Don’t think what you say online matters? Think again!
Example 1: Facebook Fail
On Facebook, Dan Leone, a now former employee of the Philadelphia Eagles, posted this status update:
“Dan is ******* devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver…Dam Eagles are Retarded.”
Result: FIRED from working with the Philadelphia Eagles! DOH!
Example 2: Twitter Twit
On Twitter, one job seeker who was offered a job Tweeted this:
“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”
To which someone at Cisco responded:
“Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.”
FAIL! No job!
In this economy (and with the Internet’s memory) it’s going to be a LONG time before either person finds a new one.
So what can we learn from this?
First, people are listening to what you have to say. If you use Google Alerts, or do a Twitter search, or watch your Facebook news feed, you can see what folks are saying in near real-time.
Second, everything you say online is captured FOREVER and it will be re-broadcast all over the world. The Cisco guy now has pages and pages of “re-tweets” for the phrase “cisco fatty” and there are 309 (soon to be 310) Google blog searches for “cisco fatty.”
Here’s the lesson:
Think twice before saying “Sally is a fat head” or “I hate my boss Phil!” Folks are listening. You probably are friends with someone who knows someone who knows someone who is friends with your boss, your co-worker, or your HR director.
What can YOU learn from this?
Sources:
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
Never tweet anything you wouldn’t want to have your mother see on a billboard.
Dave – GREAT suggestion!
Excellent post! This should be a good reminder for anyone who tweets or facebooks their true feelings about their employment—or any other important factor in their life.
I’m a graphic designer and I see this all the time. Mostly, young people new in the game and not living their dream. Some have a tendency to express their true negative feelings about their current position. And, whether or not this lands them in the unemployment line is due to whether or not their employer is up to speed with the current social networking trends—or for that matter, just plain old google.
As a rule of thumb, I like to keep any tweets, status’ and blog posts upbeat and positive. What I put on the internet is out there for the whole world to see, and not just my friends.
Melinda – you make a great point:
Even if you think you’re whispering in a friend’s ear…you’re NOT!
Actually, my mom – who doesn’t know which end of an Internet you sick in the turkey and which end you have to hand dry – taught me how to handle these situations when I was a child:
“If you don’t have something nice to say about somebody, don’t say anything at all.”
Another great piece of advice. Thanks David!
This is so true, Phil. I am always talking to my 16 year old grandaughter to be careful, especially with pictures, that she puts on her Facebook page. No party variety.
It could bite her later.
On the other hand, I just found two long lost cousins on Twitter! We are having fun reuniting. It can work for good too!
Parties photos are fine…just use your head.
And I agree, you can find tons of ways to use new media for good
Wow! What a way to know you were not going to get the job! Social Media is such a great tool, but it takes constant reminders like this to refresh our memories and realize that things said there can impact our lives.
Just like chocolate…One moment on the lips, one year without a job.
Wait…that’s nothing like chocolate
Thanks Pete!
Great post, Phil. I’ve been telling people for years that the stuff they send into cyberspace will still be there long after they are dust unto the lives of their children’s children’s children’s etc. forever and ever.
And that includes emails, resumes, and records—even when the court orders them removed. They migrate, are fruitful and multiply beyond anything people imagine.
Great point Miki! You put it out there, it’s there…FOREVER!
Phil,
I raised this issue earlier this week …asking what rights/responsibilities do both employers and employees have in terms of what the employee says or does on social networking sites.
I’d love your thoughts.
http://tinyurl.com/cvud4g
Drew
Great post. Thank you Drew.
In my opinion, if you say something on line, it’s the same as if you said it in person. Keep your critical opinions to yourself, or risk retribution.
Phil –
A sobering reminder of the need to watch what we’re putting out there in the world. Aside from my professional presence on FB, Twitter and LinkedIN, I originally joined mySpace to keep on eye on what my now-16-year-old nephew is doing. I tell you, some of the stuff on his page is enough to curl my hair but trying to explain that to a teenager is like talking to my Great Dane. Possibly even less effective, since the dog does sit when I tell him to.
Job-seekers (and hiring managers) need to be aware of the impact of social media sites in their job search and hiring decisions. I’m putting together a talk for some HR professionals about using social media in job search and had planned to use the Cisco story as an example of what NOT to do if you’re a job seeker, and what companies can do to learn more about their prospective hires.
Truly, a cautionary tale for the times.
Thanks.
Joan
Joan – I agree that it is VERY hard to convince people that your online profile matters. I don’t think that’s an age thing with just your teenager. I’ve talked to folks who say they have 2 Facebook profiles, like that is going to make a difference.
The only way to convince folks is to share cautionary tales like this and hope they resonate with the folks who need to hear it. While I like to focus on positive news, stories like this must be shared so folks get it.
Glad you’re out there telling the tales too! We need more folks like YOU!
Phil:
Great, eye-opening post! I still have not created a Facebook or Twitter account. But I do have a LinkedIn acct. Funny thing – when I invited an old co-worker to be my new LinkedIn contact, he urged me to create a Facebook account so we could communicate that way. Is e-mail old school? Or is it me who is old-school?
Tim – I like both LinkedIn and Twitter, though I use them for very different things. I’d encourage you to try both and see what you like.
And no, you’re not old school…nor is e-mail. It’s really about the preferences of the person you’re communicating with. It’s up to you to decide if you want to move to their preferred medium (Facebook) or stick with yours (email).
I Facebook’d a negative comment about Mark Knopfler’s voice today. (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=616960878&ref=nf#/profile.php?id=616960878&ref=mf) should I be concerned??
hehe…
Only if you want to play in his band
Phil -
My only concern with this lies in circumstances such as my own. I had been a manager at a local company and had been with them for 3 and a half years. During this timeframe I was promoted 3 times, never received any disciplinary action, and consistently had strong performance reviews. Yesterday I was fired for complaining about my job on my facebook status. NOW, however I am very aware that perhaps this may be wrong or not the smartest… I also have my profile privacy blocked so that you would have to be my friend to see it. With that in mind, it was not as if I was providing this “Complaint” to the entire world wide web, and in fact, there would have been very very few people that worked for this company that would have seen this. I also never named the company, any other employee names, etc…
How am I still in the wrong and losing my job over this? Don’t I have some sort of protection that at least requires them to not only warn me that they think this is an issue, but provide me with some sort of documentation on how I violated a policy??
Emilie – This is a REALLY tough situation to be in. I’m going to think more about it and get you an answer soon.
Ugh, no kidding… Facebook got me fired last week, too.
I think the people at the top are just power tripping. Personally – that’s my idea, especially if you have a very good performance and a simple complaint got you fired. Well, my case is a little harsh – I ranted about my company but didn’t really mention their name. They still got rid of me, and threatens me with a libel lawsuit…
I’m just a childish blogger… oh yeah, also a stupid one (and yeah I’m not really old yet). Looks like, I learned things the hard way.
I’m sorry to hear this Emily. I’m sorry you had to learn this the hard way.
I wouldn’t say this is power tripping…I’d say there were probably other reasons (maybe unsaid reasons) and this was just the icing on the cake.
It is indeed a sad day when a person who may love their job, as I do, but at times can find themselves frustrated and bored with it. We need to be able to vent ourselves to keep from exploding or becomming withdrawn. Being bored at times does not mean I don’t like my job it just means that the tedium or routine is above par. It is not very realistic for anyone to constantly be skipping through their office sing praises of happiness with being at work, I mean when I am bored at home I don’t consider work as a cure for that. you would think that employers would want employees to feel secure in their jobs knowing that it’s not always a fun and superfantastic way to spend a day. I think if I wanted to get rid of someone I might use that as an excuse and if someone saying that they are bored is the worste thing you can come up with then hang on to them, because what if they were happy to be there but they’re work ethic sucked wich is worse
Joseph – If you’re bored with your job, find a way to be proactive and bust out of the boredom. If it gets to be too much, find a new job.
And you’re right, work isn’t always fun. That’s why it’s called work. If it were all fun, you’d either be extremely fortunate…or you wouldn’t be working.
I got fired last week for saying
“just found out thru the grapevine i am being laid off and my boss a “chicken shit” to tell me”.
but now i know better then to add coworkers from corporate as my friends!!
hard lesson. and no unemployment!
Tough lesson meirahs. Anything you say can and will be used against you. Best to complain to your family or those who don’t work with you.
My question is THey have right to say it because of our LAW said we have Freedom Speech to say anything? There one student did write on facebook about teacher is lousy. That student get kick out for writing on facebook. Few years later as law suit and win from freedom speech. If I did get fired by facebook comment on it, should I turn around and tell them breaking law from freedom speech?
I am currently waiting on the state to decide if i did anything wrong. My employer tried to say i started the “rumor mill” and that my facebook comment forced them to move up the annoucement of them closing our branch. (they where going to annouce it on wednesday and they moved it to monday–woo). However, i was really a victim of the rumor mill, hence my comment of “hearing thru the grapevine”. I dont think i should be punished for hearing something someone else leaked out. I am hoping that i dont have to appeal a denial, but you can bet the federal judge’s decision in the florida case will be something i surely will bring up!
I am hearing what many of you have to say about social networking being a public forum and therefore one should censor their self so-to-speak because it can negatively impact their employment status or potential employment, but last I checked I had some pretty strong first amendment rights and those rights are protected. Has anyone who has been fired over a status or tweet sought legal counseling? I know I am going to. After being demoted yesterday for a Facebook Status I am seeking out my rights. First and foremost the status wasn’t even slander. It didn’t name even name my company. I simply made a statement about “my job’s” lack of advertising sales and discounts during a deep recession. Personally I find it paramount to any good business’ success. Either way I am not a fan of censorship. I have an opinion and should be able to voice that opinion. More importantly, I think my employer needs to take a hard look in the mirror and analyze the beast they have created. Closed door policies and trashing your employees on a daily basis does manifest unhappy and angry employees. And hard economic times means employees put up with being trashed in order to survive. Either way I am not taking their actions lightly and no employee should. Moreover, a facebook, twitter, or myspace profile is not a great judge of the type of employee you are going to get. Our personal life is separate from our work. As long as what I do off hours doesn’t impact what I do on hours leave me alone.
I have not sought legal advice…yet. I am waiting to see if the unemployment commission decides if i was terminated for cause. If they side with me, then i am going to seek legal advice, because i was screwed out of my severance pay also. my company closed down the division and everyone else was provide with severance and so many weeks to complete their work. I was not. hope to know in the next few weeks if my first ammendment rights are violated or not!
Tracy, The first amendment restricts the Government from negatively affecting you because of your speech. However, If someone is silly enough to castigate an employer publicly, they deserve to be fired, and the employer has every right to do so. Remember that the Constitution does not restrict a private citizen or company’s actions. It prevents the government from adversely affecting an individuals rights. It is there to keep the GOVERNMENT in check…not the individual!
After I stopped laughing at the original mention of First Amendment rights, I decided not to say anything, but the persistent whining of people fired for not having any sense finally pushed me into it.
In an interview, Cokie Black “urged women just starting out in their careers to “do everything and more. Come early. Stay late. It’s not only about the hours you put in; it’s about the attitude you bring to work.”
After spending more than 25 years as a recruiter I can guarantee you that attitude isn’t something you turn on and off like a water faucet. Knowing that, managers assume that the attitude reflected in a person’s social media postings will be the same attitude the person brings to the job. Not only attitude, but traits such as discretion, common sense, etc.
There is an only saying about email that goes, “Don’t put anything in an email that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times” and that goes double for social media.
I find it laughable that the generation that pushes for the open environment of social media has no understanding that open = public and you can’t really choose who sees what. You may post only to friends, but you have no real control on what they do with it the information or pictures.
You may find it’s also a good idea to remember that that employment these days is “at will.
Instead of pouting and crying “not fair” you might instead want to use this as an opportunity to mature.
Gotta say, I’m completely with Miki on this one. If you’re a whiner, you don’t have first amendment to fall back on. You’re AT WILL and need to behave as such.
If you don’t like what’s going on, you need to raise the problem in a positive way, in a way that can help change the situation. Whining about it on Facebook or on Twitter is proof that you’re not the best person for the job. It’s a tough lesson, but it’s true. If you’re not intelligent enough to keep your whining off of public places, you deserve to be terminated for poor judgement.
Hopefully you’ve learned your lesson and you won’t be whining in public again about how unfair and how crappy your boss is. As someone who manages people, I’m under no illusion that I’m perfect, but I don’t need to be constantly reminded of it on my employee’s public Facebook and Twitter pages.
Hasn’t anyone ever heard about Dooce? http://is.gd/9sabO
I just got fired today for voicing my opinion about the morals of the company on twitter. i know that was stupid, especially to put the name of the company in the tweet. It’s what i really felt, but i didn’t think about how it would affect me or the actual company and the people that work there. I am truly sorry for that. Not really complaining about it because for the same morality reason i was planning on quitting the day after anyway. But yes, watch what you post on social networking sites!!!
I would like to say to those of you “laughing” at first amendment rights, shame on you. Our founding fathers had the presence of mind to protect our speech, public or otherwise, for very good reasons. As for “whining”, it sounds to me as though “whining” is being replaced (semantically) by good critical thinking skills, something we should be condoning, not condemning. I am a teacher of nine years and recently had a new principal “join” our staff. Out of five days we had three meetings, one over four hours long, where he screamed, yelled, threatened us with our jobs, referred to our students as “stupid” and “dumb” and told all of the remaining staff we should have been fired. He also mentioned how pleased he was to find a male african american science teacher. Would a white female teacher with the same qualifications stand a chance at being hired by him? It was the worst work situation I have ever experienced and extremely unprofessional. Had I done the same within the classroom, I would have been immediately fired. However, I came home, hopped on Facebook and repeated, verbatim, his threatening and unprofessional words. I did not use his name, nor do I have the school listed anywhere on my page. I was called in the next day, by Principal “Ahab”, and told I was being placed on a disciplinary action step one, threatened with slander (I am very well aware of the definition of slander), and yelled and screamed at some more, being told, “Your scores are pathetic, you should have been fired.” When I mentioned that my scores were two percent lower than the entire school’s average I was interrupted. When I asked him if he thought it was professional to scream, intimidate, and threaten his staff I was told to leave the room. I suggest that everyone re-check first and fourth amendment rights. Please tell me how posting something on Facebook is any different from me writing something on a sign and stapling it to a telephone pole. Why do I have the right to do the latter and not the former? Why are people in positions of higher power and control required to adhere to less standards than those of us at the bottom of the pole?
Judith – You make some good points in your comment, though unfortunately most of that is blocked by your rant against your principal.
You ask why you have the “right to do the former (writing something on a sign and stapling it to a telephone pole)” and not the latter (posting something on Facebook) and my answer is you have the right to do either one…and your employer and other people have the right to make judgement calls about you when you do such things.
While it’s highly unlikely you will be fired for making a single judgement call, you definitely will be if it’s a pattern of behavior that is detrimental to the goals of the organization.
Everything you say, ESPECIALLY if you sign your name to it, can and will be used to judge you and your actions. That’s just the way it is.
Isn’t it about time that someone pulled in the excesses of corporations and facebook? They’ve got too much information about us. I can see in the not-too-distant future that a huge backlash is coming against FB and the companies which abuse info and is none of their business. I’d say the lawsuits will start rolling in by the billions of dollars within the next 5 years. These corporate bullies are gonna get theirs, and get theirs real good. Unless it’s corporate espionage, slander, giving away secrets, nobody should be fired over what they post in FB in their spare time. People shouldn’t be fired over what they publish in a facile electronic medium such as Facebook. It’s not fair.
Hey, since when should a 24 year old Kid and his website be the final arbiter of an individuals fitness as an employee? He’s got all this power over us, our parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, co-workers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has created a monster. Pictures, written material which wouldn’t even batted an eyelash 20-30 years ago are now being used as the last word, when they are not certifiably authentic. All this fluff is being used vindictively against people without their knowledge and to misleading ends. Zuckerberg is the Bill Gates of this generation. Just as Microsoft had to be curtailed, so does Facebook.
I was stuck in a work environment with a “good ole boy club” in the printing industry where drinking on the job (as long as you were part of the good ole boys) was not only permitted but encouraged. I was the only female employee, except for a saleswoman who was not always in the office and when she was, she worked upstairs away from everyone else. I had been seeking employment elsewhere for a very long time because things kept getting worse and worse. I came in at the beginning of the year to discover that I had been demoted to an hourly employee from a salary employee. I had never been given a reason for it and I never signed anything saying I was OK with it. I put up with sexual discrimination, sexually harassing comments, and being called pretty much anything but an actual name. I was a hard worker, came in early every day and stayed late when needed, always got my work done on time and tried to be as accurate as possible. But with somebody blowing the tiniest mistakes way out of proportion every single day (sometimes several times a day) it tends to cause more mistakes than it fixes. One boss in particular is hated by everyone in the entire company, even the co-owners, but they wouldn’t say anything to him about it because he was the “driving force” of the company. I had complained several times to all 3 owners about the mounting stress he was causing me but nothing was ever done about it. There was also no HR department to voice my complaints to. My husband could only take so much of me venting when I got home so I eventually sought counseling for the situation. I made it clear to my bosses that I was seeking counseling for this purpose and they decided to make life even more difficult for me by docking me for a half day vacation every time I had to go to the counselor, even if I was only gone for 2 hours of my 8 hour shift and worked through my lunch hour. I asked what happened when I ran out of vacation time and they said I couldn’t go to counseling anymore. Eventually all of this spilled over into Facebook because I had no where to turn except my friends. On my last day as the other 2 owners were stocking up on beer and food for their weekly poker game upstairs, the first owner I mentioned (the one that drove me to insanity) called me into his office where he laid out all the Facebook comments I had made about them being sexist, disrespectful and drinking on the job and I was fired. I am just wondering what else I could have done. I was on anti-anxiety medication every day that man came into the office. All I wanted to do was do my job and he would always push me for more and say that I was a “fair” employee even though they fired another girl and dumped all her responsibilities on me without giving me so much as a “thank you” or a raise of some sort. When you deal with so much negative and you are trying to keep it from spilling into your home life what are you supposed to do? It seems to me like this would be a perfect situation to exercise first amendment rights, among others. I am currently awaiting the status of my unemployment claim and hope that they don’t try to appeal. I just don’t want anything to do with those awful people anymore. As horrible as it is to be out of a job in this economy, I am just so thankful that I am not there anymore. Too many employers these days are using the fact that it’s hard to find a job to their advantage so they can treat their employees like crap and threaten them with their jobs.
The moral of the story: do not be honest and transparent online; remember to doublethink or the thought police will ruin you….?
I completely disagree Glenn: The real moral is this: Don’t be stupid. Don’t whine about your boss or where you work or want to work online, or anywhere where you’re not 100% sure who will hear your words. And if you wouldn’t say something directly to a person, you shouldn’t post it online. If you don’t care about the repercussions, say whatever you want. If you can stand behind it, then say whatever you want!
i have a friend who is 16 years old, she worked for this company for 3 years and had already been promoted to managment she posted on face book “f u job” and she said nothing else. she did not say why she was currently fusturated with her job. nor where she worked. her post was litterally that and nothing else. is that grounds for termination? i feel likw everyone hates there jobs. its a well known fact and posting that shouldnt be a big deal. i can see people getting fired for posting secrets or slander however i thing saying you hate your job is simply a employer abusing his power for someone saying what everyone else was thinking wether or not they work for his company.
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