Can Social Media Posts Get You Fired From Your Job?

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Can Social Media Posts Get You Fired From Your Job?
It's simply human nature to suffer slips of the tongue. But when it comes to social media, your employer may not be so understanding.

Consider the time it takes a thought to make its way from grey matter, through the fingers, and past the send button. Despite that temporal expanse, social media scribes usually turn out the lights or simply dismiss the possibility their nuggets might reach further into cyber space than the narrow audience defined by their social media settings.

Let's consider some cases where employees learned the hard way that employers are watching what you say in social media.

From the annals of "What Were They Thinking".

For instance, there's the case of Justine Sacco, a public relations executive with IAC-- a massive media and internet company responsible for sites like Vimeo, About.com, Ask.com, and Match.com, to name a few. Seems Ms. Sacco may have gotten a bit too "excited" just before boarding her flight when she tweeted, "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" Before her plane even touched down, Ms. Sacco's insensitive tweet had gone viral and she was ... well saccoed.

Out of Texas there's the case of a waitress whose Facebook post about bad tippers didn't need to go beyond her circle of close friends to cost her a job. Her first mistake was calling a tightwad customer an "A ** hole" on Facebook. Her next mistake was forgetting the "A ** hole" customer was one of her Facebook close friends who promptly showed the unkind post to the restaurant manager where she worked. No doubt she unfriended the "A ** hole" after that.

While hockey's violent reputation can not be denied, a Canadian coach learned there's no area for Nazism in Vancouver's youth hockey leagues. Christopher Maximilian Sandau, a coach of 6-9 year olds, displayed Nazi propaganda and images on his Facebook page of Adolph Hitler with the message, "Adolf Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told," and a swastika flag with the message: "If this flag offends you, you need a history lesson". His refusal to remove them cost him a coaching job. Check into the boards!

Needless to say, threats will certainly get you noticed ... and possibly fired; especially if you're in law enforcement. In Ohio, a parole officer making a threat to "shoot them all" on Facebook wound up going through a series of psychological exams to determine her fitness for the job. Then, while on medical leave she threatened a co-worker who happened to be dating her ex. Unfortunately for her, probation was not an option and she was fired because of the threats.

Chalk up to just plain stupidity the case of the cook who posted topless pictures of himself on top of the grill at the Chili's restaurant where he worked. Check them out here if you dare. (Ummm eww!) While he may have thought his poses worthy of the "Sexy Cooks of Chili's" calendar, his bare-chested, tattoo stuffed, nipple pierced photos received a chilly response from state health department officials and his employer. Not surprisingly, he soon found himself chillin' on the unemployment line.

Finally, just before going to press, comes this jewel. An affirmative action officer responsible for looking into complaints of job discrimination in a Long Island, New York jail, shared these tidbits on his Facebook page: "Police are protected by a system of white supremacy"; "Dis not your country pale face" and "Racist NYPD CRACKERS". He now finds himself on the receiving end of a discrimination complaint filed by the union representing the jail's corrections officers. Oh, did I mention his name is Andreaus Guilty.

Please Think Before You Post.

In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I, pretending to be dead on the battlefield, Falstaff rationalizes, "The better part of Valor, is Discretion; in the which better part, I have saved my life".

While playing dead in social media defeats its very purpose, the cowardly Falstaff does teach that caution, in the heat of battle, may sometimes be prudent.

So before you send off that next post, tweet, share or picture, take a moment to consider what you're saying and who might hear it.


There's the case of Justine Sacco, a public relations executive with IAC-- a massive media and internet company responsible for sites like Vimeo, About.com, Ask.com, and Match.com, to name a few. Out of Texas there's the case of a waitress whose Facebook post about bad tippers didn't need to go beyond her circle of close friends to cost her a job. Her next mistake was forgetting the "A ** hole" customer was one of her Facebook close friends who promptly showed the unkind post to the restaurant manager where she worked. In Ohio, a parole officer making a threat to "shoot them all" on Facebook wound up going through a series of psychological exams to determine her fitness for the job. An affirmative action officer responsible for looking into complaints of job discrimination in a Long Island, New York jail, shared these tidbits on his Facebook page: "Police are protected by a system of white supremacy"; "Dis not your country pale face" and "Racist NYPD CRACKERS".