Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Did you read the title of the thread? Here it is: "Should people be fired for social media posts?"
So what did you expect? A Thread that was nothing but posts that said "Yes" and "No?" That's funny.
My point (in Topic) is that people are being fired or not hired for actions outside the workplace. Be it right or wrong, and regardless of who likes it or not, its reality. If discussion of the Topic past Yes or No is not within your grasp, then why not ignore those posts over 3 or 4 words. Type in Yes or No, and move along. Simple solution.
In some extreme cases sure, but people shouldn't be fired for posting their political views, even if they are unpopular ones.
So if you owned a small business, you don't think you should have the final say about the character of the people you employ? And that if an employee spouts off something that costs you customers or makes you a target by association from those offended by the employee, that's just tough luck for you?
Just a quick note, because I missed this part.
That is illegal, and the NLRB has been cracking down on employers who punish employees for complaining about their jobs. Check out the Audelia Santiago case for a recent example. Employees have a legal right to discuss conditions of employment, even in a public forum, without retaliation.
This memo issued last March addresses employer rules against talking about work conditions, including social media. http://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.a...031d4581b37135
You can make such a ban, but you have to make it narrow enough to not cover discussing work conditions. They have a right to complain in public about your company.
In Ohio, I can fire anyone for any reason as long as I'm not discriminating. I don't care if they ***** and complain to me but they won't do it in public. It's a detriment to my business and will not be tolerated. End of story.
So what did you expect? A Thread that was nothing but posts that said "Yes" and "No?" That's funny.
My point (in Topic) is that people are being fired or not hired for actions outside the workplace. Be it right or wrong, and regardless of who likes it or not, its reality. If discussion of the Topic past Yes or No is not within your grasp, then why not ignore those posts over 3 or 4 words. Type in Yes or No, and move along. Simple solution.
Social media posts including rants are one thing. Pictures on social media are yet another and debt is an entirely different story altogether. Posts on social media can be very damning. A picture of a teacher at a sports bar with a beer in hand isn't though some districts haven't hired teachers for that reason. See my toast from my brother's engagement party for example. Debt is the same story as the picture. It can give a doubt or two but very well can be looked past.
Social media posts including rants are one thing. Pictures on social media are yet another and debt is an entirely different story altogether. Posts on social media can be very damning. A picture of a teacher at a sports bar with a beer in hand isn't though some districts haven't hired teachers for that reason. See my toast from my brother's engagement party for example. Debt is the same story as the picture. It can give a doubt or two but very well can be looked past.
That is precisely why many of us have called for laws forbidding the practice.
I don't care if my kid's local school teacher vacations in France at a topless beach during the summer and posts photos about it. So what. Unlike people without brains, I realize that my kid's teacher has a freaking life outside her job and has the right to pursue it, and free of consequences too. She is not morally obligated to represent my child's local school district 24 hours a day during the freaking summer of all times in the world, and she shouldn't have to keep any photos or posts about her life in the closet of her house. Especially if such "racy" photos are posted to only her friends, then I think she's done plenty. If someone "leaks" those, she shouldn't be criticized, the one who couldn't stop telling tales out of school should be told off in the most emphatic terms for not keeping their stupid mouth shut--and people in the district who throw a fit over it need to be educated on how their child's teacher doesn't owe them an explanation for every single thing she does on her own freaking time.
Yes, there are people who "don't think" all right, but it's not the teachers. It's the freaks who think that a brother toasting his brother at an engagement party "showed poor judgment." Please.
For years, schools and parents have been warning those coming up that there is a risk involved in posting on Facebook. People looking for jobs, those who are employed, people with children, all risk losing what they have based on what they may be posting.
Right or wrong, once you decide to make your activities and opinions public, they become fair game. Anyone who lacks this type of common sense isn't someone I would want working for me.
In this specific case, she went on a rant about someone she said passed out due to drugs, and was whining that her party spent $700 and wasn't getting enough attention at the restaurant, adding that she guessed someone with a drug problem is more important than those still spending money in that establishment. The partner of the restaurant replied that it was a 70 year old woman suffering a heart attack and he was happy to hear the whiner wouldn't be returning because she made one of the waitresses cry and isn't the type of patron they want. He got a lot of replies backing him.
Should she have been fired for this? I'm guessing this special snowflake was just as whiny and demanding at work, and this was just the final straw.
Are you asking if the partner in the restaurant should be fired for his post?
As a partner, he has a right to make that response. The waitress who was made to cry would not have that right.
In general, I don't think a person should be fired for what they say on social media, although -- like most things in life -- there are limits.
What amazes me about this thread is that so many people who go bonkers if government were to try to censor people, don't care a whit if big business tries to censor them. Hmmmmmmmmm.
That's because in the US, at least, the Bill of Rights only applies to government.
The problem here is the blurring of lines between work and private life. The employers should not owe you after you end your workday. They should not be in control of your private life other than requiring that you are law abiding and don't do drugs. What's next, firing people over making political statements that don't match company's views ?
How is checking an employee's Facebook page different from sending private investigators to follow her or him around and watch from the street what's going on inside their homes ? The technology is different but it's the same principle. Creepy and invasive.
Employers can do that, however, if they want to go to that expense.
Not quite true. Try to fire someone for being Black or Asian or Mormon etc.
"For any reason except xxx as defined by law" is a more accurate statement.
And the law can be expanded, if needed.
But you can't prevent others from posting about your activity on social sites. Every time we go to parties with friends, some of them post photos from these parties where they name every single person in the photo. Half of these photos make me want to take their phone and shove it up the "photographer"'s rear - not because I was caught doing something stupid, but because they somehow manage to find the most unflattering angle or facial expression.
You have no exclusive control over your own photos or description of your actions in this day and age, and there's simply no way around this. And it will only get worse, with proliferation of wearable tech and facial recognition. Your private activity will be traced by countless devices all over the place, feeding information to servers that are able to connect your face with your name, and posting it everywhere and anywhere.
Imagine this - a young couple kissing on the beach.
Now imagine this 10-20 years from now. Everyone has Google glass like device. Dozens of people on that beach are taking photos of this couple without them knowing. The photos get uploaded to social sites. The facial recognition software matches couple's faces to the data they have from other sources (not necessarily the couple themselves - photos posted by friends, classmates, church outing etc.) and automatically tags them. So instead of someone bold snapping and posting a photo "here's a cute young couple I saw on the beach" you have dozens if not hundreds of people posting a photo "here's Jack Daniels, 19 years old, from Birmingham AL, making out with Wendy Peppa, 18 years old, from Hell Michigan".
Either it becomes unacceptable or illegal for the companies to censor their employees behavior outside of work when it has nothing to do with their primary work functions, or we will live in a totalitarian society where it's the companies, not the Government, dictating citizens how to live their lives.
Or, perhaps, there will be restrictions on dissemination and use of personal information without that person's express consent, and ways to erase this information from the net permanently.
I think this will eventually be legislated, one way or another. No telling which way it will end, though. But if nothing is done, the Stalinist Russia would seem like a freedom paradise.
That is not really a "Brave, New World" after all.
Back in the days (not that long ago) when most people were born, lived, and died within a 50-mile radius, all of those youthful discrepancies did, indeed, become known to everyone they would be acquainted with their entire lives, including future employers.
Civilization continued to exist. People were raised to be circumspect in their public activities.
By definition, there is no such thing as "private" social media.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
