Comments on: Fired for Facebook and Twitter

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:31:18 +0000

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.

By: Phil Gerbyshak

Phil Gerbyshak — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:39:44 +0000

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!

By: Glenn Friesen

Glenn Friesen — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:13:38 +0000

The moral of the story: do not be honest and transparent online; remember to doublethink or the thought police will ruin you….?

By: Compulsory Post #1 « the Spyder web:

Compulsory Post #1 « the Spyder web: — Sun, 15 May 2011 14:31:05 +0000

[...] for instance, this Twitter Twit, shared by Phil Gerbyshak (2009), about one job seeker who tweeted about her job offer. “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I [...]

By: 10 DOs and DON’Ts for your job-related posts on your personal SM sites « Whitney Sewell

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:28:23 +0000

[...] Need more convincing? Check out this article from Phil Gerbyshack. [...]

By: Shawn O'Kelley

Shawn O'Kelley — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:30:50 +0000

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!

By: Happily Unemployed

Happily Unemployed — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:01:07 +0000

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.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:58:40 +0000

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.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 04:39:05 +0000

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.

By: Phil Gerbyshak

Phil Gerbyshak — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:28:49 +0000

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.