A FIRING OFFENCE?
Crude tweets can cost you a job, but maybe not if you are Trump
If U.S. President Donald NEW YORK Trump were anyone else, he’d be fired, or at least reprimanded, for his latest tweets attacking a female TV host, social media and workplace experts say.
And if he were to look for a job, the experts say, these and past tweets would raise red flags for companies doing social media background checks, an increasingly common practice as tweets and Facebook posts become a daily, sometimes hourly part of our lives.
Of course, Trump is anything but typical.
Still, experts say it’s a mistake to think that because the president is getting away with calling a man “Psycho Joe” and saying a woman was “bleeding badly from a facelift” and had “low I.Q.,” regular people would get away with it, too.
“Mr. Trump would be fired for his tweets of today, and nearly every day,” said Mike Driehorst, a social media expert at the marketing agency Weaving Influence. “Most companies have a thin skin when it comes to public criticism and media reports.”
Nannina Angioni, an employment attorney at the Los Angeles-based law firm Kaedian, said certain speech is protected, such as posts about a workplace grievance or organizing a union. But she said that if “you take to Twitter to call your boss a “psycho” that could “absolutely get you fired.”
That applies even to chief executives. “Any good outside crisis adviser would tell the company’s board that they have no choice but to terminate the CEO,” said Kara Alaimo, a public relations professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. “Today, more than ever before, citizens expect companies to espouse and uphold values.”
What happens when workers send out crude, hateful or offensive tweets — especially if they fall in a grey area — can depend on where they work. Many policies encourage common sense, such as refraining from posting private company information or speaking on behalf of the company unless authorized. Hate speech and offensive comments are also frowned upon.
“Offensive or inappropriate remarks are as out-of-place online as they are offline,” General Motors’ policy states. “Use the same set of standards as you do in the physical workplace.”
Government agencies such as the General Services Administration prohibit “engaging in vulgar or abusive language, personal attacks of any kind, or offensive terms targeting individuals or groups.” The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Coca-Cola’s policy doesn’t spell out that employees shouldn’t harass others or post racist rants. The policy reads, “We encourage you to get online and have fun, but use sound judgment and common sense.”
Get in on all the local sports action by checking out our Sports section each day in The StarPhoenix.