Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash
First, let’s get to the most controversial part of this post. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Bruce Willis said Die Hard is not a Christmas movie… it’s a Bruce Willis movie. Unfortunately, Bruce Willis is absolutely wrong.
Someone just made a Die Hard Christmas trailer and it is epic. The movie definitely has holiday themes. There is no denying that. It has Christmas trees, decorations, and a party. It is ultimately about a guy trying to get to be with his family, which is basically what the holidays are all about.
No matter what side you take in this great debate, Die Hard does demonstrate a lot of problems that affect everyone during the holidays. Issues at work, problems with your family, and some slight uncertainty about the future.
With that being said, let’s look at some of the employee issues illustrated by Die Hard.
Working Too Much and Not Being There for Your Family
John McClane works as a cop in New York and his wife works in California. When the limo driver asks John why he didn’t move to California with his wife John responds “Cause I’m a New York cop who used to be a New York kid, and I got six months backlog of New York scumbags I’m still trying to put behind bars. I don’t just get up and move.” John McClane would rather continue working as a cop in New York rather than move to the west coast with his wife. Basically, the movie starts out with one character choosing their job over their spouse.
Balancing work and family is always hard. There are a lot of people that have chosen their careers over their family. Careers, high performing careers or careers where the person’s identity is shaped by their career (lawyer, doctor, etc.), can be all consuming. There is always more work to do. These are the people that can end up like John McClane and choose their career over their family.
And in the end, it is like the great quote from Rabbi Harold Kushne “Nobody on their deathbed has ever said ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.”’ At the end of Die Hard, that is ultimately what the McClanes learn. The McClanes go from the children asking whether their daddy is coming home for Christmas to just being glad to be with each other.
As an employer, what does this mean for you? Ultimately, people have the personal responsibility to manage their lives. However, companies boost morale by providing things like remote-work capabilities, or flexible employee leave to take a sick kid to the doctor is an appreciated perk that allows employees to better prioritize their family as they wish, and especially in times of need prioritize however they wish. However, as an employer, you can provide opportunities to include family.
Employee Drug Use
Another interesting part of the movie is the drug use. John McClane calls out Harry Ellis, one of the big negotiators for the company, for using cocaine at the party. This happens in front of the president of the company. And he does nothing about it.
Unfortunately, many companies ignore employee drug problems and some companies may even consider encouraging drug use to make employees more relaxed, less anxious, and more productive. Of course, Die Hard was made in the 1980’s so there was bound to be some use of cocaine.
With that being said, if there is an employee that has a drug problem, then you should not ignore it. Now I’m not saying that you confront someone when you have some vague suspicion that they are using drugs, but there are some steps that everyone should consider.
All companies need to gather evidence that shows that a person is under the influence of drugs. To do this, a company needs supervisors that are trained to recognize the signs of drug use and impairment. No one will identify drug use if they do not know what to look for. When you have reasonable suspicion that an employee is using drugs, then you need to act quickly especially if that employee is in a safety sensitive position. Follow your policy and conduct a drug test on that person as soon as possible.
In Die Hard the drug use was obvious. The employee was seen snorting cocaine in the office and still has white powder on their nose when he is with the president of the company. This is not a situation where you are piecing together the information to get to reasonable suspicion. It would be equivalent to seeing an employee down a few shots of whiskey at work. And remember, the president of the company did absolutely nothing. That is the opposite of what should happen.
Employees Confronting Robbers
There are times that employees have fought off armed robbers, but no employee needs to do that when they have a gun pointed at them. You can read about employees successfully confronting armed robbers here, here, here, and by running a quick Google search of your own.
Unfortunately, things do not always work out for employees that confront armed robbers. This is why the best advice is often to instruct employees, especially retail employees, to open up the cash register and hand over the money to any would be robber. Just look at what happened to Takagi, the president of Nakatomi Trading. He tells Hans Gruber that Hans will have to kill him, and he will not give Hans the code to the safe. There is no reason that any employee should feel the need to protect a cash register or any amount of money when their life is threatened.
Of course, as we see in Die Hard, that does not work in every situation. The employees in Die Hard only escaped because John McClane fought back. He knew that these people were terrorists and they did not care about taking people’s lives.
Sometimes employees need to be prepared to defend themselves. If your employees work late at night or in a dangerous area, then the company needs to take steps to ensure their safety. Sometimes that may mean that the company gets a better lit parking lot, other times that may mean that it provides some self-defense training to employees, or it could include having an onsite security guard to escort people as necessary. It just depends on the job.
Conclusion
Even if we cannot agree on whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, we can agree that the McClanes learn an important lesson from it. The importance of family.
For those of you going to a party next week I only have one thing to say: Welcome to the party pal. Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating the holiday next week! And if you want a good Christmas movie, I would recommend Die Hard.
The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, then you should speak with a lawyer about your specific issues. Every legal issue is unique. A lawyer can help you with your situation. Reading the blog, contacting me through the site, emailing me or commenting on a post does not create an attorney-client relationship between any reader and me.
The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.