Facebook

Facebook is an online time-wasting site. I love it, I go on every night and check various “apps” while I talk to friends online. Most people are familiar with Facebook; it simply displays information about you, pictures, your status, and more. Friends can go online to see what you’ve been up to and chat on Facebook’s instant messaging system. The interesting factor comes in when you realize that the internet is public, and anything you post on Facebook generally can become accessible to the public. What you write on someone’s “wall,” or the pictures you post, could possibly be seen by a teacher at school, a co-worker, your boss at work, and anyone else if they have the time and know-how to peruse the internet. Often what you post on Facebook isn’t offensive and you can’t find any serious fault in it. Also, if you’re careful, it is possible to make your profile and information fairly private. However, in that case of Dan Leone, he wasn’t careful enough.

Leone was an Eagles employee who was upset with the moving of his favorite player to another team. He made the mistake of venting about it in his Facebook status, and was fired for merely writing an insulting line. Now, a Facebook profile is a private thing and the only people you allow to see it should be your friends. Although who saw Leone’s status is unclear, obviously he was not careful enough to keep a moment of anger from reaching his boss.

A similar story occurred in London when James Brennan wrote ““F— the Partnership” as his Facebook status. His boss learned of it and he was immediately fired. Brennen’s comment on the situation is as follows:

"At the end of the day what I wrote was private. You would never get sacked for saying something like that in the pub. I was sacked from Waitrose for something I said on Facebook in my own time. The bosses only saw it because one of my colleagues grassed me up. They printed out a copy of the Facebook page to use as evidence against me. It is an infringement of my privacy."

Being fired for one sentence written in a moment of frustration is ridiculous.

Facebook is part of our semi-private lives. It’s like our diary. Facebook users can choose who may see their information and who can’t. That being said, many people are becoming quite proficient at “Facebook stalking.” Did you know that even if you’re not Facebook friends with someone, you can see a lot of their information if you are a friend of one of their friends? Confusing, yes, but it’s true. The fact that people take the time to check up on you, not as a good neighbor would, but a boss making sure everyone is being good little boys and girls borders on creepy and definitely crosses the line of personal space. So the statement I give is that a person should not lose their job for one small moment of misjudgement. They should lose their job for the fact that they weren’t competent enough to protect themselves from the scrutiny that brings about negative consequences.

Facebook should not be a competition of how many friends you can have, people should only “friend” those they know they can trust. Facebook has options that limit who can see your profile, personal information, pictures, wall posts, and your status. Everyone should use those options! If you know that you have inappropriate pictures on Facebook, if you know that sometimes you have crazy status messages, then do not “friend” your boss. Do not “friend” your principal or teacher or coach. With that in mind, try to refrain from even posting those pictures or that status message if you know that your profile isn’t secure.

Facebook is an amazing website, but it has been abused and its original purposes have been contorted. The website once reserved for college students only has exploded to become a global networking site where people feel the need to upload their entire lives. A simple word of advice; don’t. If you do, protect yourself and your information. I believe you’re not being fired or reprimanded or suspended for the information that you post, but for your inability to protect your own integrity.

Sources:
http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/eagles-employee-fired-for-facebook-post/
http://racetalkblog.com/2008/06/30/employee-fired-for-facebook-comment/