I would have preferred to not write a blog about Facebook this week, since I know the topic has been brought up so much already this semester. I wonder how different this class was before social networking! :) But this article popped up on Yahoo today and it was way too good to pass up.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Prompt-punishment-for-Pittsburgh-pierogi-who-pil?urn=mlb,249782
So the pierogi guy who makes $25 a game/4 times a month running in the mascot race goes on facebook and says this about the Pittsburgh Pirates, who write those checks,"(His message was) aimed at team president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell. It read: 'Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates.””
As a fan he has every right to write that message. As an employee he does not have that right in my opinion. It is one thing to talk bad about your boss, because we all have done it, it is another thing to post it on your facebook profile. It would be interesting to know if employees have to sign a confidentiality clause or agree to not make disparaging remarks against the team. Not sure if the page was set to private and a “friend” ratted him out, or his was open to the public. So needless to say he lost his job over it.
I am sure these cases happen every single day and you just wonder why? I know I often vent frustration through status updates, but I would never write anything derogatory about my boss or another employee. Best case scenario: people read your message and move on. Then was it really worth posting online? Worst case scenario: the wrong people read the comment and you end up losing your job. Then it really wasn’t woth posting it. Privacy settings are there to protect users, but there comes a time when common sense about your posting practices should overshadow even the highest of privacy settings.
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I think he had every right to post whatever he wanted on his Facebook page. I also think his employer had the right to fire him over it. I think it's kind of crappy to do so; the guy should be able to talk like a fan on his Facebook wall. I'm generally not a fan of employers snooping into their employees private and internet lives. Nevertheless, freedom of speech only applies to the government; employers can fire you for anything short of discrimination or breach of employment contract!
ReplyDeleteIn my 7th grade science classroom I tell the students each year that every action comes with a consequence, some may be positive and some may be negative. We have a discussion about possible consequences on both the negative and positive sides. I tell them that I can't control their actions, but I can control the consequence so the choice is theirs on how to act. This is kind of what I think about the freedom of speech (on a much larger scale!!) We have the freedom to say what we want, but we must be able to deal with the possible consequences of those actions as well.
ReplyDeleteI think they had the right to fire him for plain old stupidity. It seems to me to be common sense not to badmouth your employer in a public setting. Additionally, I took a look at the actual article, and the guy in question was already on notice for a previous policy violation. It seems to me that you'd be even more careful to mind your Ps and Qs.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting case because everyone has an opinion about how their favorite sports team is being mishandled. I think the big question is, is what you say on your personal Facebook page open to reprimand from your employer? I know that there was a professor recently who made statements that did not jive with the university he worked at and he was reprimand but it was on his personal page. Facebook seems to have made what were once personal rants into public statements that can cause real trouble. I am very careful about what I post. There are plenty of times I want to rant about something or post something to someone's comment but I don't because I don't want it to come back and get me. I think more and more employment contracts will address this issue.
ReplyDeleteAnother situation popped up recently that was almost exactly the same.
ReplyDeleteThe manager of the Chicago White Sox, Ozzie Guillen, was forced to fire his own son when the young man decided to use his Twitter page to criticize the team's administration.
The important lesson here is that in America, our free speech rights only seem to be ensured by the government, not our employers.
For this reason, I will never work for any of my favorite sports teams.
Well, he certainly had every right to post that on his page. However, it was clearly unwise! ;) People should realize that it's best not to post something negative about your workplace. Once it's published, it's out there. Even if you change your mind later, someone could have taken a screenshot... you never know. Everyone complains about work, but it's probably better to keep it verbal... with friends or family, or whoever doesn't have connections to your workplace.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a facebook page, it may be best to not add anyone from work as a friend, and to set your privacy settings to "friends only." This should be obvious, but so many people just don't think about it.