1. What is your initial reaction to this story?I was initially shocked by this story especially considering that the employee was just expressing his opinion and not being rude or anything. I personally do not feel that he deserved to be put through that kind of treatment for expressing himself. But I was also shocked that he had said for others who didn't agree with others to shoot each other. So I feel 50/50 that he was, fine with expressing his opinion yet wrong for that other comment. I feel that if the employer was unhappy with his post that they should have just confronted him and reprimand him, not immediately fire him.
2. What reason did the employer provide for firing this person?The employer's reasons for firing this person was that they felt that it was a very important rule for their employees to not get into what they would consider "public controversy". Also that they didn't want their employees to either support or even oppose the issue, which this employee did when he was commenting on the shooting.
3. Was the firing legal? Why?
According to the lawyers, the firing was legal since it is apparently in their right to snoop around their employers pages especially if they were able to access them. Anything they find that they consider "objectionable" would give them the means to fire their employees. Then they say that people in the "private world" misinterpret their range of freedom of speech, meaning that they really can not say what they want to even on their social media pages, without being check on by their employers.
4. What do you think is meant by the term Digital Footprint?
To me Digital Footprint sounds like when you post something online, then even if you go to delete it that it will still leave its "imprint" on the world web database. So it would never truly disappear and will always be there, so then you should be careful with what you put online since it will always be out.
5. Are the things you post on Facebook and Twitter really private, even if you set your privacy settings to maximum?I feel that even if you have your privacy settings on that nothing is ever private especially if it is online. So while it might be "private" against other people, I still feel that the people who control the system have their ways of getting around the rules and invading on people's pages that are supposed to be "private".
6. It is clear the man in the video did not think the comments he made on Facebook would get him fired. If you were his friend and he told you what she was planning to post before he actually made the post, what would your advice have been to him? Why?My advice would be for him to continue with saying his opinions. However, one thing I disagreed with is that he had said "SHOOT PEOPLE YOU DISAGREE WITH". To me it seemed that he was advocating the shooting other people, which is certainly not right at all. But I do feel that he had every right to say what he wanted to. I would warn him to be cautious with what ever he wished to post online, even if he or she felt that the comment was harmless. Since I have always heard warnings from others to be careful with what you put online so that you won't regret it in the long run in the distant or near future.
http://fox8.com/2014/12/12/vegan-teacher-fired-over-facebook-post/
1. What is your initial reaction to this story?
My reaction was still shocked, thinking that people could be fired because of what their Facebook post might say. However, it thinking about in our modern society it is starting to make sense that everyone must be careful with what they say, as to not offend others or cause conflict especially in this teachers situation. Now while I felt bad for the teacher, I felt that the school took reasonable actions since the school heavily relied on the community's support.
2. What reason did the employer provide for firing this person?
The reasons that the employer gave for firing the teacher was that he had received a call from the owners of the farm, that the teacher had taken a picture of, expressing their concerns of being frightened for their safety if the teacher was a strong advocate. So the superintendent of the school said that they did not want to cause any problems between the school and the community since they rely on the money that comes from the community. So he did not want to create any friction, that would put the school at risk so he resorted to firing the teacher because of his Facebook post.
3. Was the firing legal? Why?
To me I felt that firing was partially legal since the teacher's Facebook post was brought to the superintendent's attention and so since that situation was not in the school's favor and they wanted to keep peaceful terms with the members of the community it was reasonable in that aspect. While then again I felt that considering it was a post he had made on his private time, that it should not have affected his job by resulting in him being fired. I fell that he should have been let off with a warning and told that the consequences if it were to happen again.
