Another nurse bites the dust due to facebook

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I don't know the woman in question, yet news reports acknowledge that facebook has caused another job termination casualty in the nursing community. I know there are numerous posts regarding this topic, yet I figure sharing this may help someone think twice when placing job/career related postings on facebook no matter how private you think your posts are!Follow the link to see why. What would you do?

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Specializes in NICU.

I think part of the problem is, is that people are often friends on facebook with people who are NOT their friends. In order for your employer to take disciplinary action for something you wrote on facebook, someone had to alert them. If your page is completely private, it was one of your so called friends on your friends list. If your page is public, STILL, someone had to alert them. They didn't just stumble onto facebook, enter your name in the search, then go look into your page. If your page is completely private and you aren't friends with anyone from your job, nobody can see what you write.

Either way, better to be safe than sorry because you never know who has an ax to grind or who wants to see you fail. Never underestimate how far someone is willing to go to stab you in the back. Better to not post anything about work that could be used against you.

Specializes in Health Information Management.
Once you post your views on Face book or Twitter, they are no longer not your own, they are seen, and open to judgement by all. Your employers CANNOT judge you for political opinions; but this person posted about WORK related issues.

Safest bet: get the heck off of these social networks, they let entirely too much data out into the ozone.

As I said, I certainly am not supporting anyone blathering about work-related issues on FB or Twitter. However, when it comes to me expressing my views about non-work issues, that's another story. For instance, what if I stated my annoyance about a local, non-work-related city project (without using profane language) on a FB update. Should that be grounds for me to be written up, because it might somehow, some way make my employer "look bad" to someone out there? I believe that sort of thing is inappropriate. I'm an employee, not an indentured servant or serf. I could say the same thing in the Letters to the Editor of my local paper - should that be an acceptable reason for being written up by my employer? How will any of us be able to express our views about anything in another 20 years if this sort of thing continues?

Specializes in Med Office, Home Health, School Nurse.

I have a Facebook page and I use it on a daily basis. I keep in touch with family and friends out of state and with people I went to high school with. There are tons of pictures of my daughter on my profile, that's the only way some of my family gets to keep up with her. People get overly sensitive when it comes to FB---it's not always a "waste of time" etc. It's actually a great idea that can be great to lots of people when it's used the RIGHT WAY.

Do I think she deserved to be fired over what she did?? No, not really. I think it was a pretty harsh punishment. It's not like she named him or anything like that. I understand completely that it was a HIPAA violation, but I think people tend to go overboard with that stuff sometimes. JMO.

Specializes in Health Information Management.
Wrong as it may be for an employer to fire someone for posting their political opinions on FB or another social network, it's naive to think that it doesn't happen.

If you are at all concerned that your views could cost you your job, don't put them out there for all to see.

I think this is where I'm going to part ways with most of the people on this board (at least from the posts being filed to date).

It is wrong for an employer to discriminate against employees on the basis of race and disability; however, we would be naive to think it doesn't still happen. Does that mean we should all just tacitly accept such actions?

I hope someday soon we as a nation address social media options and employer/employee rights regarding their use through clear new laws. I'm definitely not a fan of being kept in a fear hammerlock by my employer precisely because there aren't any laws explicitly governing everyone's rights with regard to social media speech.

And now I'm going to shut my oversized yap because I'm annoying everyone.... ;)

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

That said I agree with the part about getting in trouble over political ideas or social commentary. One nurse I know was rather harshly reprimanded by her manager at the LTC where she works for posting a comment complaining about road repair work being done in front of her facility. She never mentioned where she worked or even the exact location of the work. The project is about a mile and a half long and there are several businesses in that stretch. She specifically complained about the dust, the noise, how hard it was to get in and out of the area, and the fact the project was already six weeks behind with no end in sight. In the paperwork she showed several of us, the manager stated that since the work was being performed by the state there was a chance the state might retaliate against the facility during the next inspection for her comments.

You have to be kidding. Please say you're kidding. A comment about road work gets a nurse officially reprimanded? That's just stupid...and paranoid on the manager's part.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
As I said, I certainly am not supporting anyone blathering about work-related issues on FB or Twitter. However, when it comes to me expressing my views about non-work issues, that's another story. For instance, what if I stated my annoyance about a local, non-work-related city project (without using profane language) on a FB update. Should that be grounds for me to be written up, because it might somehow, some way make my employer "look bad" to someone out there? I believe that sort of thing is inappropriate. I'm an employee, not an indentured servant or serf. I could say the same thing in the Letters to the Editor of my local paper - should that be an acceptable reason for being written up by my employer? How will any of us be able to express our views about anything in another 20 years if this sort of thing continues?

I agree with you. I do see the wisdom in protecting oneself by "not putting it out there," but a part of me is sickened by the necessity of doing so in the situations you describe above.

Business treads into the personal lives of employees where the federal government wouldn't dare due to our Constitutional rights. The incident where someone complained about roadwork and was reprimanded for it is a prime example. Our founding fathers told us it is our responsibility to question our government (including complaining about the bright idea to work on too many lanes at one time for over a mile of road), but our employers are telling us not to and reprimanding us for it? As you stated, it becomes very Big Brother-like to take away the right of expressing a political or social opinion when it in no way violates the other laws that govern a professional's actions in the workplace.

That said, the nurse in the original story here was way, way, way out of line and violated the law governing privacy.

Well, to be honest, I have a Facebook, and use it rather often. but this isn't Facebook's fault. She knew the risks, and well, she had it coming. I would never put where I worked at on Facebook for starters, I also would change the privacy settings to where only friends can see it. I had members of my family send me friend requests because their pages were so private to the point to where I had difficulty finding it. At the end of the day, however, she didn't have to post anything on there, because she knew there was the chance that someone could find out about it. And although I don't like how someone can infringe on someone's privacy, it still was her fault.

All more two say about this is that if you do have a Facebook, use some common sense and try to think to rationally about posting anything that comes into mind on there...

I am going to play devil's advocate here; I think that if she can find a lawyer, she can probably get her job back.

Here's why:

It is said that she wrote that she came face to face with a cop killer and hoped he rotted in hell.

If that is what she REALLY wrote, then who's to say she didn't run into him at the gas station, the grocery store, visiting a friend in jail, etc.

There was nothing in that statement to say that she did this at work, at a specific hospital nor who the person was.

We have the right to freedom of speech still in this country. I don't see where HIPPA was violated except by CIRCUMSTANTIAL evidence, which is usually not even admissable in court.

We have the right to exercise our liberties in the privacy of our own home. She did that, and I personally don't think she did anything wrong.

Just MHO.

of course she got fired, and so she should!

sorry, you've had a hard day, but there are ways to vent and ways not to. without even thinking of legal guidelines etc, it's common sense that you don't identify your patients at all!! she didn't need to name him or discuss his medical condition, there's only so many people who fit the description of 'cop killer' in any hospital at any one time, and despite being a piece of crap, he has the right, just like anybody else, to expect silence from his medical team.

it sucks, he's a scumbag and she's probably a nice person, but really, she should have known better, and unfortunately, got what she deserved.

I just want to add, since I'm seeing a lot of 'i got off facebook, it's too dangerous' posts...

I facebook. A lot. and sometimes I'll even complain about work on it, and I don't necessarily see the problem with that. BUT I take special care not to post identifying remarks, badmouth the organisation etc. 'goats'r'us had an awful day and feels like crying' - yes, I'd post that. 'goats'r'us had an awful day, thanks to dr..../certain case/management/a patient dying' - not ok!

I guess what I'm saying is you can get your point across while keeping it general, mostly by keeping it all about you!

If you can't look at a post and recognize that it might get you in trouble, and I don't just mean trouble at work, THEN you shouldn't be facebooking at all.

Specializes in Med Surg.
You have to be kidding. Please say you're kidding. A comment about road work gets a nurse officially reprimanded? That's just stupid...and paranoid on the manager's part.

The person in question was a former classmate of mine. Several of us get together once a week at a local cafe. To be honest, all of us were very skeptical when she told us this. Until of course she pulled out her copy of the reprimand. The wording went something like this - "The employee made several remarks on a social networking web site that could be interpreted to be critical of the State of Texas, and as such could possibly result in retaliation by state employed inspectors during upcoming facility inspections."

Ridiculous and stupid? You bet. But it goes to show how far some of these employers will carry their paranoia. I guess it's a good thing the remarks weren't critical of the U.S. government. She would have probably gotten fired for fear the place would lose it's Medicare certification.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

"The employee made several remarks on a social networking web site that could be interpreted to be critical of the State of Texas, and as such could possibly result in retaliation by state employed inspectors during upcoming facility inspections."

Is the nurse manager such a moron that she doesn't see how offensive her reprimand is to state employees? She's implying that they are petty, punitive, and retaliatory in their official capacities as inspectors! And, she put it on a formal reprimand that the state inspectors may be able to actually read as part of their jobs!

What an idiot.

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