From:
http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Fired-for-Facebook/AUXT7Op3gE--6HzqbWVKig.cspx
11/14/10
Auburn (WSYR-TV) - Like many people, she was unhappy with her job. She didn't get along with some of her co-workers and thought her managers didn't want to hear her opinions, but instead of keeping her anger about it quiet, an Auburn woman shared her feelings on Facebook. A few days later, she was fired from her job.
"Mary" worked at a call-center in Auburn. A few weeks ago, after a rough day at the office, she came home and vented with a facebook comment on her wall - a wall that was public at the time. Her aunt, responded immediately:
Aunt: I just have to ask, what is it that you do for a living that you so dislike is it the job itself or do you work with freaks?
Mary: OMG, I work with freaks, picture uneducated white trash from a factory setting, put them in an office with a title and try and picture them with no people skills that want to leave you into hell, I've had fingers shaking in my face, was backhanded while on a call, threatened with a stapler to the back of my head.
Aunt: Oh, one of those deals, good god sounds dangerous even, I'm picturing people in slasher movies, zombies with missing teeth, keep looking hard.
Mary: You're scarily close to the visuals, one of my supervisors doesn't have teeth, two others smoke pot on their breaks and pass out pot cookies.
About a week after those posts, her boss handed out a memo to the entire staff, reminding employees of the social media policy which says employees can't use the company's name or be disrespectful to co-workers.
"I signed the form - in the whole post, I did not mention where I worked, it's not in my profile where I work, no names were mentioned at all," "Mary" said.
She was fired the next day, with a letter that had the comments she made on Facebook listed verbatim.
"Mary" does not believe that the comments made on Facebook would create any office strife. "I can understand if I was in the room talking to other employees or in the office and talking loud but I don't understand how they can go after your personal Facebook," she said.
Mary agrees her comments were harsh. Nonetheless, she feels the firing was unfair and is worried about what this will mean as she begins to search for a new job. "When you have to fill that question out, why were you fired from your last job or if they ask, I'm not going to want to seem like some disgruntled employee looking for a way out," she said.
This is a lesson to be learned for anybody who uses Facebook - don't talk about work, period.
The owner of the company that "Mary" worked for tells NewsChannel 9 that he does not have a specific Facebook policy but a "respect" policy.
In a ground-breaking case, similar to that of "Mary's," The National Labor Relations Board decided last week to issue a complaint against a Connecticut company for firing an employee after she posted derogatory comments about her supervisor on Facebook.
The labor relations board argues that a workers' criticism of a boss on social networking site is generally a protected concerted activity and whether it takes place on Facebook or at the water cooler, it was employees talking jointly about working conditions, or in the Connecticut case, about their supervisor.
A judge is scheduled to hear that case on January 25th
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