Face book ?joke? leads to firing.

Published: 2010-05-25. Last Updated: 2010-05-25 16:36:09 UTC
by donald smith (Version: 1)
10 comment(s)

From: 

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/firing-dispatcher-for-facebook-drug-joke-was-right-wisconsin-council-claims/story-e6frfku0-1225870794794

“A CITY council in Wisconsin defended its decision to fire a Police and Fire Department dispatcher who joked about drug addiction on her Facebook page.”

The arbitrator said the dispatcher could come back after a 30 day suspension but the police chief appears to believe her joke was so inappropriate and “an embarrassment to the city”.
Personally this seems a bit extreme, however social networking users should be aware investigating face book pages of employees is becoming more common.


 

Keywords: facebook firing
10 comment(s)

Comments

When did it happen, that people sold themselves and their entire lives to their employer? The day is approaching that you are no longer allowed to say anything against your employer or have a dissenting opinion from them in private or away from your place of work for fear of loosing your job.

Yes, there are consequences to your actions and speech but we are allowing more and more encroachment of the company into the private, free time we have. There is never a consequence for those who take actions on supposed slights, and often no recourse for those who are the target of the big brother attitudes that are growing in many places.

I sure hope my employer never gets within earshot of my house, what I say about him would make him explode and god knows what his ego would cause him to do.

SMB

May 25th 2010
1 decade ago

This is interesting from a legal standpoint. You cannot legally "monitor" your employees, but you can monitor for your business (brand monitoring).

Assuming her facebook post was performed off-duty and didn't mention anything about the police or fire departments, this makes me feel like the worst they could do is "randomly" drug test her without breaking privacy laws. Am I wrong?

chazzzle

May 25th 2010
1 decade ago

Facebook does have a system for securing status updates, so that only certain groups of "friends" can see particular updates. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be well-documented or well-used. (I find it rather cumbersome myself.)

It used to be that one of the first steps in writing anything was knowing one's audience. Maybe that is not enough in this day and age; one must also ensure non-audience folk cannot read it ;)

B Knight

May 25th 2010
1 decade ago

We've always been at war with Eastasia

BB

May 25th 2010
1 decade ago

It has always been an occupational hazard to have opinions different from those of your employer. People could and did lose their jobs because of things they said or did on their own time before the days of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. The only real difference between then and now is that it's much easier for one's employer to find out.

No Love.

May 26th 2010
1 decade ago

Is Wisconsin a "Right to work" state?

It's too bad that unions have become so demonized.

They are one of the few things stopping employers from firing you for the color of your skin, your shoes, something you said at home, or your age.

SW

May 26th 2010
1 decade ago

Not that this is a political site, but please educate yourself about what "Right to work" is. I don't think forcing people into unions that don't want to belong would help here.

Chad

May 27th 2010
1 decade ago

and no, WI is not a "Right to work" state.
http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm

Chad

May 27th 2010
1 decade ago

Why don't people remember that a posting on a PUBLIC website - be it Facebook or whatever - is by definition PUBLIC and you should be prepared to deal with whatever the consequences are if you post something there.
For example, if I own a business that sells widgets and I see a blog, paper flyer, tweet, billboard, wall post, newspaper article or whatever else from an employee of mine that defaces or insults the widgets I produce and sell, I absolutely would fire them.

steve

May 27th 2010
1 decade ago

Why don't people remember that a posting on a PUBLIC website - be it Facebook or whatever - is by definition PUBLIC and you should be prepared to deal with whatever the consequences are if you post something there.
For example, if I own a business that sells widgets and I see a blog, paper flyer, tweet, billboard, wall post, newspaper article or whatever else from an employee of mine that defaces or insults the widgets I produce and sell, I absolutely would fire them.

steve

May 27th 2010
1 decade ago

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