New York Palace Hotel boss Niklaus Leuenberger gets the door after Ash Wednesday slur

[Seeking Serenity]

Source: New York Daily News

And now for something not teleprompter/AIG/Geithner/Blue Dogs related.

________________________________

The manager of one of the city's most luxurious hotels was given the boot after ordering a Catholic employee to clean up his forehead on Ash Wednesday.

"Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face," managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told a bell captain at the New York Palace Hotel on Feb. 25, sources said.

The unholy ultimatum ended up costing Leuenberger his job at the Palace, a swanky 55-story tower on Madison Ave. across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral.

(snip)

The incident was deemed so severe, Christopher Cowdray, head of the London-based Dorchester Collection, which owns the Palace, flew here to hand Leuenberger the pink slip.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/25/2009-03-25_new_york_palace_hotel_boss_niklaus_leuen.html#discuss

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While I agree that the manager should have been disciplined, I'm not sure sacking him was appropriate. Maybe docking him a month's pay and giving it to the bell captain. Maybe a course in cultural sensitivity.

Interesting to note that this was the hotel that Leona ("Only little people pay taxes") Helmsley used to own. Maybe there's something in the masonry.

[sasquatch]

1. How the hell was Helmsley busted?

[Seeking Serenity]

6. Tax evasion conviction in 1989.

I suspect having it reported that "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes" is likely to raise the antennae of a few IRS auditors.

[smoogatz]

2. I think firing was entirely appropriate.

The guy's a jerk and an ignoramus. I wouldn't want him working for me, either--and I'm about as irreligious as it gets.

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. My guess is that this isn't the first time....................

he managed to piss people off. Maybe here was a certain lack of "people skills".

[PopSixSquish]

5. I'm Going to Agree With You

The phrase "straw that broke the camel's back" comes to mind...

[Seeking Serenity]

10. True. True.

I still think the bell captain should get something out of it (without resorting to litigation), though.

[JNelson6563]

29. I think the way the dismissal was handled

was to help avoid possible litigation, among other good ones like maybe other incidents with this guy.

I agree with the firing because if someone wants to observe a harmless religious tradition they should be able to do so freely--without being hassled.

Julie--an atheist

[LisaM]

4. How can you have that prestigious a job and be so clueless?

Did he not know it was Ash Wednesday? I will say, in the last, oh, five or ten years, it's been more common for people to point out ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday, as if they've never seen it before (or maybe people are just ruder). I honestly had a person ask me with interest if it was a Native American ceremony (I was on an elevator, and I was mortified).

Edited to add: I wasn't mortified because someone thought I might have participated in a Native American ceremony, I just didn't like the unwanted attention.

[hugo_from_TN]

8. I'm 46 and I've never seen that before.

Count me in as clueless I guess.

[Renew Deal]

13. The streets of NYC are full of people with ashes on foreheads on Ash Wednesday.

There a lot of people walking around with them that day, so he should have known.

[kestrel91316]

16. And it's always on the tv news like clockwork every Ash Wednesday.

[LisaM]

18. I don't think your area is very Catholic

New York has a lot of Catholics. Either this guy knew full well it was Ash Wednesday and he was just being a jerk, or he didn't know, in which case he has no business running a hotel in New York City.

[sammythecat]

20. Precisely my thoughts too. n/t

[Irishonly]

21. I am not Catholic but my church has an Ash Wednesday Service

It's always in the early evening and you can choose to have the ashen cross on your forehead or hand.

[Pastiche423]

23. I'm 54 (until next month)

and I also have never seen it.

Why do people do that? What is the symbolism?

[WriteDown]

24. here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_wednesday

Unfortunately, I missed it this year after Mardi Gras since I was on a long flight.

[Pastiche423]

25. Thanks for the link

I still have never seen it although I've lived in eight states. When I saw the picture on Wikipedia, the 1st thought I had was of Charlie Manson's girls carving the x's on their foreheads.

Makes about as much sense to me.

[WriteDown]

26. I grew up in NYC

so it was about as common as Christmas to me :). Very common in New Orleans too.

[Pastiche423]

28. I lived in San Francisco for twenty years

Never saw it there, either

[WriteDown]

30. Foreign to me.

Like not having a St. Patty's Day Parade, but oh well :).

[leftynyc]

9. This hotel is right behind

St. Patrick's Cathedral - there is literally NO WAY he didn't know it was Ash Wednesday. The line snakes around the block on both sides all day.

[redqueen]

17. I don't think it was cluelessness. (nt)

[leftynyc]

7. Probably got fired

to ward off a lawsuit which would have won.

[Warpy]

11. My guess is that it was just one of the last of a long list

of complaints against that thug or he'd have been suspended and ordered into some sort of corporate manners class. Likely he was a kiss up, kick down kind of boss.

I don't think there's anything in the masonry or the water, the problem is within corporate culture.

[kas125]

22. "The hotel leases its land from the Catholic Church. " That could

have had a little something to do with the reason he was fired, too.

[Warpy]

27. Wow.

I wonder if the guy confessed removing the ashes the next Saturday and it went up the chain.

If so, getting rid of an asshole manager might have been the church's finest hour in a very long time.

[sasquatch]

12. A hustler in the purest sense of the word

[jmowreader]

14. How the hell did this guy get hired in the first place?

One doesn't become an asshole overnight...and in the words of the prosecutor in Idiocracy, "just look at him!"



This man doesn't look like a hotelkeeper. He looks like a member of the Soviet Politburo.

[jobycom]

15. He also cursed at an employee, so the religious insensitivity wasn't all.

No idea of the other posters who proclaim they know what kind of person he is are right, but just that one incident--abusive behavior and a religious insult on a holy day--would be enough to get even good employees in trouble, and maybe fired, especially in an industry that runs off of good PR and well-mannered employees.

[sallylou666]

19. High turnoever rate

Asshole managers cause a high turnover in employees, which hurts the company. This guy had probably been through numerous employees before this incident. The employees are probably celebrating his departure.