Man Fired For Using The Like Button On Facebook

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Your "likes" on Facebook are not constitutionally protected. If you work for Pepsi and you "like" Coke's Facebook page, expect to be called on the carpet. ;)

According to a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson, you absolutely can be fired for using that Like button. "Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient," wrote Jackson in his ruling. "It is not the kind of substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional protection."
Click to expand...
 
He likes the company which produces the superior soft drink. I would've promoted him.
 
its sad how company's invade peoples private life. just because someone works for your company doesnt mean they have to like the product they are selling
 
jay2nice000 said:
its sad how company's invade peoples private life. just because someone works for your company doesnt mean they have to like the product they are selling
Click to expand...

But on the other hand, you are somewhat promoting a product if you "like" it on Facebook.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Kinda neutral on the whole thing.
 
Its his own fault for making his profile public IMO.
 
Reading the article, 6 people who worked for a sheriffs office were fired for liking the guy who is running against the current mayor, their boss. This is ridiculous
 
I know coworker husband who works for Coke and you can bet your ass they are serious about Coke vs Pepsi and vice versa.
 
Here's an idea...

Stop posting crap on facebook, and continue to just think whatever you want without getting fired for it. It really is as simple as not posting every detail of your personal life tied to an account that anyone sees specifically as you.
 
I used to work at Sweetbay and shopped at Publix, both are grocery chains in the S.E. USA.

Companies need to stop prying into people PERSONAL lives. Now if this was a person's company profile then yes he is responsible for what he posted.
 
While the concept of what happened stinks to high heaven.... I do admit that it was funny as all hell.

McDonald likes Burger King
Taco Bell likes Chipotle
Reebok like Nike

FIRED FIRED FIRED!
 
The article is a bit light on the nuances. But if the judge is trying to say clicking "like" is not a protected form of free speech, I can see that. This is really more of a discrimination issue so it should be those laws defending the employees.

You support democrats? We are republican - You're fired.
You support black rights? We are southern - you're fired.
You support Mormons? We sell coffee - you're fired.
You support cats with grammar disabilities? That's not funny - you're fired.
 
So USA, do you begin to understand why the rest of the world look at you as if you're short an indian in the canoe, not playing with a full deck?
I do realize that most U.S. Americans are just as smart as anyone else but these stupid things keep coming and the vast majority comes from USA.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good things coming from USA, a great amount of new inventions, a big load of new or better technologies and so on.
It's just that these stupid crazy things keep happening.
 
Wolfkin said:
So USA, do you begin to understand why the rest of the world look at you as if you're short an indian in the canoe, not playing with a full deck?
I do realize that most U.S. Americans are just as smart as anyone else but these stupid things keep coming and the vast majority comes from USA.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good things coming from USA, a great amount of new inventions, a big load of new or better technologies and so on.
It's just that these stupid crazy things keep happening.
Click to expand...

I fully agree. I'm ready to move to Antarctica and be done with civilization for good.
 
DocFaustus said:
Some companies require their employees (at least sales) to engage on Facebook. That makes this situation unavoidable.
Click to expand...

And in those circumstances you treat it as nothing more than a work related account. The situation is completely avoidable.
 
Wolfkin said:
So USA, do you begin to understand why the rest of the world look at you as if you're short an indian in the canoe, not playing with a full deck?
I do realize that most U.S. Americans are just as smart as anyone else but these stupid things keep coming and the vast majority comes from USA.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good things coming from USA, a great amount of new inventions, a big load of new or better technologies and so on.
It's just that these stupid crazy things keep happening.
Click to expand...

There's nothing we can do about it; our democracy has turned into an oligarchy, but nobody wants to admit it.

Give it 10-20 years, there will finally be a red state (conservative) vs blue state (liberal) civil war and this mess will get straighted out.
 
Wolfkin said:
So USA, do you begin to understand why the rest of the world look at you as if you're short an indian in the canoe, not playing with a full deck?
I do realize that most U.S. Americans are just as smart as anyone else but these stupid things keep coming and the vast majority comes from USA.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good things coming from USA, a great amount of new inventions, a big load of new or better technologies and so on.
It's just that these stupid crazy things keep happening.
Click to expand...

Spare me.

Americans tend to talk about their warts with zeal. They aren't filtering their comments through any regard for nationalistic pride.

As for this ruling, it will be overturned. If anyone actually read the actual article, they'd realize it wasn't about coke and pepsi and be more upset with what happened.
 
Good thing there is no dislike button, just imagine that! Also good thing I stopped using facebook and don't really give a damn what my employer thinks of me. As long as I do my job and am productive they can speak to my lawyer if they see it differently.
 
sir-gold said:
There's nothing we can do about it; our democracy has turned into an oligarchy, but nobody wants to admit it.

Give it 10-20 years, there will finally be a red state (conservative) vs blue state (liberal) civil war and this mess will get straighted out.
Click to expand...

US democracy has turned into a Parliament. I grew up under one. They suck.
 
This country is turning into the biggest conglomeration of pussies on the planet. France used to have the lead on that.

If that were me I'd burn the word "Constitution" on a baseball bat and whack it upside their heads. If I'm gonna get fired at least this would be something worth getting fired over. Plus I'd enjoy it.
 
Rob94hawk said:
This country is turning into the biggest conglomeration of pussies on the planet. France used to have the lead on that.

If that were me I'd burn the word "Constitution" on a baseball bat and whack it upside their heads. If I'm gonna get fired at least this would be something worth getting fired over. Plus I'd enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Can I "like" this comment?

You have finally given me the idea for the tattoo I want: "veritas et libertas"
 
ninjaturtle said:
I used to work at Sweetbay and shopped at Publix, both are grocery chains in the S.E. USA.

Companies need to stop prying into people PERSONAL lives. Now if this was a person's company profile then yes he is responsible for what he posted.
Click to expand...

it isn't PERSONAL if someone posted it in PUBLIC for anyone to see though...as said, make your profile private... simple, problem solved!
 
MrGuvernment said:
it isn't PERSONAL if someone posted it in PUBLIC for anyone to see though...as said, make your profile private... simple, problem solved!
Click to expand...

Why stop there?, how about companies have people following their off duty employees around when they are banking, playing with your kid at the park, shopping saying we don't like your activities, this is what you are going to do? Do you actually draw a line in the sand on where things should be allowed or not, or are you perfectly fine with people bending over getting fisted with an arm tattooed with the word "authority"?

Just because these office workers were fired for "liking" someone else besides the current sheriff and "somehow", "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office." is complete and utter bullshit! As an employer, if an employee brought stuff like this to my attention, it would be my professional duty to recognize that that employee could "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office." for bring ill-trivial matters to the office. I might not like their choose for liking someone else, but it is their choose, especially if their FB pages was only in their name and set to public view, it is still apart of their life away from work which has very little bearing to a work place. If their FB pages were titled "so so at backwater county sheriff office", it is still their right to voice their opinion about liking another candidate more than me, I still might not like it, but their representing the sheriff office, not me. Now on the other if the pages were title "so so for sheriff ninjaturtle", then yes, I would have a problem.
 
because posting something online is far easier to do and it is far easier to find those posts by people than to have people physically following people around.

i dont think it is fair, what i do in my time outside of work is non of anyone's business, but i also dont post things online i would not want someone else to see...

it is BS why they fired him, there could be more to the story we dont know and they just used that as the main reason to get them fired.
 
Just say you left your FB open and someone thought they'd pull a prank and make you like Coke :p
DocFaustus said:
Some companies require their employees (at least sales) to engage on Facebook. That makes this situation unavoidable.
Click to expand...
If that's the case then you just treat it like a work account and don't use it for random shit like "liking" a competitor's product. And since when do you have to "like" something anyway, it was totally avoidable. He didn't have to like things and if he wanted to like things he could have used a different account. It's fucking retarded, but it's avoidable. I have a work email, and I don't use it for anything other than communicating with people at work or communicating with people outside work for work related tasks. If work forced me to have a FB, I'd treat it the same.

I don't want my bosses knowing every detail of what I do in my private life, except maybe for a couple of bosses who I know quite well outside of work anyway, as such I don't have people like that on my FB and I don't go commenting or "liking" random shit either.
 
ninjaturtle said:
Why stop there?, how about companies have people following their off duty employees around when they are banking, playing with your kid at the park, shopping saying we don't like your activities, this is what you are going to do? Do you actually draw a line in the sand on where things should be allowed or not, or are you perfectly fine with people bending over getting fisted with an arm tattooed with the word "authority"?

Just because these office workers were fired for "liking" someone else besides the current sheriff and "somehow", "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office." is complete and utter bullshit! As an employer, if an employee brought stuff like this to my attention, it would be my professional duty to recognize that that employee could "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office." for bring ill-trivial matters to the office. I might not like their choose for liking someone else, but it is their choose, especially if their FB pages was only in their name and set to public view, it is still apart of their life away from work which has very little bearing to a work place. If their FB pages were titled "so so at backwater county sheriff office", it is still their right to voice their opinion about liking another candidate more than me, I still might not like it, but their representing the sheriff office, not me. Now on the other if the pages were title "so so for sheriff ninjaturtle", then yes, I would have a problem.
Click to expand...

The issue here with this is that the internet gives you a bigger platform. 20 years ago, you didn't like your job, thought your boss was an asshole, thought your ex was a slutty bitch... you sit with your friends or at a bar or something, you complain to the small group of people and that was it. Now people go online, they aim to have a larger audiance, they post stuff in manors that they can be seen by larger groups.... so they are telling their message to a lot larger group so they need to be a little more careful.

A perfect example of this is the woman that failed to get hired by Cisco due to a posting she made online. she applied for the job, got interviewed and they overed her the job. What does she do but tweet right away how she got offered a fat payment for a job that she is going to hate. They seen that and decided to save her the time and pulled the offer.

Or the 20 or so year old a few years back that posted online how she hates her job, her boss is an asshole and she screws around online as much as possible to avoid having to do any real work and will be glad when she doesn't have to work there anymore. they fired her because she had her boss as a friend on there.

When you are online, making it well known that you are an employee of a company and thus are acting as PR for that company. You should expect to follow at least a certain degree of guideline.

Somebody that works at ford as the VP of sales shouldn't be posting online how he thinks everyone should stop buying Ford due to them being the worst fucking cars ever made and how instead they should buy Nissans. Its would be like if Steve Jobs went around saying Apple sucked. Your actions online have much more of an impact than they did back in the 80s when you came home and bitched to your wife about your bad day at work. Getting home and posting online for the entire world to see has much more of an impact.

How many times has a person gotten back support from somebody, posted it online and a mob appeared to go after that preson, start calling their house, threaten to rape their wives and daughters then kill them.... A guy (no matter where on the ladder) from a company online posting a bunch of negative stuff about a company where he works can start a wild fire that spreads accross the internet.

Depending on how it is done and what you say, no i don't think a company should be able to limit your ability to say or do some stuff outside of hours. but if you are online posting slander against your place of employeement, trying to get people to avoid doing business with your work and instead go someplace else...Then sure i think they should be allowed to fire you, if you don't want to be there that badly then why should you care anyway. if you stand in the lobby of your workplace and tell ever person coming in they are dumb asses and need to leave i would think you should be fired just the same.
 
when is pepsi perfect going to be announced it is almost 2015 I will so buy bottles of pepsi p[erfect.

Bscap0310.jpg



http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Pepsi_Perfect
 
Not what if he had been using company time to click the "like" thing when he should have been actually doing some work. Now it was on company time, not personal time. In a situation like this wouldn't that be akin to going out on the street and telling everyone how you "like" coke while being on company time, lol.

Now if this was done outside of work, his time, then I agree with everyone else in that it's his personal life and they need to stay the hell out.
 
Ok, for people who are use to being spoon fed one-liner's the story isn't about coke & pepsi. That was a hypothetical example.

Here is the real story linked in the article
According to a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson, you absolutely can be fired for using that Like button. "Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient," wrote Jackson in his ruling. "It is not the kind of substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional protection."

The decision was handed down in response to a case involving six Virginia workers who were fired by their boss, Sheriff B.J. Roberts. These workers, according to the case, "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office." How, exactly? By Liking the Facebook page of Jim Adams, the man who was running against Roberts for the office of sheriff.According to a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson, you absolutely can be fired for using that Like button. "Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient," wrote Jackson in his ruling. "It is not the kind of substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional protection."

The decision was handed down in response to a case involving six Virginia workers who were fired by their boss, Sheriff B.J. Roberts. These workers, according to the case, "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office." How, exactly? By Liking the Facebook page of Jim Adams, the man who was running against Roberts for the office of sheriff.
Click to expand...
Sure, these guys were giving their boss a big middle finger. But it still overlaps with the fact these men were fired for liking the wrong candidate.
 
After reading this, it's embarrassing to be a Pepsi fan. Are these companies being run by over-paid, golden-diapered little babies ?
 
03grandam said:
Not what if he had been using company time to click the "like" thing when he should have been actually doing some work. Now it was on company time, not personal time. In a situation like this wouldn't that be akin to going out on the street and telling everyone how you "like" coke while being on company time, lol.

Now if this was done outside of work, his time, then I agree with everyone else in that it's his personal life and they need to stay the hell out.
Click to expand...

That doesn't matter... There is no way anyone can prove he did otherwise.
 
There are two points that seem noteworthy to me.
One, prove I did you harm by "liking" an alternate product, there is no way to know if I did it in jest or not nor whether you were harmed. I would go so far as to say firing a person for clicking a single button on facebook has done more harm to their company.

Two, prove my account wasn't compromised.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top