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Feds Settle Case of Woman Fired Over Facebook Posts
Mr.Intel writes "Employers should think twice before trying to restrict workers from talking about their jobs on Facebook or other social media. That's the message the government sent on Monday as it settled a closely watched lawsuit against a Connecticut ambulance company that fired an employee after she went on Facebook to criticize her boss in 2009."
No just kidding I fucking love my job.
TBH, I think employers in the States are a little presumptuous over the lives of those who work for them.
Meddling with your employees only turns them against you. Stop it.
If you are worried about what people will say about you over social networking sites, then it's time to have better policies that make sense to everyone, and consider your employees first, but this doesn't cover disloyalty, so if you work for Pepsi or Coke and you drink the other company's products on your social media you could still be fired.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Concerted activity is protected regardless of the medium of communication. In order for workers to organize to improve their lives, they must be free to discuss wages or conditions without facing retaliation from their bosses. In practice this is rarely the case, especially since most workers lack a union to back up their rights. It's good that the courts didn't take capital's side for once.
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
So if one of my employees writes somewhere that he thinks I'm a moron or he insults my wife or spreads nasty rumors about my sex life I just have to keep happily giving him my money?
That's crazy.
following your line of thinking... so if the really hot secretary you hired won't blow you, you can fire her?
... wait, what?
So if one of my employees writes somewhere that he thinks I'm a moron or he insults my wife or spreads nasty rumors about my sex life I just have to keep happily giving him my money?
That's crazy.
Yes, that's exactly what this states. Because his private conversations in a private place, or even his public conversations in a public place, on his or her own time, are absolutely none of your business.
From a professional standpoint.
Just like if one of your employees went to a bar after work and was ranting about you. You would have no justification in firing them for their behavior off the clock like that.
You are paying for your employee's time, knowledge, and skills. You have to earn their loyalty and respect.
Exactly, in the eyes of the legal system you cannot punish them as a boss, you must address it as if it were your neighborhood posting those things.
If I'm the one compensating them I should be able to fire them, for whatever reason I choose.
The problem with that is that if you are working for someone else, as does 99% of the working US citizens, suddenly you have to watch what you say on your own time. I find that incredibly uncomfortable. In fact a large percentage of me speech is throttled because I am well aware that my employer can fire me for almost any reason or for no stated reason at all.
Our life off the clock should be ours to live as we wish. How many of us work for people who have conservative christian leanings? What if that employer is backing some serious overly conservative bible thumping organizations that are trying to limit people's rights and freedoms. I would like to be able to openly protest and fight against those efforts while not at work without fear of being fired.
I didn't think you were right at first, but it turns out you are!
The legal arguement in this case was:
Lafe Solomon, the board’s counsel, said: “This is a fairly straightforward case under the National Labor Relations Act — whether it takes place on Facebook or at the water cooler, it was employees talking jointly about working conditions, in this case about their supervisor, and they have a right to do that.”
That act gives workers a federally protected right to form unions, and it prohibits employers from punishing workers — whether union or nonunion — for discussing working conditions or unionization.
Additionally, this is a federal labor law, so it applies even in states with At Will employment laws.
I seriously doubt that if the owner of Lake Louie caught one of his employees enjoying the latest concoction from Dogfish Head that there would be any problem. People who make beer know how to enjoy and appreciate beer, even if they didn't make it.
Maybe you meant those companies advertise beer but actually bottle alcoholic horse urine? Since Budweiser and Miller both bottle the same thing, I could see why they might get a little upset if one of their employees was drinking horse urine from the other company.
Help I'm a rock.
If your boss being an asshole is a trade secret, that's a big red flag.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.