(FOR)

As young adults we are surrounded by, use and talk about social media. It is a great tool and I am not against the use of it.
But people should be careful what they post on social media. If someone did post something that reflected poorly on themselves or their place of employment, their boss has every right to reprimand or fire them.
If someone thinks it is funny or a good idea to post something racist, sexist, nationalist or any other type of prejudice, there should be consequences for their actions both at work and in their social life. In modern society, there is no excuse for any sort of prejudice belief.
If you are a part of an organization on campus, there are probably rules that say what can and cannot be posted to social media by its members. There are rules against posting photos or videos of members drinking or going to bars.
They are not prohibiting members from having a good time. They want to uphold the image of their organization.
If you follow the rules, you do not have to be secretive doing whatever you do for fun. Just don’t post pictures that break the guidelines of your organization.
This is a good thing to learn in college so that after graduation, you can join the workforce and it will not be an issue with your employer.
Is it legal to fire someone because of a social media post? Well, that’s the complicated part.
Any time someone posts something offensive that an employer must handle, it is first the job of human resources and public relations to deal with the backlash towards the company. They have to withhold the organization’s image.
One of the easiest forms of damage control and to save face for the company is to fire the person who made the offensive post.
The boundaries between people’s personal and professional lives have been blurred with the advancement of social media. The result is that people can see into previously private parts of their coworker’s lives.
This means you can easily see how a coworker feels about politics, religion, drug use, alcohol consumption and participation in different events such as parties and protests. How do business owners and lawyers handle this then?
There have been many people fired for their actions away from their job. And the legality of this is still up in the air.
In five states- California, Colorado, Louisiana, New York and North Dakota- they protect employees as long as their social media content is off-duty and lawful in every way. Workers can be fired for engaging in any sort of hate speech or using any offensive terms for someone’s race, religion or gender.
Other reasons for termination could be posting about trade or business secrets and openly defacing competition. There is no black and white solution to the legality of being fired because of social media. It is case by case.
Business owners should have the right to release employees due to their social media actions. If someone does something that is detrimental to the success of the company, the owner has to protect their property.
The best way to keep this from happening in the first place is to set good guidelines when hiring so that workers know what is and is not allowed to be posted.
This would solve any issues with grey areas of social media. But even if a company does not have these policies, if someone posts something offensive, they have to be let go.