Woman Illegally Fired Over Facebook Remarks

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Darkerson

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I was reading about this today around the web and on FB. While I think its not a good idea to go running your mouth about your boss on FB, for office politics based reasons, she shouldnt have been fired over it. Sounds like they were grasping at straws for a reason to get rid of her, but should have used her performance record as a reason, and not her FB comments like they did. I bet some more heads are gonna roll as a result, since this will probably cost her former bosses company some serious money if she wins.
 

Dirtman73

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The irony here is that employers expect their employees to act in an ethical manner at ALL times, but when the opportunity arises to fire somebody they don't like, employers become as slanderous and sneaky as a common backstabbing thug.
 

kingnoobe

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I hope she does get some money. Even if she deserved to be fired for other reasons (they should've those reasons).. If she didn't mention a name, and simply said supervisor I don't think she did anything wrong there. Maybe not the brightest thing, but none the less I see nothing wrong with it. Hell even if somebody wrote something like that about me and I saw it, I'd probably just blow it off and miss with him/her about it the next day.
 

cookoy

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so posting disgusting, slanderous statements about a co-worker on Facebook is protected speech under labor laws, even if it goes against company rules and regulations. as long as it's on Facebook anything goes. no insubordination. no slander. it's like you have diplomatic immunity. thanks for letting me know. now whom should i start blasting away - the CEO or the GM?
 

jerreece

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Obviously we don't have all the information to begin with. Two complaints from "customers" in 10 days sounds horrible. But we also have to consider, American Medical Response is an ambulance company. If this employee is a Paramedic/EMT they may well be dealing with emergency medical situations. Sometimes you have to be pretty blunt with people in those situations, and folks don't always like that.

Or this employee could have been a 911 operator that takes medical calls for AMR. Even in that situation, sometimes you have to be blunt to get people to give you the information you need. Sure there's a fine line between blunt and rude, but who knows whether the complaints are worth firing someone over.

As for Facebook. Get with the times AMR. If the supervisor really has a huge problem with it, it sounds like they'd fair better in court if they sued for liable/slander privately.
 

falconqc

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I don't know who to root for in situations like these.

On one end of the spectrum, I strongly agree that being fired because you had some snide remarks or because of your after work activities is unacceptable, unless those activities are illegal. People have lives outside of work and should strive to keep the two separate.

On the other end, people should learn that to put their whole lives on facebook is a security risk and should start to use proper security settings to prevent everybody from viewing all their information.

From the article, looks like she wasn't a model employee to begin with, but they should have fired her on those grounds, not what she posted on facebook.
 

hellwig

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This is a touch nut to crack. Were her posts made publicly available, or could only her friends see the posts? If only her "friends" could see the post, and a friended co-worker reported the remarks, that would be like a friend tattling about the water-cooler conversation, and isn't illegal. However, if this woman made comments that anyone on Facebook or the internet could read, that's basically publishing her thoughts, which could count as libel.

I don't agree with current libel or slander laws (I don't think individuals should carry enough clout to actually slander anyone or anything in the first place), but too many people seem to think the internet is just a great place to be a dickhead.

The company handled this poorly. If they had enough complaints to fire her anyway, that should have been their official reason. Why mention the facebook postings and open themselves up to a lawsuit? This would be like firing someone for not showing up to work, then making some comment about their race. You just lost any credibility you had.
 

ikefu

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"An employee was fired today because they posted a status on facebook that used big words their boss couldn't understand and in turn made the boss feel bad. The company made a statement saying that it is against their policy to perform actions that devalue the confidence of co-workers"

That's pretty much where we're heading. Build a bridge and get over it people.
 

robochump

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Sounds like Souza was another pain in the ass employee...lol. I would not simply take the word of her employer but if she had complaints against her she should have known better than to type her feelings in such a rude manner.
 

sceen311

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Yeah she should be fired for making comments on her own virtual property about her boss. And I should be jailed for my "George W. Bush is Crazy" bumper sticker. Which I've had on for the last 9 years mind you.

I'm wondering, if they even bothered to giver her boss a psychiatric review.
 

K-zon

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Virtually speaking she wasnt talking at the Water Foutain at work with an issue that was talking place at work, that would usually if anything have who you are talking about walk up on you maybe and get drink, if unlucky maybe perhaps. But why would you still get fired then here?

Facebook isnt at right, and in such how much of your bosses rights to speak have been taken into place on using your rights? I probably dont even work the city with the issue of persons and was able to hear about it, rather thats much of anything within arguement, probably not, but your boss is probably wondering why someone else might know.

Its more of whos right as more justified in holding, rather prior or post.
 

K-zon

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Facebook isnt your own private time so to say, even though given it might be useful to discuss things of issues that might be problems. Most companies might not have an extensive overhead system rather with personal or just overhead of policy of procedure in work, rather to condone say gossipping or such as rather or not, also given that she could not find respresentation from maybe her Union on a prior issue, had kinda mentioned that earlier, given maybe what was being said about issues of what on facebook and given the complexity of the types of conversation not such a private place can have, your union might of felt given with prior complaint for offense of firing on your bosses grounds of issues something further to hold off, due to whatever reason to not get respresented in the first place, cause getting fired might not even matter. Right? But then again it could, but the last part to worry about would probably be the talking on Facebook.
 

cp8427

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This is the one of the dumbest reasons to fire a person. It's kinda like saying "I overheard you talking $#!* about me while you were using the toilet, you're fired you piece of..."
 

Darkv1

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Not that I condone publicly ranting about how dumb you think your boss is but this falls into the utter bulls*** category.
 

coldmast

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She wasn't publicly identifying her boss by name, there has been to many instances of people posting on their online blogs about issues that they have. Sure, I think my last employers where a bunch of cheap, dumb, Bastille operators; but I'm not going to slander their respective names or the organisation. I never thought my previous employer was crazy, a bit of a donkey though.
 

guardianangel42

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[citation][nom]mastadisasta_31[/nom]Damn lazy Americans bitch because they have to actually do some work!! I would fire the dumb broad too! You want to bitch about it, well I will hire a foreigner to replace you and that person will work their ass off, with no complaints. But you sue and win even tho you deserved to be caned. Gota love America, this grap is what makes me wish 2012 really does go down.[/citation]
That's interesting. So you are alright with a global apocalypse because of one country having overeager lawsuit lawyers. I'm American and just seems like punishing everyone for the mistakes of a few.

All joking aside, just because the article says that she was fired for her facebook remarks doesn't mean that that was the written reason on the notice of termination. Most likely she believes it is the remarks and not the complaints as it is infinitely easier to blame someone else instead of yourself.

Besides, lawsuits and Unions being what they are in America, I highly doubt it was a cited reason. Every medical company is on the lookout for lawsuits, they're the reason the cost of healthcare is so high (my mom has been an RN for over twenty years). Doctors and hospitals have to pay exorbitant sums to cover lawyers to fight off malpractice lawsuits, and as a result costs go up.
 
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