13 Controversial Facebook Firings: Palace Guards, Doctors, Teachers And More

If you're going to complain about your job online, be sure to do it privately.

A recent study conducted by Nucleus Research found that of the 237 office workers examined, 61 percent used their Facebook account at work. But separate research shows that employees and employers have come across difficulties with social media sites in the workplace.

In August, the National Labor Relations Board, released a report based on their investigations into 14 cases of workers who had been fired over Facebook activity. In four of the cases they found the firing to be unlawful because the employee was engaged in "protected concerted activity." This means they were acting with fellow employees to initiate group action against a perceived injustice by their employer. In five of the cases the board concluded that the employee had been in the wrong and upheld the employer's decision.

Take a look at the slideshow (below) to see 13 controversial Facebook firings involving cops, doctors, palace guards and other employees whose comments, posts or pictures cost them a job. Then, check out our slideshow of 13 people who were arrested because of activities on the social network. You can also view our roundups of Twitter posts that got people fired and arrested, too.

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Comments

[BeautifulOnDaOutside]

04:59 PM on 10/20/2011

It sounds like this person will be happier without this job, anyway, but I'm not so sure it's that easy to find people to staff the night shift in a homeless shelter full of mentally unstable people.

[Sarah S27]

07:12 PM on 10/18/2011

These people did not realized that FB has got so big so fast...sometimes in a bad way. Once my nieces started to 'liked' my events, it got a little weird. We decided to start over and joined G+ and Sharelendar. None of my 800+ friends got deleted. And I still have all my pics and all my connections. Why eat apples everyday when there are peaches and grapes available to you also! Both sites offer different services and they're free, so it works out nicely. Hope this help others from being fired!

[manatipr34]

04:00 PM on 10/18/2011

Intelligent ppl post nothing on their fb wall. They only accept friend request and upload non-compromise pics of themselves.

[Hugh Briggs]

11:23 AM on 10/18/2011

Hurr Durr Hurf

[Dorrell Wilson]

10:52 AM on 10/18/2011

Don't these people believe in "Friends Only"? smh

[ATLBravesFan]

11:30 AM on 10/19/2011

LOL

Except for the teacher whose "friend" told the principal what she posted.

[Mrsbean54]

09:21 AM on 10/18/2011

The only one I thought totally didn't warrant being fired was the cop who "comprimised" the dui checkpoint. Speed traps and the like are routinely announced on the radio to alert people. If it causes people to slow down or get a designated driver, then what's the problem? They're concerned about the loss of revenue, THAT'S the problem. In this case they obviously hoped they'd catch a bunch of people drinking and driving, when really they should be hoping to not find a single one.

For all the others, people need to realize what people can see about you on Facebook, and get over it. If you're a teacher, that especially goes for you. It's almost like a very large resume...if you don't like it, make your Facebook private or quit using it.

[johnpet]

08:10 AM on 10/18/2011

If I'm a boss and one of my employees trashed me on FB I wouldn't be dumb enough to fire them over the post. Just wait until the next time they come in late or screw up.

Freedom goes both ways. People are free to post what they want and companies are free to hire and fire who they want as long as those decisions aren't made based on race, gender or religion.

[phatemu]

07:24 AM on 10/18/2011

Facebook losers need to get a clue and find a life.

[Greg Gorelick]

02:26 PM on 10/18/2011

So... sharing media, photos, music and politics with friends that live in other countries, or friends with busy careers and find it convenient to use... that constitutes a loser? DO tell.

Tell me of this life I must find, where culinary interests, culture, arts, photography and friends aren't enough, where using social media enhances that life and not replace it.

Serious, I'm curious as to why there are such FB haters.

[cyndinca]

04:08 AM on 10/18/2011

I think this is all so silly. What next, fire anyone who doesn't share your religious beliefs?
I think a company has no right to judge someone based on what they post on facebook unless they are posting it during working hours & have been told not to use the company computers for personal enjoyment.
This is an invasion of privacy & the very reason I don't use facebook.
Everyday I hear someone complaining about the indescretion of someone else on facebook, who defriended who or changed their status inappropriately. It just seems to cause more troubled relationships than it fosters. It breeds so much contempt it'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

[Greg Gorelick]

02:33 PM on 10/18/2011

Hypothetical story.

You run a business. You depend on the people that YOU pay to be responsible, keep your business running, and do their jobs. This not only keeps the lights on and the roof over your head, but does the same for your employees.

Now you have someone who publicly bashes you, and either by libel/slander or just with insults, trounces you and/or your business.

This is NOT an invasion of privacy. Privacy by definition would mean that it remains private. This is public, make no doubt about it.

The myths and misunderstandings regarding what is public and private are amazing, and the misdirected paranoia regarding these things really are detrimental to what I've found to be an amazing service. FB has privacy settings, my coworkers don't see it. If the rest of the world wants to find out about me, they can go to my website or Google me or do a background check, like everyone else can.

I'm wondering what you find pathetic about it, and what contempt it breeds? I have a lot of friends that live overseas, and many who have families and careers like me that enjoy being able to quickly see photos, share restaurants, movies, politics etc. FB enhances our lives in that manner.

I feel that the FB hate (this isn't a shot at you) either don't understand social media, don't make use of a lot of digital medium, or are just naturally paranoid. I don't understand that.

[cyndinca]

08:26 PM on 10/18/2011

I agree that facebook's a good way of keeping in touch & sharing but I've seen it have the opposite affect on relationships too.

I just think it's silly to sum up a person using facebook because it isn't all they are. For the most part it's just an electronic glimpse of however they were feeling at the time they were posting.

eg: One poster said:
I was hiring someone for a position. Both were equally qualified. I looked at their facebook accounts. One had pictures of vacation with their spouse. The other had pictures of themself drunk at parties. Guess which one I hired?
Is that to say one of them never drinks & the other never goes on family vacations?
That's a pretty big assumption if you ask me.

My feeling is: If the rest of the world wants to find out about me, they can get to know me in person by spending time with me. I certainly hope they do not look at a website & assume they know me based on what they see there.

& I do use digital medium. I have worked in the IT field all of my life.
I'm fond of technology, but there's no substitute for real human to human contact/interaction. If I'm paranoid it's because I know that people can fabricate anything they want digitally & some will be foolish enough to believe it.

[Richard in CO]

03:29 AM on 10/18/2011

OK, it appear to me that we need another Occupy movement. This time it will be "Occupy Facebook, And Bitch About Your Job!".

Everyone should post a Wall comment, such as "Work SUCKS", or the "BOSS is a DORK", every single day, nationwide. This renders prosecution of anyone for speaking out on Facebook moot. C'mon, let's ALL get in trouble, or NONE of us can get in trouble.

Just think of all the fun you can have, writing down derogatory things about a ficticious boss you don't even have (that counts). "....My boss is a narcissisistic Mama's Boy, with a bad haircut, and breath that would run a dog off a meatwagon..." - when you work for a woman...lol....

[Greg Gorelick]

03:14 AM on 10/18/2011

Wow.

The paranoia and misinformed opinions about social networking on this site are laughable.

Look, Facebook can be private. If you have half of your coworkers on there, you're asking for trouble, expecially where work politics come into play. But in the end, it's all about common sense. Don't libel, slander, or complain about your job to your co-workers. That's it. Don't do it at work, don't do it on Facebook where they might see it.

I work in graphic design, most recently for broadcasting/news in San Diego. We utilized social networking very successfully. However, it was my decision to keep my page private and limited to close friends, as a lot of our posts center around our views on politics, atheism, etc.

I'm also smart enough to not have any pictures of me in any compromising positions. Recently I had to make a hiring decision between two identical candidates, and it came down to us Googling them and finding their Facebook pages. One girl had a picture of her on vacation in Canada with her husband, and the other involved picture after picture of her drunk, out at a club doing shots. Guess who I hired?

It's common sense. That's it.

[Matt Lindner]

12:14 PM on 10/18/2011

So you made an assumption based on very little information instead of taking the time to find out. I'm guessing you decided to hire the boring one.

[Greg Gorelick]

05:19 PM on 10/18/2011

Did you read my post? It specifically said that they were virtually identical candidates.

That means that (among attention to detail), their skillset, education and ability seemed the same. We were close to flipping a coin.

Then, for the tiebreaker, we Googled them. One girl has a vacatiion pic with her husband, and the other had an open page with photo after photo of her drinking, drunk, doing shots, making the duck face, and generally being obnoxious.

See, it's not about being boring or interesting. It's about waking up at 3am and dealing with the stress known as live news and television. That's how the real world works, and if you were to place a bet on these people like horses (using odds here), who do you think is more reliable? It's about responsibility and it's also about my butt who has to hire the person that makes more sense. Understand?

[Sarah S27]

07:27 PM on 10/18/2011

There are 2 new solutions that are now available to us. My friends and I reconnected on G+ and Sharelander. If you are like me and can not delete any of your 600 friends or pictures, you can kind of start over. With G+ you can easily put up groups. Sharelendar is for your 'everyday' friends. They don't even recommend adding your bosses on this site. Lastly, don't get fired!!

[Seeyl8rg8r]

03:10 AM on 10/18/2011

Some of these folks certainly did not deserve to get fired, but some of them most certainly did.
What a shame that people are so mentally confused today that they truly don't know when to draw the line. Folks seem to be confused with what's civil, funny, stupid, and just plain wrong...........and that goes both for the FB offenders AND the Companies that fired them.

[mamamab]

02:38 AM on 10/18/2011

Most of the posts that got people fired were really reckless and ill advised.

However, the gay coach who got fired because of a photo of posing with drag queens? He's got a valid discrimination law suit on his hands.

[bdgrizcp]

05:40 AM on 10/18/2011

There are 29 states in which you can be fired for being openly gay. In Florida, a 'right to work' state you can be fired without cause at any time, and at worst the employer picks up the tab for unemployment. Occasionally, people actually do 'win' lawsuits--pending appeal. Employers seldom settle these cases and if they do the terms are not the windfall ex-employees expect.

[buttonq]

02:31 AM on 10/18/2011

I believe the Internet technology has a vast information that can be use in a variety of ways, which can be harmful, positive research and informative. Discoveries by using the internet technology has not been revealed to the world as of yet. We have not adopted laws, rules and restrictions for the internet technology that is used professionally and non-professionally. The laws, rules, and restrictions are only applied when an incident occurs and an outpour of rage overcomes the victim to be vindictive by placing others into a controversy position. As a result the alleged violator & victim may have harsh reprimand &/or consequences for their actions by using the internet in a social or professional matter. Therefore, why society as a whole waits for negative issues to occur then write the policies for questionable violations according to the employers, people, etc.?

Why not establish guidelines prior to the incidents occurring to prevent half of the casualties? It would make sense instead of, discussing the after effects obstacles relating to the internet technology. I guess society does not think ahead of the repercussion for an undisclosed matter that may occur from the abuse, misuse, and the unlawful practices of the internet.

In conclusion, protect yourself by having a professional and a social screen name for activities on the internet (I.E. nonfictional characters, objects, etc.). Never reveal your social internet’s identity to anyone including employers. Read the HIPPA laws of privacy & federal/state laws pertaining to the internet technology.

[hard2swallovv8]

02:21 AM on 10/18/2011

I've never used any of the MyFaceSpaceBooks. This is one of the reasons. Too many people sticking their pointy lil noses into your business. Of course common sense would be to never post anything that might bite you back but not everybodies so far sighted. I don't think anyone should lose a job over a post or pic on a social site unless it's harmful to the employer in some way.

[Greg Gorelick]

03:06 AM on 10/18/2011

Sounds very paranoid.

Myself and my coworkers use it, and for the most part we're not on each other's pages, with small exceptions.

Being able to share ideas, photos, and media ENHANCES your social life, it doesn't replace it... and if you publicly denounce your work, expect that to happen. Nobody is "nosy", and for the most part people could care less.

[ATLBravesFan]

11:35 AM on 10/19/2011

I agree that you shouldn't post things that might come back to bite you, but in regards to people sticking their noses in your business...you can set your profile private and the only people who have access to it are the ones you approve.