Cody Hidalgo shared an Elmo meme on Facebook, where Elmo is sitting on a child’s potty along with the words “Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that’s why I poop on company time.”
Funny. A little bit crass. But funny. And posted on Facebook on a Sunday, when Hidalgo wasn’t at work. So, it makes no sense that his boss, Andy, fired him. But that’s what Hidalgo reported, and a podcast host picked up the story and tweeted it. And then the internet went wild.
The internet going wild is not unusual. Bad bosses getting called out on the internet is a theme. And, frankly, if you do something stupid like (allegedly) firing someone for sharing a meme, you deserve to be called a fool.
What you don’t deserve is false reviews of your business.
To keep reading, click here: Man Fired for Sharing an Elmo Meme; Mob Rule Takes Over
Ah, yes, the underside of the Internet. The Company would probably be better off simply shutting down its website right now. But, is this even a real story? The boss, Andy, who fired Cody, is the one who reported the firing? To whom? That doesn’t seem to make sense. But, at any rate, any business that does business online — which is almost every business these days — needs to be cognizant of the fact that anything they do might be trumpeted on the Internet, with the resulting consequences.
Agreed! Firing or even chastizing an employee is something professional managers do behind closed doors – not over Facebook or other social media. If this story is true, the company handled it poorly.
And the boss clearly needs more fiber in his own diet, if this is how he reacts to a joke….
Your article ends quite abruptly in the link.
This kind of thing is why I don’t ever follow ANYONE from work on social media, until we’re both gone from the company. I don’t care if we’re work besties. Facebook is off limits.
I can’t prevent anyone from following me on Twitter, since it’s public, but I won’t follow them back. If a company requires me to connect my personal social media to them, they better tell me in the interview, because that’s an absolute deal breaker. STAY OUT OF MY PERSONAL LIFE.
Elizabeth you can be private on Twitter and without your permission, people can’t follow you. You can’t block people but you can mute them so you don’t have to see their comments (basically they are talking to themselves). The only hassle with being private on Twitter or any social media is that you are limiting your comments (posts) to those who you follow and who you allow to follow you.
My new VP doesn’t understand why I don’t want to share all the company info on my social media. I think she thinks I am either mean, stupid, or way too old fashioned.
Social Media has become the version of presentation because everyone likes getting the spotlight (I call it the 15 minutes of fame tendency). But use of these sites using an unfiltered totally public viewing means that one has to first filter their posts to not create a storm of reactions. Public firing via Social Media is totally against HR standards no matter what. You can’t react negatively to certain memes to be posted unless you have a specific listing of acceptable memes, especially if the viewers are totally public. Whatever is posted on public social media is always going to show up publicly. You can’t control that, so this person who was publicly fired has a case for harassment and undue bias firing creating hardship all because someone got a bit sensitive about a meme.
Another week, another type of unfair discrimination. *sigh*
Even if Congress were to enact a “mind your own business” law, it would be as impossible to enforce as many other workplace discrimination laws (for instance, age) already are. About the only way to change that would be to go to a system like the Germans have, where every decision to fire or even not to hire someone goes to a hearing before a government board, which can veto it.
There are times when it’s tempting to do exactly that, but in this case even the board might let your opponent win.
This article,written by a dude that owns a company, is bs.
Naw man. Sometimes internet justice is justified.
You left out the part where the son messaged the fired guy and implied that is was a good thing that his kid died.
This is warranted, and I’m going to go leave a review right now in your honor.