Dan Leone, a part-time worker with the Philadelphia Eagles, was fired over a status update on Facebook. Normally, when I see people make fatal errors of judgment on social networks it’s something classically bad. However, Mr. Leone’s probably mirrored the reaction a typical fan (and people from Philadelphia are among the most passionate fans) might have:
“Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … Dam Eagles R Retarted!!”
I’ll ignore spelling and grammar. Dan worked in stadium ops, so while it’s never a good idea to reveal poor language skills, it probably has no bearing on whether his employer would be concerned about his ability to do his job. However, he did take a shot at the organization who signs his paycheck. So, while his reaction was typical of a Eagle fan, his relationship with the franchise was not.
The lesson from this:
- Spell check.
- Never post anything related to your employer. Even if you think it’s positive, you have no idea how someone else will perceive it.
Now, for people who absolutely insist on taking such risks, you’ve got to be on top of your privacy settings and your selection of friends with access to your profile. I’ll stress, this is easier said than done. I recently added a geographic region on Facebook and discovered that, by default, people who are members of that region (just a few million people in San Francisco…) could search and view my profile. This, despite my privacy settings for my existing networks being restricted to just friends.
