Fired Because of Facebook?

A Connecticut woman was fired in late 2009 because she posted a disparaging comment about her boss on Facebook. She then traded comments with several fellow employees about her initial post. Her employer then fired her.

The National Labor Relations Board is now suing her employer, arguing that Federal law has held for some time that employees must be protected from reprisal after talking about the workplace on their own time. The woman who was fired was not at work when she posted her comments, and she was using her personal computer.

I suppose the argument for firing her might be that a a few coworkers complaining about their boss at a restaurant is different than creating a permanent, electronic record of such complaints that is accessible to thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of people.

Here is a link to the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40097443/ns/business-personal_finance/

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court.

Thanks for reading-- Max Wachtel, Ph.D.

www.CherryCreekPsychology.com

Posted in: Facebook,fired,lawsuit