This just in — you cannot vow on unrestricted social media to neglect your job, trash your workplace, run up bills, and generally “raise hell” for your employers and expect to still keep your job, even if you complain about the dismissal to the federal government.
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that an employer was within its rights to rescind offers of further employment after two workers engaged in a lengthy, profanity-laden exchange on Facebook regarding their workplace. In the tirade, the two discussed disrupting the employer’s activities in numerous ways, declaring “let’s f— it up.”
The board, the federal agency that enforces the nation’s private-sector labor laws, overruled its own general counsel in the case. The counsel had argued that former workers’ comments were not meant to be taken seriously and therefore did not justify the employer’s decision. The board disagreed, finding that the exchange was long and detailed enough that the employer had a reasonable fear that the employees would follow through.
The decision was notable because the board has usually ruled against employers who have disciplined employees for comments on social media, interpreting the National Labor Relations Acts protections for engaging in union activity to criticisms of the employer.
This case was different, the board said: “The magnitude and detail of insubordinate acts advocated in the posts reasonably gave the respondent concern that Callaghan and Moore would act on their plans, a risk a reasonable employer would refuse to take.”
The two plaintiffs in the case, Ian Callaghan and Kenya Moore, were students who had worked at the Beacon Teen Center at San Francisco’s George Washington High School during the 2011-12 school year. The two apparently did well and were sent letters by the center in May 2012 offering to hire them again the next year.
The two subsequently had a chat on Facebook about working at the center. Here is the beginning of the Aug. 12, 2012, exchange (all spelling and punctuation are copied from the original):
The center’s management spotted the exchange and later that month told Callaghan and Moore the employment offers had been rescinded. The posts had caused “great concern about you not following the directions of your managers,” the center management said.
The NLRB agreed it was a reasonable concern. “We are not presented here with brief comments that might be more easily explained away as a joke, or hyperbole divorced from any likelihood of implementation.”
