Just interested to know if saying something bad about a company you work in a facebook status could be used as a reason to sack you....

Discuss....

Depends on what you're saying and whether or not it's true i suppose. Libelous comments can you drop you in a lot of cack. If you get the sack for something innocuous then they were probably considering it anyway

Another way of looking at it, how would you feel if a company made comments about you on facebook?

Some modern day contracts do have clauses that do not allow you to bring the company into "disrepute" - posting on Facebook could be seen as being non complimentary.

Surely if they are paying you you should remain loyal. If you have an issue so contentious you are tempted to place it on something like facebook you should resign first.

Surely if they are paying you you should remain loyal. If you have an issue so contentious you are tempted to place it on something like facebook you should resign first.

I can go along with 50% of your view xenia about keeping quiet all the time their paying you but loyalty..no! I owe them nothing.

Very often your contract will include a section regarding electronic media. This will tell you if you can send/receive personal emails and partake in social networking sites etc.

They company doesn't employ me but I work in their premises

They're now stopping me from doing so thus potentially losing me my job

No where in my contract does it say anything like that

Did you hear about this case last year? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7703129.stm

I was advised by one of my supervisors not to say anything about my organisation on facebook, as it could get me into trouble...

Frankly I think someone who slags off thier company or someone they need to fuction as a business is foolish.
If My employees of the past had done so I would have dumped them regardless of the mode they used to do it.

I wonder if the contract mentions slagging off the company/bringing the company into disrepute anywhere in it.

Whats the name of the company?

I wonder if the contract mentions slagging off the company/bringing the company into disrepute anywhere in it.

If it is any sort of decent contract, bringing into disrepute will be covered

("conduct not compatible with the aims of the business") or something

This is why Facebook, in fact all this "social networking" crap, is bad IMO.

People think they can say and do what they want, and it can, and has, lead to stuff like this happening.

They company doesn't employ me but I work in their premises

They're now stopping me from doing so thus potentially losing me my job

No where in my contract does it say anything like that

If it's their premises they're quite at liberty to prevent you from entering.....and as you say they don't employ you, I don't think there's anything at all you can do about it.

Did you hear about this case last year? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7703129.stm

It seems perfectly clear to me, Virgin had every right to expect higher standards from it's employees. Any one who brings problems of trust by slagging off it's customers is plainly liable to lose their employment, and let's be honest, it was these employees who were being daft acting chavish themselves.

I wonder how anyone senior in a company would find out?

I wonder how anyone senior in a company would find out?

By looking at face book, or having it drawn to their attention.

All you need to do is set your profile to only be visible to friends.

Also I doubt managers are searching facebook for employees names. Would be a bit sad if they were.

All you need to do is set your profile to only be visible to friends.

Also I doubt managers are searching facebook for employees names. Would be a bit sad if they were.

Should a company believe that it is being unfairly 'slagged off' and it had evidence that it was, by it's own disloyal employees then 'a bit sad' does noyt come into it. Companies that rely on keeping a high prestige need to act professionally, however it discovered that it's own workers were not acting professionally is neither here nor there, it would act to keep it's status.

The employees sacked in this case have no comeback, they did act unprofessionally, and they obviously did not set a secure profile.
They were in short; unprofessional, naive or plain daft.

A number of collegues at my own place got fired for a group set up slagging off a team leader, a few got sacked and a lot got put on suspension for an extended period.

If you mention your place of work in the status or in the "where you work" section and you say something slanderous then you are liable and can be sued by said company or sacked.

it depends who you work for?

it depends who you work for?

Thats true - *and* how IT savvy they are...

lol........

When I handed my notice in at my last place of employment, I posted a status saying '...is moving on to pastures new!' Everyone is my branch knew I was leaving as did the directors. However, someone from a different branch saw it and started rining around gossiping and saying ' can you believe she has posted that on facebook and hasn't told anyone yet! ' They were wrong and I did not get in trouble, but it was not nice having people gossip about you when it's none of their business. So I learnt my lesson there and deleted anyone work related from my facebook account!!

When you leave, set up your outlook to send an email to everyone at work (internal mail book or whatever) 10 minutes after you know you will have left to say something like "Fred has now left the building"

They will get it and wonder "how did they do that?"

to answer previous posts....

I didnt slate A) my employer b) anyone specific c) my page is set to private

someone i believed to be a friend informed head office

to answer previous posts....

I didnt slate A) my employer b) anyone specific c) my page is set to private

someone i believed to be a friend informed head office

To be honest you were foolish. Putting comments in the public domain allows others to read them even if they aren't supposed to be able to.

You can't control the information you allow out.

Bite the hand that feeds you and you will go hungry......

Why anyone would post anything on a social network like Facebook that could get them in to any sort of trouble is beyond me.

it's a website that can only be accessed by my friends I fail to see how thats public had i put it on here then yeah

the second thing is the comment was NOT (i cant repeat this enough) about the people who pay me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/7914415.stm
Well, I may be the only one to disagree with this particular decision then.
I can't believe the " serves you right you were stupid and you don't deserve a job" attitude.In this case the girl was 16!
I find it utterly disgusting that a company can be so petty as to hold it against their employee that they call their job boring ( who's never thought that?)
A slap on the wrist would be appropriate, sacking is just out of order.
I don't know what I find most disgusting: the fact that the company can legally get away with that, or the fact that most people seem to think it is perfectly normal for an employer to use a throw-away comment as an excuse to do what they like- I find it hard to believe that this was not a case of " we can't keep her anyway so let's use the first opportunity to get rid of her"

The Virgin case is a different story altogether since the comments were indeed more serious.

it's a website that can only be accessed by my friends I fail to see how thats public had i put it on here then yeah


unfortunately i find that a nieve (sp?) view.

ANYTHING that is on the internet is public domain (with the exception of when it is in the sense of copyrighted works, there are different rules there), even password protected stuff.

just because your page was set to private unfortunately means nothing, anything you put on the internet is open to anyone to find through one means or another.

If you don't want someone to know that your saying it or whatever don't put it on the net anywhere, treat the interenet as you would a stranger on the street.

to answer previous posts....

I didnt slate A) my employer b) anyone specific c) my page is set to private

someone i believed to be a friend informed head office

I notice from your profile that you are a Retail Manager, you should really know better and lead by example.

Everybody on this thread has good views and are all right in some way or another, but I do feel for the person who made this thread as anybody losing a job in this climate will know about it as I do! Good luck with finding another place to work from hun.

Ive heard prospective employers checking out interviewees for facebook, (as most people post about their nights out) before making a job offer - drink, drugs n rock n roll - hangovers monday morning or just taking days off dueto socialising. After all you are a representive of your company even when you out at weekend and your actions could bring your companies reputation in to disripute - I have heard of people getting dismissed for their actions on a weekend.

Any company who sacks based on Facebook are either looking for a court case, or you wouldn't want to work for them, or both!!!

I worked for a guy once who pulled me up because he found someone with my name on 'Google' and had convinced himself it was me??? I left asap after that, as he wasn't really right in the head!

to answer previous posts....

I didnt slate A) my employer b) anyone specific c) my page is set to private

someone i believed to be a friend informed head office


A warning to choose your friends more carefully by the sound of it?

Companies that rely on keeping a high prestige need to act professionally, however it discovered that it's own workers were not acting professionally is neither here nor there, it would act to keep it's statu

Many years ago I worked for a local newspaper. We participated in the local secondary school's work experience scheme, and one particular batch of pupils (about 15 years old I guess) arrived one week.

On the Wednesday they were sent to my department. It was always a challenge finding work for pupils because our department was quite technical, so we would just get them doing filing, shredding, making cups of tea, etc. Office junior stuff, basically.

When I got home that evening I was listening to the local radio with my boyfriend, and I heard a young lass come on and request a song, "Because I've been sooo bored all day."

The DJ asked her what she'd been doing, and she said "Working at [name of company], oh my god, it's sooooo boring! Thank god I'm only there for another 2 days!"

Needless to say, she wasn't there for any more days, and the head teacher was asked to consider who he sent us in future!

Sorry, long story short and all that - my point is that this kind of situation is nothing new. Whether you are slagging off your company on the web, by email, at the pub on a Friday night or in a newspaper column or on the radio - if you get found out, the company has every right to terminate your contract, because you have breached the section on "bringing the company name into disrepute" or whatnot.

As an employer, leaving aside the contractual clause, I would be hesitant anyway to continue employing anyone who clearly disliked the job for which they were being paid.

I do feel for you though, Damo, you should not have to suspect your friends of stabbing you in the back. I hope you find another job soon and hopefully some more reliable friends :(

the words BIG and BROTHER come to mind - these days you just have to be careful what you say and who you say it to on the likes of FACEBOOK

Ive heard prospective employers checking out interviewees for facebook, (as most people post about their nights out) before making a job offer - drink, drugs n rock n roll - hangovers monday morning or just taking days off dueto socialising. After all you are a representive of your company even when you out at weekend and your actions could bring your companies reputation in to disripute - I have heard of people getting dismissed for their actions on a weekend.

I agree with parts of this but i dont think you represent the company on a saturday night down town that is your time you represent the company in your hours of work so like you say if you are rolling in drunk monday morning i understand but companies cant dictate your social life

Facebook blows anyway. I don't see why it's so unfathomably popular :loopy:

the words BIG and BROTHER come to mind - these days you just have to be careful what you say and who you say it to on the likes of FACEBOOK

Yeah, 1984 was a book the predicts what to come. I think it is HORRIBLE!

I just think that we need to get rid of such things as FaceBook and U-Tube.....

I just think that we need to get rid of such things as FaceBook and U-Tube.....

really? why?:suspect:

yeah employers taking it very seriously now, I got sacked from my job cause of some **** wrote on facebook last october still cant find work. So be careful

This is why Facebook, in fact all this "social networking" crap, is bad IMO.

People think they can say and do what they want, and it can, and has, lead to stuff like this happening.

It's not that facebook is bad per say, more there can be bad content on there. This is down to the users of the site- nobody else!

Everyone doesn't enjoy their job from time to time, but slating it on facebook just shows your employer that you don't want to be there, so why should they employ you if they could get someone in who is enthusiastic about the job and grateful for it (esp with unemployment rising to 2m!!)

Hi Damo and BoozyBabe09

I am producing a radio documentary called Fired for Facebook. I'd be really interested in talking to you both, please email me on michellekendall@live.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you both.

Michelle Kendall

Everyone doesn't enjoy their job from time to time, but slating it on facebook just shows your employer that you don't want to be there, so why should they employ you if they could get someone in who is enthusiastic about the job and grateful for it (esp with unemployment rising to 2m!!)

This is why having a work and personal e-mail address is good.


I think the problem is that people use Facebook as a personal diary where they can express their feelings and write whatever they feel. I mean when we go to the pub, on a shopping trip, to an auntie's house, to a nightclub or to a gig we don't represent the company. It's OUR free time and OUR social life. People shouldn't be forced to sell themselves and act fake on their pages. Facebook isn't a CV database.

I think everyone should put their profiles on private and stop the snoopers. By signing that contract to get yourself on Facebook you're signing your photos away anyway. Facebook holds the rights to whatever you post on their website. It's a load of crap.

If i worked for an employer who i found out was snooping around my personal biz i would quit. No employer at all should be using any social network as a tool. It's unprofessional.


Social networks are poo. Instant messaging is where it's at LOL. You can say whatever you like and post whatever on there (as long as your employer doesn't have your personal email)!

Instant messaging is where it's at LOL. You can say whatever you like and post whatever on there (as long as your employer doesn't have your personal email)!

That's not entirely true. Even when chatting via secure connection, you are safe to assume your conversations are being logged. I think it's important for people to remember that anything you write "online" (or simply do, really) has to travel through, and be stored on, several computers before it even reaches its destination. Add to that the fact that countries all have varying laws and notions regarding "privacy," and you've got more potential for shadiness than most folks realise.

I cannot believe what happened to you!

to this day I see me being sacked as extremely harsh

I've never had a bad word to say about the company I was employed by

I was being bullied to the extreme by one of the companies we dealt with to a point i lost my temper after they once again chose to make up lies about me and so put the status update on facebook.

Just interested to know if saying something bad about a company you work in a facebook status could be used as a reason to sack you....

Discuss....depends on what u say

wellm i think this is just silly

if i put a coment on face book about my boss that does meen i get sacked so no u carnt

Just be careful what you say about anbody or any company on facebook, it is a public arena and therefore you could, in some circumstances, be held liable just the same as if you speak face to face or publish or publicise a written statement or other information (such as cartoons).

Also you should be aware that anyone can join facebook and therefore people can and do fall foul of the system by admitting to throwing a sicky when they are just skivving for example. Its also wise to avoid anything which you would positively avoid disclosing at work such as admissions or condoning of violence, extreme drunkeness, illegal drug use, or whatever. People could be sanctioned appropriately if they damaged the company's reputation or admitted to something which is illegal or a breach of contract, health and safety law etc.

If you have a problem at work and want to discuss it - that may be ok, but still be very careful what you say in a public arena. Better off flagging up as a general issue and then using a private means of further discussion.

And if you have a real employment problem - try local advice centres, law centres, and you can go online to look at the citizens advice information as well. Better to get proper advice and information than try to wade through a random mixture of personal opinions and ideas.

If you just want to rant a bit, then keep it anonymous at all times, that includes any obvious details as well as company names.

Be careful what you say to anyone even family in these present times, people will Sh** on anyone to get a job or win work DOG EAT DOG! Trust no one pal, believe me I Know, I fit kitchens real well and have had other fitters calling my work and ethics to the point where I have lost £££££££££ of work. The truth will out.