Should employers fire workers based on Facebook behaviour?
Yesterday at Everydaymoney.ca, we featured guest blogger Stuart Schultz – the author whose book, Gradspot.com’s Guide to Life After College, discusses how people should clean up their online profiles in the face of prospective employers.
The gist: not all companies monitor your Facebook page, but if they do, it’s best to keep that pic of you gripping a bong or flashing your (expletive) away from the Internet.
Yet whether or not employers actually peek at your profile, chances are you have an opinion on the matter. And never has the “should companies check up on their employees online?” debate been more topical than today, with news coming out of the U.S. that a waitress was fired by her restaurant for complaining about a bad tip on Facebook.
According to the Charlotte Observer, a 22-year-old employee of a local pizza joint was canned after taking her opinions of a $5 tip to her online profile.
The woman “blasted” a couple who sat at her table for three hours (one hour past clock-out time) before word got back to her bosses, who took particular offence to the waitress calling her customers cheap and mentioning the restaurant by name.
In the pizza spot’s defence, it did have a company policy in place banning workers from “speaking disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a social network,” a rule that – no matter how vague and open to interpretation – at least covers them from ex-employee backlash.
But there’s got to be two sides to a story like this.
From what I gather from Schultz’s post yesterday, it’s totally up to employees to monitor their online behaviour, and that bosses and employers are well within their rights to creep your Facebook page, for example, if they see fit.
While I can get behind that first part, it’s the second bit that seems like it needs a bit of ironing out.
What do you think? Is it fair for employers to check up on their employees on Facebook and, if the situation calls, disciplining them based on info they’ve found online?
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: habit2009 | May 18, 2021 8:20:02 PM
Well facebook is one way to incriminate yourself , you need to put all your privacy protections in place, if dont block it you need to becareful what you say on there. Facebook is a bad thing for gettin you in trouble if your not careful!!!
Posted by: Johnny | May 18, 2021 8:32:24 PM
It's called slander - that employee should be fired !
Posted by: Grab a Brain | May 18, 2021 9:19:13 PM
If you don't want someone to read it; keep it to yourself and don't write it!!!!
Posted by: Angus_63 | May 18, 2021 9:22:34 PM
It is called a stupidity tax.
This is what friends are for. I mean who did you complain to before FB ?
Don't blame FB for a individuals stupidity.
If you don't want your employer to read it, DONT PUT IT ON FACEBOOK
Like I said a stupidity tax
Posted by: Freddy | May 18, 2021 9:24:20 PM
She had no right to complain about the customer. In this bad ecomomy times, $5.00 is a heck of a lot better than nothing at all. Tipping is so far out of reach, it is difficult to go out on a fixed budget. I worked in an office and served the Public and no one ever tipped me, nor did I expect any tips. I am now retired and live on a pension. When I do have to tip, I give 15%; sometimes 20% if I can afford it in my budget. However, this is not what it is about. I think she should have been warned & not fired.
Posted by: Sandra | May 18, 2021 9:26:08 PM
The waitress is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Complain all you want about what you need to complain about, but if you are going to start name dropping, you are setting yourself up for quite the lashing. Saying her clients were cheap is venting & everyone on FB does it. Putting the establishment's name - NAY NAY!!-- that is not venting!!....They have nothing to do with the client being cheap. What she has done is made a public and potentially harmful-for-business problem that the company is going to have to clean up.
Facebook is a public and personal forum for most. If employers decide to check on their employees, then they need to draw the limit at what they are looking for; anything that doesn't have to do with the company, is off limits. If, and only if the employer has reason to believe that the employee is surpassing that limit, should the employer interfere; other than that the employer does need to stay on his/her line of limitations, in other words, mind their business. What goes on behind an employee's personal door, is not the playground for employers to flex their muscles. As for the employee, use your head. Talk about anything or everything, leave your work at work......!! Plain and Simple!
Posted by: ALLIE M FORD | May 18, 2021 9:42:18 PM
Gosh, I am amazed at the self-entitlement that waitress has...$5.00 is a good tip for today...people are doing the best they can. Maybe she did not deserve more...sometimes it makes me mad that the 'tip' thing is expected even if the service is not good.
I am glad she got fired...let the message be to others that one cannot complain on forum's like Facebook - mention where they work - and expect their employer to put up with that...it's just not good for his business to have employees like her.
Facebook is a fine forum to have fun with but 'get real' and watch when you say...it will definately come back to haunt you.
Posted by: Ana | May 18, 2021 9:47:16 PM
Nope - Employers should NOT fire employees based on their FB status. They should mind their business and not creep up on FB. And ummm sorry, but if you can't tip (15%), don't eat out. Servers/Bartenders get paid well below minimum wage and (from experience) they tolerate a lot of miserable/perverted/rude/illmannered customers, burns from hot plates, cuts from cutlery, etc. Final answer: NO.
Posted by: Mike | May 18, 2021 10:13:24 PM
I dont agree that she should have been fired for a first offence ( if this was in fact a first offence ), but she should've been warned that if it happens again .. .then you're gone ! Facebook is an interesting thing ... considering I figured out a work-around to view a good chunk of info on people that have blocked you ... so it's NOT foolproof !! On the subject of tipping .. I understand that a waitress is usually paid a meager amount, and this is no exception in most any restuarant. A *good* waitress will hustle her customers or work them, to be sure they are taken care of and that everyting is ok and so on ... but if they dont want to put forth the effort ... why ?? Tipping is kind of a joke ... I work in the customer services industry and I sure as hell dont get tips ! This person took the job knowing it doesnt pay well ... that the income would be supplemented with tips money.. if they work for it ! I dont agree with tip pooling however ... Mary busts her hump and makes 100$ a nite in tips while the 3 others do diddly and get 20$ each over the course of the evening ... why should they get a share of Mary's tips ??? Simple ... they shouldnt ! Tip rates ... 20% ... sure if the service is excellent and all that ... 10% for mediocre service and food ... no tip .... well ... done that a couple times and not regretted it ! I've even left a few pennies to get the point across that their service sucked !!
Posted by: donna | May 18, 2021 10:22:46 PM
I have owned my own restaurant and also worked in others,I was happy to have customers come in to eat, if they didn't leave a tip, did not matter to me. Having the customers coming in and being busy is what matters,not the tip or how much they leave you. That girl should give her head a shake, if there wasn't customers coming in would she have a job. I don't blame her boss, I would have done the same thing.And further more they might also be on facebook and accidently come across it you don't no and can't go blameing, with out knowing for sure. And telling the name of the place is unthinkable and totally rude.
Posted by: trebor yug | May 18, 2021 10:28:37 PM
Whether you are using a social network, or any other means of communication, she felt like she just had to express how she felt about that situation. Well the company just replied back to how they felt about it...
If the dress code was black pants and any white shirt. I don't see her during her shift wearing a "I hate clients that tip less than 5.00$" t-shirt.
So as a client as long as you leave a 20$+ tip nobody is going to complain about extending your welcome at a restaurant?
You cannot prevent employers from checking your facebook. It is a public social service. You are ultimatly responsible for what you put up. I completly agree with @Angus_63, stupidity tax.
Just imagine if the situation was reversed. If some companies started posting all the real reasons why their weaker ex-employees got fired. Or in our case, how would our waitress react if she read on the HR's profile, "Johanna Doe" from Some Pizza joint in New Jersey barely can serve our clients right and thinks she is entitled to a raise this year. Keep dreaming baby.
Posted by: Light User | May 18, 2021 10:36:47 PM
Well I've learned from an early age of the internet to becareful of what I put out. On the old BBS systems in the 1980's it was warned that anything you upload to a BBS could be transmitted to other BBSes around your area in less than a week.
As a general rule I NEVER post work related things on my FB blog. Infact I'm a fairly light user. Just recently a old co-worker of mine rejected 3 of my invites and suddenly he sent one to me. When ever I get a new contact I ALWAYS check to see what contacts this new-contact of mine has. When I check out my old-co-workers friends, I discovered he is friends with the this woman who is the wife of the company owner I work for! I found the timing of his invite interesting mainly because I had a spat with her just days before. INTERESTING!
Posted by: Randy Lutic-Hotta | May 18, 2021 11:32:43 PM
I believe that it is on's right to free speach to say what you will a public forum. It is like an employer seeing you walking in a shopping mall wearing flip-flops on a Saturday afternoon, your day off, and demanding you follow some sort of dress code! The little people have a right to say & do what they want off company time!!! Look boss guys ... BACK OFF!
Posted by: DUH! | May 18, 2021 11:34:51 PM
If you are going to complain on your FaceBook account, thats fine. But you should NOT add your boss or any employees that would run and tell the boss. You can block your privacy settings so ONLY friends can see any and ALL info on your FB page. Therefore, if she wanted to complain about a "rough night at work" she should have made sure she didn't have her boss in her friends list and her privacy settings properly set! It's only common sence!
Posted by: Stephen | May 18, 2021 11:38:52 PM
Tipping is the biggest con job on this planet. Someone opens a business and decides not to pay the employees enough and wants the customers to chip in so the employees can make a living wage? It's and whole underground economy and a way for employees to avoid paying taxes on what they really make. Paying tax on a meal is enough; paying a service charge is virtual theft!
Posted by: Shirley | May 18, 2021 11:45:15 PM
This is why we have privacy settings! If you don't want people seeing what you are writing, then fix your privacy settings, it's that easy, unless the people complaining wanted the employer to see that, then it's a different story! I don't agree with employers to monitor facebook as a means to check up on their employees, I mean really, if your boss really wants to know what's going on, then go to the workplace and watch them!
Posted by: Diana | May 19, 2021 12:11:26 AM
I dont think this is fair for employers or even potential employers to look on your profile on facebook or any other social networks..you have a life, unless your putting out the secret KFC reciepe to the kernals chicken..or doing something that is hindering the employers companies etc they should not have the right to look you up on facebook, we are all human if you want to put a pic of you smoking a joint WHO CARES! you have a life, they have a life, they should be looking at your performance at work and what you bring to the job and how you work for their company, other than that..what you do on facebook etc has nothing to do with them.
so before facebook came out this was never an issue, all of a sudden now facebook is here and oh no we have to be careful what we do on facebook, do you have to watch what you do on msn..NO.. so therefore people are just going crazty and acting foolish over this facebook craze!
basically you should be looking at the employee's performance at the job or for the potential job because that is what matters..
Posted by: VisceralConviction | May 19, 2021 2:09:34 AM
@ana - There is no way waitresses or kitchen staff get paid "...well below minimum wage.." That's why its called 'minimum wage', that doesn't make sense.
Secondly, listen up service people! A tip is synonymous with a gratuity. A gratuity is essentially an offering beyond an agreed price on goods or services in recognition of excellent goods and/or services rendered. Therefore, if the service or goods are not what was expected for the asking price there should be no gratuity. And if one does not feel your service is what is expected, they should not tip a gratuity. It lets the business owner know who performs for the business and who does not. It really should be motivation to provide better customer service. Too bad it doesn't work.
That being said, I absolutely do not agree with someone being fired for something they did outside of work, especially on the net. If it was me there would be a swift appeal to the labour board and all necessary steps taken to assure my privacy from an employer (within reason) in the future. As a supporter of privacy legislation and net neutrality I believe that everyone is entitled to a certain degree of anonymity outside of their job, school and home be it on the internet or in a cafe and it is frightening that everyone today is so compliant with giving that away.
IMHO.
Posted by: Bugsey | May 19, 2021 2:10:27 AM
This issue about Facebook is no more or no less than the old addage from our parents pre internet days. NEVER put anything in writting that you wouldn't want anyone else to see. If you post it or write it, cowboy up & assume the world may read it. Otherwise, speak to your friends in person if you want to vent -
Posted by: SoldierOn | May 19, 2021 3:05:04 AM
It's a comment made, a personal opinion. I can go to work and complain about unfair treatment or unsafe working conditions. I can also go home and complain to my wife about my crappy job, low pay and poorly run company. It's my opinion. This is how employers start to oppress personal freedoms amongst their employee ranks. Even if the restaurant is named in a lawsuit by the employee, readers probably wont hear anything more regarding a settlement. The employer will most likely pay a severance package to sweep it under the rug. Fire one employee to make an example for others who may follow suit. I agree that Face Book profiles should be a publicly acceptable medium, but, to use it as a tool censor employee opinions or decide who gets the job infringes on basic human rights. This employee was exercising a personal freedom to be an individual and display that individuality among his or her peers. I do not believe that the employee should have been let go, a simple reminder from her boss that a tip is a gratuity and not a right, would have been more appropriate. The customer possibly is suffering under the economic trends of late and furthermore maybe the servers service was just bad.