Social media: the art of firing
“Only post what you would want your current or future boss to see.” — They
How often have we heard this statement? That we should watch what we share online in case an employer stumbles upon it, months or years from now?
Well, “they” are onto something here.
Ever since the emergence of the Internet and social media, we’ve been using the luxury of comfort and anonymity to our advantage. However, as technology has advanced, nothing is private anymore. Tweets under a pseudonym can be traced back to a computer’s IP and the same goes for a Tumblr post or Instagram photo. You can even share a status on Facebook using your true identity, but be aware. EVERYBODY will see it.
That goes without saying regarding NSFW posts: anything remotely offensive, racist, homophobic, sexist, or degrading can be flagged. If you have your employer as a “friend” or “follower”, great. You’ve just made their task of firing you that much easier. If you don’t, don’t be fooled by privacy settings. You’re still not protected. It’s important to remember that when you log online, you’re not just some pixels on a screen. You represent your friends and family, personal brand, and most importantly — the company you work endless hours for. The company that pays your bills.
On-air Sportsnet host Damian Goddard learned this the hard way. After tweeting his support for Todd Reynold, a hockey agent against gay marriage, he was immediately fired by Rogers. The media company then issued their own tweet, stating, “Today’s tweet from Damian Goddard does not reflect the views of Rogers Sportsnet.” In Rogers’ official statement shortly after, they deemed Goddard as “not the right fit for our organization” and rightly so.
Moreover, in 2013 when Ferguson, Missouri was in a major racial unrest, one woman commented on a Facebook post, saying, “The police need to just start mowing [blacks] down with machine guns… Purge them,” — suggesting a massacre. With the help of the public, however, it was discovered that the woman worked at Houston’s Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital. An unidentified man who found the comment extremely racist said, “A hospital is a place where you’re supposed to have compassion upon people of all races.” It seems like Memorial Hermann agreed, as she was laid off not long after.
It’s not to say that you no longer have freedom of expression. (You do — that’s how you’re able to tweet instantaneously.) It’s to say that there will be consequences behind your words, pixelated or not. In fact, the more I think about it, hiding behind a screen gives us the same illusion as using a credit card: we’re not cognisant of how much we’re actually spending because the card acts as a substitute. In other words, the act and implication are both just as detrimental, but masked.
So here are some tips: don’t post anything you wouldn’t want published in the news or sent to your grandmother’s phone. Don’t tweet while you’re not sober or completely aware of your actions. Don’t complain about your job or employer in such a way that you shouldn’t be there in the first place. And always, always think twice before you hit ‘send’.
You never know who you’ll encounter one day, and perhaps it’ll be the man you insulted in a forum or the woman you tweeted a photo of, calling “fat”. Maybe you’ll even meet a friend of the person you subtweeted at a job interview. (We tend to forget how wide networks can be.) So yes, keep your current or future bosses in mind when sharing posts of any sort.
After all, what’s out there will always be.
