Americans always talk about how free their country is and how they have freedom of speech. How much freedom do we really have? Computers and technology have advanced at a rapid pace over the past decade and you can find a computer virtually anywhere you go. You can find computers in schools, businesses, in most homes and even in the palm of your hand with smart phones. According to www.NPR.org (National Public Radio), “Virtually all Americans under age 60 say they have used a computer (92%), and most of them have used the Internet (75%) or sent an e-mail message (67%) at some point in their lives. In addition, more than 8 in 10 Americans under age 60 currently use a computer at home or work (81%).” Computers have become not just a luxury, but a necessity among American culture. We are living in a technological age where we need computers to function in our everyday lives. When a product is made there is always going to be some sort of byproduct that comes along with it. When computers were made the internet came along with it. The internet was originally developed for the military to be able to communicate in the event of a nuclear attack. It was also developed specifically to be used for research and education. Over time the internet became commercially available and it was no longer just for education. It was used for various other things such as entertainment, shopping, social networking or keeping up with news. As technology advanced the more the internet flourished. You can watch videos, you can shop from home, you can communicate with people from all over the world and you can find a plethora of information at your fingertips 24 hours a day. Along with the internet came yet another widely used byproduct. They are called social media sites. You can keep up with friends and family anytime you want, all you have to do is log in and you can communicate with people at any given time. You are able to be connected and keep up with people without having to pick up a phone and people quickly adapted to the concept. Throughout the years there have been many companies that have developed a web site devoted to social media. Facebook is one of the most successful websites that has been able to revolutionize the way we communicate with each other. According to Facebook.com, They currently have “More than 800 million active users.” Not only do they have millions of users but out of those users, “More than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day.” That’s a staggering amount of people and shows how widely accepted using the internet for social purposes has become.

Newton’s law of physics states that “to every action there is always an equal or opposite reaction.” That also applies to Facebook and other social media web sites. Can what you say on a computer be used against you in real life? This is where freedom of speech comes into effect. In the First Amendment it states that we have freedom of speech and freedom of the press. There are limitations as to what can be said but should we be limited on what is said on a social media site? There have been many instances when people have said something on a social media site and faced repercussions by their employer. The employer found out that an individual that they employed has been saying negative things about their job. In many cases, the employer has laid off the worker that posted something negative about their job regardless if they wrote it while in the comfort of their own home. There has been many controversies surrounding whether an employer has the right to do so. Do they have the right to punish an employee for something they did at home and off the clock? Does it violate freedom of speech?

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 states that employees have the right to complain about pay, safety, and other working conditions. If people can complain about working conditions then an employer shouldn’t be able to lay off a worker if he or she complains about the company on a social media site. If the employee goes overboard and makes a threat, which has happened in the past, then they should be terminated and also face legal repercussions for what they said. It’s difficult to distinguish an empty threat to one that may actually be carried out. People may get upset and attack fellow employees so you never know who is capable of doing what.

Workplace violence is becoming more common every year. According to OSHA, about 2 million people are victims of workplace violence each year. They also state that out of “4,547 fatal workplace injuries that occurred in the United States in 2010, 506 were workplace homicides.” Violence in the work place can occur at any given day at any given time and all threats made should be considered serious, even if it is on a social media website. There has been cases when an individual will make a threat even as a joke but has been terminated from their job and had charges pressed against them. An example is an employee from the Frito-Lay company. He posted online that he is "a hair away from setting it off in that b--,”. One of the limitations of Freedom of Speech is that a person cannot provoke violence or illegal action. Even if a person is joking around, being violent or making a threat is nothing that should be joked around about. If they make such a threat even if it is at home on a personal computer, they should be terminated and face legal action. Whether they had no intention of harm, they should know better than to make a joke about violence especially on a website that can have anyone see what you’re saying whenever they want.

An employer can lay off any of their employees whenever they want but at times it isn’t justified. If someone complains about having a bad day at work or about being unhappy with a company, they shouldn’t be terminated from their job. Everyone has a bad day at times and sometimes they need to vent. A lot of times people are venting their frustrations on a social media site because their friends and families can see what they wrote and make them feel better. There is certain information that friends share with each other and with their families. If they share their feelings about a particular bad day at work, then the company should not be able to terminate an employee over it. They did it in the privacy of their own home, they didn’t complain to the company directly, they were only sharing this information with a select group of people and they might have just said something to gain feedback from people that are close to them. A company should not have a right to terminate someone under those circumstances. All they were doing was voicing their opinion about how they felt about something. In this specific news article that I came across, employees are not only fighting back but they are using a law from 1935 to do so. As I stated before, the National Relations Act of 1935 states that employees have the right to complain about certain things about their employer. More than 100 employers have been accused of improper activity in regards of social media websites. Employees are saying that they were wrongfully terminated by something they said on a computer. One of the examples used was a about a paramedic by the name of Dawnmarie Souza who was terminated from her job due to calling her supervisor a “scumbag.” The lawyers for the National Labor Relations Board concluded that she was wrongfully terminated due to her saying her supervisor was a scumbag in a discussion with other employees. The lawyers came to the conclusion that since it was an open discussion with employees that she was protected under the law. According to the hospital, Dawnmarie Souza was terminated due to violations on protocols and procedures. What specific procedure she violated wasn’t stated. She should get a copy of the protocols and see exactly what term she violated.

The National Relations Act of 1935 states that “Individuals can be protected if they are speaking on behalf of other workers about the workplace.“ They are protected if there is group activity. The definition of what is considered a “group” activity is what makes things difficult. Social media sites are specifically designed for people to be part of a “group”. They are basically formed for people to find a group of people they know and be connected to them. If someone says something online, it could be considered a group setting due to them sharing their feelings with the group of their friends. At the same time, it is an individual act for the person to put their feelings about an employer online. They acted on their own by going out of their way to share how they feel to their group. Nobody made them do so.

Whenever a company has an unhappy customer, they try to do whatever they can to make the person happy. If the customer is happy, they will come back and might even recommend to friends to do business with that company. If an employee is unhappy the employer can do one of two things. They can terminate them for saying negative things or they can take the negative and try to work with the employee to fix the issue. A company that has unhappy employees will not get the full potential of the person’s capabilities which in turn can affect business. If someone has negative feelings about a company and puts their feelings online, it can make the company’s image look bad. Rather than terminate the employee they should try to work on making their employee happy. Happy employees can make happy customers which will have a positive effect on business. If one employee is unhappy, it probably means another one is as well. If they are happily employed they will treat their customers better which will cause better service and potentially more business. Termination should be the last consequence of an employee saying something bad on a social media site. On the other hand, an employer that has an employee bad mouthing them can make the company look bad. The employee should not take their issue to a website, they should go to the HR department to try to solve their issue. It does not make sense for an employee to bad mouth the business that is giving them a paycheck. It is understandable why they can get terminated for doing such a thing online. Any concerns should be dealt with in house and not outside of work. If you say something negative about the company online, you risk having your employer find out and they should know that they can face repercussions for they’re actions.

When people are at work they know that they should act a certain way and that they should do what is expected of them. When you are outside of work you should be able to do what you want to an extent. If you are upset about something then it’s ok to vent to family and friends about it. If you go beyond venting and start calling specific people a derogatory name then you should understand why you are being punished. For example, a Wal-Mart employee posted several comments online about a manager. He said some derogatory comments and because of his comments he was suspended for a day and he was denied promotion chances for a year. Even though his remarks were said online and outside of work, he should know not to make offensive comments like that to a specific person. It no longer was a vague complaint, it was specific which could of made the person in question become offended or scared that something may happen to them.

Due to the technological revolution a lot of companies are now facing things they never had to worry about before. They should make specific regulations about what can be said and what can’t be said. That way there is a solid policy on the topic and the employee can gain an understanding as to what limits he or she has and doesn’t have when it comes to social media websites. If businesses make specific guidelines for their employees to follow than not only will it save them future cases, but it will give the employee a fine understanding of what is acceptable and what isn’t. This can help employees from being terminated and can help businesses avoid costly and time consuming lawsuits. They should also make HR available to hear their employee’s complaints without getting into trouble. That way the employee won’t feel the need to bash their employer online; they can try to have their issue settled within company walls. With new technologies always being developed and with people becoming more social, Freedom of speech will always be put into question. Should people be terminated because of something they say online? Is it justified? To an extent, yes. People should be careful about what they say on networking sites. They should not make threats or make specific comments about specific people. There’s a line between venting and violating the law. Do companies have the right to take actions against employees for outside of work related issues? Once again, only to an extent. What someone does outside of their job should be considered their personal time and shouldn’t always be considered terms for elimination. What they do outside of work should not be controlled by a business. The only times it should be is when it is a threat against the business or another employee. Social networking sites have become part of people’s everyday lives. As technology advances there will always be more issues that businesses have to prepare for. In this case, companies should take the measure to make a policy about networking sites. They should make certain terms with the employee and they should make the employee sign those terms so that it can be a mutual agreement. If you have terms laid out then people will be aware of what is acceptable and what isn’t. Something as simple as policy could save employees and businesses a lot of time and money.

Works Cited http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-workers-fired-over-facebook-twitter-posts-turn-to-1935-labor-law-20111202,0,5901797,full.story http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/poll/technology/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence/
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics