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5 People Who Lost Their Job Over Twitter
Your career is obviously important to you, so how hard are you fighting to preserve it?
We work hard, and we expect incomes that reflect that. So it stings when something seemingly trivial we’ve said on a social media account like Twitter gets us fired.
Avoid these common mistakes by learning from others. Here are 5 people who lost their job due to 140 characters:
1. Connor Riley
When Riley received a job offer from Cisco, she decided to Tweet about it. It was the content of this Tweet that nixed her chances.
She said, “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”
Yikes. Tim Levad, a Cisco employee, replied the Tweet in kind: “Who is the hiring manager? I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.”
Needless to say, that job offer expired.
2. Nir Rosen
Tweeting about current events is enticing. We want people to see our comments on hot-button issues as witty and brilliant. Sometimes, however, they just come off as nasty.
Nir Rosen, a Law Fellow at NYU, Tweeted a flurry of inappropriate comments about Lara Logan’s sexual assault back in 2011. He was quickly rebuked for his insensitive remarks and eventually resigned from the fellowship.
3. Gilbert Gottfried
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried, voice of the Aflac duck, made some jokes about the Japanese tsunami over Twitter. He said, “Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them.”
What Gottfried may not have realized, however, is that Aflac is actually the largest insurance company in Japan. For obvious reasons, they weren’t happy with him.
4. Nicole Crowther
Crowther had a small, but recurring, role on the set of Fox’s Glee. After hearing some spoilers she heard on set about who would be crowned “prom king and queen,” she Tweeted them out.
What happened next wasn’t too shocking. Brad Falchuck, show producer, also took to Twitter, “Hope you’re qualified to do something besides work in entertainment.”
5. Scott Bartosiewicz
Scott Bartosiewicz was a social media strategist for New Media Strategies.
Thinking he was signed into his own account, he accidentally tweeted the following from the corporate Twitter account for Chrysler: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to (expletive) drive.”
Bartosiewicz wasn’t the only person fired over this. Chrysler also kicked New Media Strategies to the curb.
The moral of the story(ies)? Twitter is a fun tool that is useful for engaging a large community of people who want to hear what you have to say. Just make sure you think through the consequences of how you use this tool, and know that anything you say can and may be used against you.
So keep it tasteful!
Should “Everyone Get a Trophy?”
You’ve likely heard of this concept. Schools and sports teams use this coaching tool as a way to make sure every child feels special.
The intentions here are good. We don’t want to discourage our kids from activities that may not come easy to them. Using a reward system is a classic method in psychology for reinforcing good behavior.
Of course the problem comes up when a kid receives a 10th place trophy and actually feels worse.
We then try to get rid of trophies altogether by declaring “no winners.” This works well in some activities where having fun is the goal, not recognition.
At the end of the day, however, we’re not giving our kids enough credit. They can tell when we’re patronizing them. They already know who won and who lost. Instead of giving them arbitrary rewards in an attempt to make them feel better, we can instead be honest with them about where they stand with a certain skill.
Is trophy entitlement the most important issue our kids face? Not really. In most cases, handing every kid a trophy is more of a missed opportunity than a detriment to the psychology of our children. We miss an opportunity to celebrate the achievement of an individual or group because we don’t want to leave someone out.
That’s why I encourage you to focus less on making sure a child feels great about something they’re not good at and instead encourage them to try again. Remind them that there are plenty of other activities and skills that they will be great at.