Rant: My coworker in Tampa got fired last week for a political joke on his private Facebook, and I think it was completely unfair.

He posted a meme about local election signs on his personal page, which had maybe 200 friends, and our boss found it through a mutual connection and let him go on the spot for 'unprofessional conduct' even though his work was always perfect.

4 comments

4 Comments

logan5613mo ago

It's not really private if you have 200 friends who can share it... companies have a right to protect their image, and a public post can still hurt them. Your coworker knew the boss was connected online, so it was a risk he took. Perfect work doesn't matter if you cause a problem that makes the company look bad to clients or other staff. Sometimes keeping your job means watching what you say online, even on your own time.

bettym113mo ago

Yeah I learned that the hard way lol, now I just assume anything I post could end up at work.

kim_ramirez31mo ago

How do you even relax online anymore?

granthunt3mo ago

My buddy Dave in Austin had a similar thing happen last year. He made a dumb joke about parking tickets in a private group chat with like 30 people from his softball team. Someone took a screenshot, it got back to his manager, and he got a formal warning. The whole thing was so stupid because he was just messing around with friends. It really does feel like you can't say anything anywhere now without it being a work thing.