General co-worker is getting his job threatened over his twitter account

[drjones]

a guy i work with follows a bunch of anti-trump people on twitter that are pretty over the top, and you can find his twitter account easily if you know his real name so he doesnt really have any expectation of being anonymous.

anyway he re-tweeted some stuff a couple of those people posted (the stuff he re-tweeted was pretty tame), another co-worker/friend saw it and got triggered and then found some of those peoples tweets that were pretty bad, basically all the worst accusations made against trump and accusing him of crimes etc...

so long story short, he got reported to his boss and the owner, he wouldn't apologize or promise to stop so now they are telling him he is going to lose his job if he doesnt change his mind. he wasnt doing this while at work and his twitter account in no way is linked to or mentions his job or employer.

legally can they do this? morally/ethically should they do this?

if you retweet/follow someone are you then for responsible for all the other things they may post?

 

[Robbie Hart]

You have to be careful.....hence why I don't share any details of my ID with anyone online if I can help it......

 

[1372]

 

[Masato Toys]

If he doesn't change his mind? lol

That's crazy I'm so happy I don't work in an office environment like that with thought-police

Its getting bad, yo/

That's why I made it clear early up front that I am already way over the edge, lol nothing I post should surprise anyone

 

[1372]

You have to be careful.....hence why I don't share any details of my ID with anyone online if I can help it......

Your easy to find Throb...

 

[drjones]

If he doesn't change his mind? lol

That's crazy I'm so happy I don't work in an office environment like that with thought-police

Its getting bad, yo/

That's why I made it clear early up front that I am already way over the edge, lol nothing I post should surprise anyone

ha not "change his mind" as in change his personal opinions, just change his mind about his decision to not change his twitter behavior, im actually not 100% sure what they wanted him to do, maybe just unfollow certain people, or disconnect his real name from his twitter or something maybe idk

 

[Masato Toys]

Its the same thing sort of, no?

You can think whatever you want but you can never express those thoughts, you have to pretend you have different thoughts.

Its insane and scary.

I have folded to this to be honest, I post freely on Twitter but not under my real name. A shame we live in such a tense society like this

 

[drjones]

yeah i guess its not a huge difference in a sense, just wanted to clarify a little bit.

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

legally can they do this?

I don't know about all jurisdictions, but here the answer would be "it depends". If his behavior is making his work environment uncomfortable, yes they can fire him with cause.

morally/ethically should they do this?

100%. The same way people shouldn't work for businesses that they feel go against their personal beliefs a business should have no qualms about doing the same.

if you retweet/follow someone are you then for responsible for all the other things they may post?

I don't see why anyone would be, but if he was asked by his employer to change his behavior as they feel it's creating issues and he told them to pound sand (which sounds like is the case) then that's a different story.

 

[Onetrickpony]

Change your twitter name until you find a new job that accommodates having free speech.

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

Change your twitter name until you find a new job that accommodates having free speech.

Would you hire a devout Nazi or jihadist?

 

[Zeph]

We don't live in a democracy from day to day. Day to day we live in a corporate autocracy with your boss ruling your world.

 

[member 3289]

It shouldn't matter as long as he works hard and does his job. It shouldn't matter for his coworkers either.

Can you tell us what industry the company is in?

 

[drjones]

it didnt create any issues at work at all, im going to have to be careful here because with all the trolls here im sure as fuck not posting anything that could link this story to any real person but lets just say it had nothing to do with this guy's actual beliefs or anything he posted.

so here is a fictional example that is as accurate as i can get to what actually happened;

i follow libjizzlover5000 on twitter

i repost his post that is an image of a list of all the trump people that "omitted" contacts with russia, its pretty tame, no harsh words etc

my coworker sees it and gets triggered, they then find another post where libjizzlover5000 posted images of trump with prostitutes or stuff about his wife being a call girl etc these posts have crass images and words in them, but i didnt repost this stuff

i get reported, i defend myself and say i have done nothing wrong, boss dont care - fix it or you are in danger of being fired.

oh and i just found out what they told him "remove any link between your real name that can be tied to this company and anyone posting anything that is slanderous or untoward about the president"

 

[Leigh]

What behaviour are they asking him to change? They want him to unfollow people?

Without knowing what he retweeted, I can't comment on whether the company was justified. You say it's tame and if so, then it's not cool of them to do that.

 

[Onetrickpony]

Would you hire a devout Nazi or jihadist?

Is that what we're calling a few tame anti trump tweets?

As for an answer, if they were a good worker with no problems and they don't try to push their political beliefs and they do not cross into illegal territory, I really don't care.

 

[drjones]

Is that what we're calling a few tame anti trump tweets.

yeah, i would call it pretty tame to retweet an image someone posted that lists the widely reported and mostly acknowledged as true claims about people associated with trump that have not fully disclosed russian contacts, or say a list of small business owners that have sued trump that contains some of their claims about how he screwed them. you dont think things of that nature are fairly innocuous even if you disagree with them?

 

[Wild]

If that's all there is to the story, he should seek advice from an attorney and tell them to pound sand.

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

you dont think things of that nature are fairly innocuous even if you disagree with them?

Was that the extent of the conversation that management had with him, or was that just what he "shared"?

 

[drjones]

well i only know what he is telling me but i have looked at his twitter and he didnt retweet anything offensive etc, just things like the "tame" things i mentioned, the complaint included links (he says) to the other things the people posted which were crass/offensive that he did not link or retweet.

 

[Wintermute]

Some states are "at-will", so he can be terminated for any reason. Having said that, any lawyer would have a field day with this; the company doesn't want that, especially if he's more valuable than the rat. That's probably why they "gave him a choice" to change his mind.

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

well i only know what he is telling me but i have looked at his twitter and he didnt retweet anything offensive etc, just things like the "tame" things i mentioned, the complaint included links (he says) to the other things the people posted which were crass/offensive that he did not link or retweet.

The only reason the employer would have to give him a hard time about this would be something along the lines of "If you don't agree with this, why don't you unfollow (or whatever the fuck)?" and he refused. Realistically a business isn't a democracy, so I'm not sure why people believe his free speech is (or should be) protected.

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

Is that what we're calling a few tame anti trump tweets?

Not at all, I was just illustrating that we all draw our lines at different places. A business owner has a responsibility to protect it's public image. Republicans buy sneakers too.

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

I feel I should clarify something. My employer a few years back had an employee decide it was a good idea to go on Facebook and publicly post about how shitty they are to their employees (couldn't be further from the truth, especially as it pertained to this employee) He (of course) saw nothing wrong with what he had done. A lot of people don't appreciate that in this day and age of social media how far they project themselves, and what it can mean for their career.

 

[jason73]

he should have no problem finding a new job in trumps america