Here’s a general piece of wisdom: Tweeting proudly about drinking on the job and insulting your boss over social media is a great way to get fired.
A trio of staffers at the office of Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) decided to challenge this theory and came out on the losing end Thursday.
Roll Call reports:
Legislative aides Seth Burroughs and Elizabeth Robbee and legislative correspondent Ben Byers were terminated as a result of the Northwest Daily Marker story chronicling their baffling display of bureaucratic bravado. The article included screen grabs of since-deactivated Twitter posts in which Burroughs (@therocketship1) and Robbee (@betsysbites) openly banter back and forth about trashing a government-supplied Blackberry, taking shots of Jack Daniels at their desks and watching music videos on YouTube during work hours.
The Northwest Daily Marker, a conservative political blog, provides one element of the cautionary tale concerning the staffers’ repeated references to “D2R.”
‘D2R’ is an acronym meaning ‘December to Remember,’ a phrase coined by the trio of staffers to define their attempt to spend the final month of the year in a state of perpetual debauchery. According to tweets made two days earlier, the D2R was initiated with a morning round of shots on the steps of the Cannon House Office Building before proceeding to drink all day in the office.
Bryan Thomas, Larsen’s communications director, released a statement Thursday regarding the action:
“Congressman Larsen and his staff became aware of the issue concerning the three staff members at noon EST. We became aware of the issue through a tweet referencing an article about the incident. Congressman Larsen immediately decided to fire the three staff members involved in the incident. The staff members were dismissed at 1:10 p.m. EST.”
It’s not that Larsen doesn’t have a sense of humor — he actually recently competed for the title of D.C.’s “Funniest Celebrity” — it’s just that it’s hard not to get fired after bragging about wasting taxpayer dollars in a drunken haze, all while calling your boss an “idiot.”
Check out a highlight reel of the tweets at the Daily Marker.
