceeing for a club may mean an additional bump in pay, but it may also mean that you aren't funny enough to make it elsewhere.
In a city, you appear at 3 or 4 different clubs if you are good enough that they'll have you... and you don't get that until you've really paid dues on the unpaid end of that. Also, I hope you like performing to an empty room at 3:00 AM as that 4th and final show...
Touring? Touring expenses to small clubs are an out of pocket expense to start but don't think more than the feature for payment...
Then maybe you are an opener for someone - they'll pay your T&E, but it is still that $25-$50 per show...
All you are doing is increasing your visibility. People showing up to your comedy show is the original like button. You are working for likes... you are promoting yourself in everything you do. Everything becomes performative.
What we see on Netflix or on a tour in a smaller city is the exception to the rule. Standup is a challenging career where you don't quit your day job until you aren't just a local headliner. But - and here's the kicker - listen to the announcer for comedians for their specials 7 out of 10 times, they will be introducing themselves with an announcer voice.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:33 AM on January 12 [6 favorites]
It's why I don't add coworkers to social media and have weird names, because who knows what boundary might materialize because now someone gained new visibility.
Hear hear. No matter how much I like a co-worker, I keep a very distinct line between my personal life and work life. At pretty much every job since social media became part of the landscape, I've been invited to private FB groups or such like. I kindly decline. I was more prone to hanging out with co-workers in my 20s but now? Hard pass. I have mostly liked the people I worked with but things can get weird when it crosses from work into personal.
posted by Kitteh at 6:56 AM on January 12 [1 favorite]
Hear hear. No matter how much I like a co-worker, I keep a very distinct line between my personal life and work life. At pretty much every job since social media became part of the landscape, I've been invited to private FB groups or such like. I kindly decline. I was more prone to hanging out with co-workers in my 20s but now? Hard pass. I have mostly liked the people I worked with but things can get weird when it crosses from work into personal.
posted by Kitteh at 6:56 AM on January 12 [1 favorite]
Did anyone already link to recordings of his court hearing? "Blocked and Reported" - Episode 172: The Crass-Examination Of Jad Sleiman has links to mp3s if you're interested in listening to lawyers, judge, etc.
posted by pracowity at 7:34 AM on January 12 [5 favorites]
posted by pracowity at 7:34 AM on January 12 [5 favorites]
(Just to say that initially I tended toward "if a guy can do standup then maybe he's not totally disabled" -- but you all have helped me understand why this is nonsense. Seriously: thanks!)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:56 AM on January 12 [28 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 7:56 AM on January 12 [28 favorites]
"However, I also see it as a middle finger to all his coworkers that he claimed a disability accommodation to avoid going to work, but was going to nightclubs to do comedy acts."
The middle finger was from management, who make employees jump through hoops for basic accomodation like WFM.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:17 AM on January 12 [10 favorites]
The middle finger was from management, who make employees jump through hoops for basic accomodation like WFM.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:17 AM on January 12 [10 favorites]
To be clear, he has Multiple Sclerosis, and he received excellent performance reviews (per the article), and he was doing work from home. He wasn't avoiding work, he was doing something else in his free time.
posted by Chrysopoeia at 12:27 PM on January 12 [17 favorites]
posted by Chrysopoeia at 12:27 PM on January 12 [17 favorites]
Man, really MeFi? I'm a little disappointed by some of the comments here.
I worked an office job for years and absolutely could not now. I just like, cannot work 8 hours a day, and getting up for normal office hours destroys my health. If i'm working like that, literally all i can do is go to work and lay in bed. Which i mean is like, what it seems the system in this country wants you to be doing besides spending money but.
Working a short day job, or 5~ hours a night a few nights a week in nightlife works way better for me. I actually have the energy to do things i care about and see my friends, etc. I perform fairly often still, and help out with production for a bunch of other venues/events/friends shows. Occasionally i even fly out somewhere to do a show.
I have, more than once, encountered people who think that i "threw away my career to party" or whatever despite me doing this as a side gig for a million years. And i must say, there really is this overarching seemingly almost universal belief that working in nightlife in any way is just "partying" and "fucking off" and "no one should expect it to pay the bills" and that we need to grow up and settle down and move on. It would disappoint me more to see that attitude here, but i mean i've also seen it from self proclaimed "progressives" or anarchists/communists/community organizers/disability advocates etc etc.
Does it not give you pause even for a moment to see this attitude leveraged by this guys actual employer here, in a case they lost? This really seems to be one of those Overarching Force with Institutional Backing things like the misogyny, homophobia, ableism etc i've dealt with in various communities and workplaces so again i'm... not surprised. But like, it doesn't make it any less disappointing to see.
I will also add that i know a larger number of disabled people working in nightlife than i have in any other industry i've worked in, and i've done a really large variety of jobs. Some of them do it as their only gig and scrape by on a modest income, some of them have WFH jobs and do it as a passion/additional income thing. For pretty much all of them, it's both what they enjoy and it greatly benefits them that it's less days/hours and they get a big chunk of time off.
posted by emptythought at 4:45 PM on January 13 [11 favorites]
I worked an office job for years and absolutely could not now. I just like, cannot work 8 hours a day, and getting up for normal office hours destroys my health. If i'm working like that, literally all i can do is go to work and lay in bed. Which i mean is like, what it seems the system in this country wants you to be doing besides spending money but.
Working a short day job, or 5~ hours a night a few nights a week in nightlife works way better for me. I actually have the energy to do things i care about and see my friends, etc. I perform fairly often still, and help out with production for a bunch of other venues/events/friends shows. Occasionally i even fly out somewhere to do a show.
I have, more than once, encountered people who think that i "threw away my career to party" or whatever despite me doing this as a side gig for a million years. And i must say, there really is this overarching seemingly almost universal belief that working in nightlife in any way is just "partying" and "fucking off" and "no one should expect it to pay the bills" and that we need to grow up and settle down and move on. It would disappoint me more to see that attitude here, but i mean i've also seen it from self proclaimed "progressives" or anarchists/communists/community organizers/disability advocates etc etc.
Does it not give you pause even for a moment to see this attitude leveraged by this guys actual employer here, in a case they lost? This really seems to be one of those Overarching Force with Institutional Backing things like the misogyny, homophobia, ableism etc i've dealt with in various communities and workplaces so again i'm... not surprised. But like, it doesn't make it any less disappointing to see.
I will also add that i know a larger number of disabled people working in nightlife than i have in any other industry i've worked in, and i've done a really large variety of jobs. Some of them do it as their only gig and scrape by on a modest income, some of them have WFH jobs and do it as a passion/additional income thing. For pretty much all of them, it's both what they enjoy and it greatly benefits them that it's less days/hours and they get a big chunk of time off.
posted by emptythought at 4:45 PM on January 13 [11 favorites]
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How can you be too sick to go to work, they asked. Stand-up comedy is relaxing and doesn't trigger the disease, but going into work definitely does, was the reply.
Instead of challenging this, management decided to fire him for the content of the comedy act instead. The judge found against the firing, and ordered his reinstatement. In the same order, the judge also required him to take down all video clips of his comedy act. (This part he doesn't talk about so much in the victory lap.)
I read the judgement and agreed with the judge that the jokes are more funny than offensive. However, I also see it as a middle finger to all his coworkers that he claimed a disability accommodation to avoid going to work, but was going to nightclubs to do comedy acts.
If they wanted to fire him, they should not have reached for offensive language as an excuse. If he wanted a comedy career, he should have not tried to claim disability at his day job.
posted by dum spiro spero at 9:02 PM on January 11 [5 favorites]