Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Career Murder (Suicide?) by Social Media

Recently, a Minnesota man sent a racist screed to Black Lives Matter via Facebook.  It was vulgar (the 'n' word was used), and it contained sentiment that sounded pretty darned hateful.

The link to his post is here.

Why did he do it?  Nobody knows except him.  Regardless, he did it, and as stated here previously, what happens on the internet is ALWAYS public.

Beyond using racist language, the person that sent the message made the error of listing his employer on his Facebook profile.  Immediately things kicked into gear on the BLM side, and calls when out to his employer to take action against the man, or face the wrath of a boycott.

Immediately his employer fired him.

Should his employer have done that?  In some respects it seems like they're overstepping their bounds and knuckling under to political correctness extortion.  On the other side, if this guy was managing black employees, I don't know how you'd ever get that cow back in the barn.  I see no other path forward than to fire him.

And it's not just this job that the guy lost.  Every future HR area will Google his name, and be presented with the same.  His entire career is toast.

You're not anonymous online.  Ever.  And if you do something stupid, or espouse an opinion that others think is repugnant, it can cost you. 

1 comment:

Please feel free to include any thoughts you may have. Know, however, that kiddos might be reading this, so please keep the adult language to yourself. I know, for me to ask that language is clean is a stretch...

yeldogpat-20