Erik Ott, a customer service rep at Apple Computer was fired two days after performing this love ode to a fellow Fed Ex rep at the annual Apple employee's talent show. Fortunately Ott captured his performance on tape, as well as the performances of some of his ex-coworkers: [download video, 10 mb, mpeg file or stream it from google here]
Ott's main crime (besides performing under the name Big Poppa E) appears to have been joking about leaving Apple customers languishing on hold while flirting with the sweet Fed Ex lady. It apparently left an Apple VP all agog, and two days later, Ott was out of a job. Thanks Barrett!
The "inexplicable" woman in the clip is also seen in full in "Amy Sings" at Mr. Big Poppa E's site
Posted by: Hell's Donut House | March 22, 2006 at 02:10 AM
Not a bad poem, but the dude kept bagging on his American customers ( I'm sure he dealt with his share of assholes stateside, that's typical for call center work) but it does seem inappropriate to rip on any customers from the field you work in, regardless if they are yanks, habs or canucks. So yeah, they fired him, I guess Apple isn't as "progressive" and hip as some might think, it's a stuffed shirt just like any other stuffed shirt. And the dude seems perplexed by this. Get with the program, Bukowski, Junior!!
the good side of it all is he got to be on HBO doing his poetry, so he took it in the shorts from Apple, but he got decent pub from the experience
(by the way, I wanted to see more of that duo performing "Plush" by STP. That looked pretty f'n bad, as in so f'n bad it's good)
Posted by: Shammy Shamrocker | March 22, 2006 at 02:44 AM
As a side mention, he was also slagging customers quite directly and traceably, on his livejournal account. Singing about your customers like that may be funny, but combined with having a weblog posting about them, I think we're missing the full story.
Posted by: Jason Scott | March 22, 2006 at 01:30 PM
Wait, this guy was a CS rep for Apple in the US?
I thought all CS people were in India.
Totally agree with Shamrocker.
Ken, would you do anything if a FMU DJ started publicly slamming station supporters?
Posted by: von zeke | March 22, 2006 at 05:10 PM
"Ken, would you do anything if a FMU DJ started publicly slamming station supporters?"
Kenny G and Andy Breckman slam station supporters all the time. Sorry to confuse you, but I didnt mean to be taking a side on whether the guy should have been fired or not. I certainly would not have fired him for the poem and performance he included in the video, but I have no idea what kind of employee he was. Jason claims he was slagging Apple customers which *sounds* bad, but I haven't seen it myself so I have no opinion on that. -ken
Posted by: Station Manager Ken | March 22, 2006 at 05:34 PM
I find it sad that companies can fire people for the stuff they say and do in their free time, but unfortunately that seems to happen a lot. Also, judging from the performances at this "talent show" in the video, they should rather have fired some other people, if they are seriously concerned about their public image. If he would have pulled a Dum Dum on the phone at work, it would have been different, but I am pretty sure he didn't.
Posted by: Lukas | March 22, 2006 at 06:16 PM