I have attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for nearly 15 years. Part of the annual pilgrimage is a visit to the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum. It’s an unnecessary stop, but one that had become important because of the historical significance, but more importantly because of a relationship that I had developed with one of the employees.

I recently learned that the Museum terminated this individual... one of the hardest working and most knowledgeable employees they had on staff. And why was she terminated? Because she couldn’t mail a package, after hours and on her own time, because she had dinner plans with her family for Valentine’s Day evening. She informed the person making this request that she could mail it the next day, but she just couldn’t do it that evening. This person chose to mail the package rather than wait. The next day she was terminated.

She was fired for ‘insubordination’ as a result of trying to protect her personal time from an employer who has seldom respected her personal time. She was always ‘on call’, answering the phone after hours and responding to emergency circumstances (like alarms going off at the museum), coordinating the annual donor’s breakfast and induction events, when the manager and director couldn’t be bothered to do the same. They leaned on her and used her, and forced her to go out of her way because they felt they were too important to go out of theirs, and knew just how desperately she needed that job and what she’d tolerate in order to keep it.

Furthermore, this lie of insubordination was used, in conjunction with another lie regarding prior disciplinary issues, to deny this elderly woman, barely making ends meet, her unemployment benefits. Can you imagine how angry you’d be if your grandmother’s employer did that to her?

I think the actions of the museum management in this situation have been despicable, and as such will never receive my support or patronage again in the future. In addition, I will be encouraging others to withhold their support and patronage of the museum in response to these egregious and unfair practices.