As long as the comments made on Facebook don’t appear in organic search results then I think the employees are fine. If however, the comments against the employer do appear in organic search results – then the employees should be fired. There are two sides to every story but if the employee goes online to vent and in the process uses the employer’s name, that could ruin a business and what if it turns out the employee was lying or at best blew things out of proportion? The comments were still appear in search results, there isn’t much the employer could do about it and since most feel that what they read online is true – am reputation can tank for little to no reason. Bottom-line, this case isn’t done – don’t assume you can do as they did and get away with it. Most States are “employment at will” States – meaning, they can fire you for any reason and don’t have to admit that it was related to comments you made on Facebook.

If anyone in any situation makes derogatory remarks about any individual, organisation or especially an employer they should be prepared for the comments leaking back to who it concerns. As an employee one should avoid doing anything that reduces the standing of the company, whether during working hours or not.
Obviously there are differing levels of critical remarks, but the bigger the audience the worse the damage and the penalty.

In my opinion, anything posted online beyond revelations of company secrets or blatant sabotage of a business should be protected by both employee rights to privacy and freedom of speech. Otherwise, only those who don’t need jobs truly have freedom of speech. To hear President Obama sound the ominous words, “Watch what you post online” as advice to high schoolers is a true marker of our approaching becoming a corporatist state. It is not beyond reasonable suspicion to think this Internet “backlash” was planned all along, that what began as a vehicle for freedom of speech would eventually become another means of social control.

Paul A. Toth

In reading the posts below, especially the person who said “Yes” to the quetion of whether a person should be deported for writing, “F*** America, it sucks,” it’s clear this nation is ripe for fascism, which Mussolini accurately described as “failed capitalism.” What’d next, 24 hour camera surveillance to ensure we don’t issue a negative comment about the all-holy corporation? If you can’t run a business without being aware of and handling the fact that all employees complain about their jobs, just as all bosses complain about their employees, then you should get out of business. You’re all of the mindset of tyrants in a soft tyranny, where you may not jail people but economically whip them.

Yes, and when Ileave work, an employer doesn’t have the right to have me followed, nor should he have the right to essentially stalk me online. Owning a business is a right, too, and it’s not to become a despit tyrannizing his employees. He shouldn’t have the right to peek over my shoulder when I’m off hours. And if he knew how to run a business, perhaps he wouldn’t have so many complaints, would he? The Labor Board, unlike the Supreme Court, obviously still believes in the First and Fourth Amendments as intended, not as butchered by fascists like the not-surprisingly Italian dictator — I mean Supreme Court Justice — Scalia. If employees would lose the sense they’ve the God-given right to lord over their employees, they might find their employees return loyalty. As it stands, employers, in this wet dream of an employer’s labor market, might as well suspect every employee carries a knife to work. And with good reason, since he may be stabbed in the back at any moment…so that someone else an be hired for less. You and your fellow business owners created this free-for-all form of capitalism. You will pay for it one day.

It may be legal, but a stupid thing to do if one ever wants a promotion!

Your power ends when you terminate an employee; the employee’s has just begun.

And what about employers who terminate employees in this economy so that they can hire someone else for less. That’s the free market, right? What happened to the free market of ideas? Why don’t you look at the complaints and try to figure out a way to solve the problem at hand? No business is going to be ruined by a Facebook comment; businesses are plenty adept at destroying themselves. Long after they destroyed the unions and canceled retired workers’ pensions, GM STILL couldn’t run a successful business. No matter what you give business, it always wants more. It will never stop. And so, hire your squads of secret police and have them follow employees wherever they go, including their bedrooms, so they don’t dare scratch your sacred logo.

Paul. You are missing the point and going off on a tangent. You must be from CA as you seem to have an entitlement attitude. The bottom line here is that in most states an employee is “at will”. That employer can fire you at any time. You have no “right” to a job. Therefore, the answer to the question which is the topic of this thread, is YES, the employee should be fired. Workplace issues should stay in the workplace unless all avenues in the workplace have been exhuasted. Then, there are APPROPRIATE avenues outside the workplace to file your complaints. Ised to think just like you until I got fired too many times. Now, I can see that I handled things wrong, even though I had the “legal” and “contitutional” right to voice my views in public. My employer had the right to fire me. And they did. FYI..The employee has NO “power” after termination as you claimed, unless very specific areas of law were violated, and can be documented, unless you live in CA, then anything goes.

The ONLY “contract” most employees ever sign is the one that states they can be fired anytime with or without cause as they are “at will ” employees.
Sign here.