Have you ever asked yourself: “Can I be sacked for posting on Facebook?”
The short answer is: “Yes”. Under UK law, misconduct on social media is just as serious as verbal misconduct in the workplace. If you misuse social media in the workplace, you could face disciplinary action or even dismissal.
The kind of posts that could cause you a serious problem include:
- Sharing negative comments about your employer, clients or job
- Posting company updates without permission
- Publishing private company information
- Bullying or harassing a colleague online
- Expressing personal opinions that could reflect badly on your employer e.g. racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, disablist, derogatory or illegal comments
For example, Mrs Plant was fired from API Microelectronics Ltd because the company announced a potential relocation and she joked on Facebook that she was going to “sue them”.
The risk applies even if you post on a private account, because your friends, fans and followers might take a screenshot so what you thought was private ends up being public.
It also applies to posts you shared years ago, before you were employed by that company.
For example, a week after being appointed as a non-executive director at the Office for Students, Toby Young resigned before he was sacked because of racist, sexist and homophobic tweets he’d made nearly a decade earlier.
Case study
Actress, Seyi Omooba, was due to play Celie in a performance of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel The Color Purple at the Curve Theatre Leicester and Birmingham Hippodrome. In the show, Celie has a relationship with a female character called Shug.
However, a post that Seyi shared on Facebook five years earlier started circulating on Twitter, where she said: “I do not believe homosexuality is right.”
This came to the attention of the Chief Executive of Leicester Theatre Trust, Chris Stafford, who terminated Seyi’s contract because he feared her opinion would lead to boycotts, booing and demands for refunds.
Her agent, Bobbie Chatt of Michael Garret Associates, also terminated her agreement with them because she was now “unmarketable”.
Seyi brought claims to the tribunal against both, on the grounds that her career had been damaged because of her religious beliefs. Both claims were dismissed, because her employers had made a ‘commercial decision’.
What this means to you
Your employer should have a social media policy in place (probably as part of your staff handbook or employment contract).
If you get dismissed, your employer should follow a proper process. If they don’t, you might be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal. We can help with that.
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