Archived About to be fired...

[ShopliftersNightmare]

One of my team members is about to be fired. But nothing to do with work related stuff, but something he said over Facebook. Nothing work related but a team member, not related again to work, came forward about. Is this something that they can really terminate a team member over? Not work related amd not even the team member related complained about it.

 

[Rosquo]

what did they say?

 

[bab5crusade]

Target is an at will company, but Target does have a social media policy where it prohibits spying on employees. He or she must of said something to cause damage or threat to the company or employees.

Or it could be something as simple. "I want to start a union."

 

[Super]

Maybe he said "Gregg should be removed." And his ninjas are on him about it

 

[nib]

Unfortunately, this can happen, it shouldn't, but it does. I know a lot of people who say they are looking for employment, and the main reason they haven't gotten employed is because of what the post on their LinkedIn and Facebook accounts

 

[Anonymous]

That is why you do not friend your fellow TMs on facebook ...
I do not even use my real name on FB,or at target for that matter ( very few TM know my real first name ,they know my name tag ,great to have a foreign name that noone can pronounce correctly ....)

 

[Anonymous]

I won't get into specifics but several team members at my store were fired for something they posted on social media that was directly related to the company and store. The person who posted the status and employees that commented on it encouraging the person who posted it were canned. The person wasn't very diligent because their profile was public and people from head office were able to see EVERYTHING simply by searching for their name online.

More and more employers are using social media as a component to background checks. At my store we have TLs asking TMs to print out screenshots of people posting about activities their doing on days that they've called in sick. Ethical or not I don't know. What I do know is more and more employers are trying to obtain things from social media if they want to can you. How they're obtaining it is another question though. We've just entered the legal era of lawfully being able to use stuff from social media but I don't think anybody has really questioned or ruled on how this information is being obtained and how its being used. But for example say they're suspicious of you coming to work under the influence and you're posting like crazy online about getting hammered well then they can put two and two together.

 

[Barcode]

I won't get into specifics but several team members at my store were fired for something they posted on social media that was directly related to the company and store. The person who posted the status and employees that commented on it encouraging the person who posted it were canned. The person wasn't very diligent because their profile was public and people from head office were able to see EVERYTHING simply by searching for their name online.

More and more employers are using social media as a component to background checks. At my store we have TLs asking TMs to print out screenshots of people posting about activities their doing on days that they've called in sick. Ethical or not I don't know. What I do know is more and more employers are trying to obtain things from social media if they want to can you. How they're obtaining it is another question though. We've just entered the legal era of lawfully being able to use stuff from social media but I don't think anybody has really questioned or ruled on how this information is being obtained and how its being used. But for example say they're suspicious of you coming to work under the influence and you're posting like crazy online about getting hammered well then they can put two and two together.

If a TL asked me to take screenshots of someone's Facebook, I would probably hotline them.

Not okay to be asked to work off the clock.

OR

Not okay to be asked to use facebook when you're supposed to be working.

Unethical and AGAINST THE RULES on both counts.


EDIT: The only way it would be OKAY is if the TM in question made a post involving YOU.

 

[mrknownothing]

I'm friends with a lot of TMs from my store and even a few TLs, but I rarely even go on Facebook these days.

 

[AssetsProtection]

How can you be fired for posting something non target related?

 

[Anonymous]

A while back we had a couple TMs dating. One was notorious for calling out & at least 3 of those time posting pics of them together partying.
When we pointed it out to our ETL-HR, they said nothing could be done because it was "outside of work".

 

[GlobalJ]

If it is truly off the clock, I'd contact integrity and perhaps a lawyer. I don't believe being an "at will" company applies to off the clock circumstances (on terms of them firing you) unless you were constantly drunk, on illegal drugs, etc. And as @bab5crusade said, spying is prohibited via social media policy. So unless you did something crazy like threaten to burn the store down, I think you'd have a case.

 

[sher]

Posting like crazy about getting hammered doesn't mean you're schwastey at work.

I don't even think they're supposed to ask you why you're calling out. I always just say I can't/won't make it and they say "okay" and that's that. Even if I was sick, who cares? They're not gonna fill out the sick hour paperwork for me. I've never actually used sick hours, but I interpret them as mental health days... Which means I might just be sitting around watching netflix with firefly sweet tea vodka and such avoiding target... For my mental health.

If the fb post had nothing to do with work and wasn't a threat or something crude about another tm, I'd call the integrity hotline. You're being super vague, though so I can't tell if the fb post included something that would warrant firing or not.

I looked into past lawsuits about social media related firings a while back, and it depends on a few things whether or not it's legal... And it's sort of a new thing so there aren't many precedents set

 

[Anonymous]

I once had to coach a team member on something that they said about another team member that was pretty rude. (this was all in the store, on the clock) Then once they got home they posted some really really mean things about me on facebook and tagged everyone they were friends with that worked in our store. Another team member took a screenshot of it and took it to HR. That person was fired and two others who commented and posted similar things. I was shocked when it happened but it made my work life a lot better as these three were constant issues and i was finally able to breathe at work again.

 

[Triscuit]

I once had to coach a team member on something that they said about another team member that was pretty rude. (this was all in the store, on the clock) Then once they got home they posted some really really mean things about me on facebook and tagged everyone they were friends with that worked in our store. Another team member took a screenshot of it and took it to HR. That person was fired and two others who commented and posted similar things. I was shocked when it happened but it made my work life a lot better as these three were constant issues and i was finally able to breathe at work again.

Wow if they are that dumb to post something like that on facebook then i cant even imagine what they were like to work with.

 

[Backroom81]

I friend some of my fellow TMs on Facebook but I say absolutely NOTHING work related on it.

 

[Anonymous]

Sher, regarding the incident I posted about. Somebody jokingly talked about having weapons in their house and said that if they got bored one day it would be fun to come to work to blow up the place and watch everybody go crazy. The police were called. The team member who was posted it on Facebook was fired and a couple TMs who replied "LOL" were also fired because the company considered them to be endorsing the post. We also had uniformed security at our store for a month after that happened.

 

[babytrees]

I unfriended a team member that has become a stalker on facebook....I had already asked the store to limit our time together in the store. That was easy because of her limiting her availability . But I love facebook because what I post could be either about work or personal crap most of the time. It makes me crazy how quite a few tm's post from work about work.

 

[sher]

I think that warrants firing, op. The LOLs are a grey area, but the person who posted that status deserved their firing imo.

 

[Cel]

Workplace violence lol how funny...

Yeah I'm with sher on this one, people are really dumb. The era where things like that aren't taken seriously ended ~15 years ago.

 

[bab5crusade]

How can you be fired for posting something non target related?

If you work in "at-will" workplace. The owner has a right to fire you for ANY REASON with the exceptions of sex, sexual orientation, religion, & race if stated in state law. In some states, you can be fired because the boss didn't like your opinions on foreign affairs.

 

[AssetsProtection]

How can you be fired for posting something non target related?

If you work in "at-will" workplace. The owner has a right to fire you for ANY REASON with the exceptions of sex, sexual orientation, religion, & race if stated in state law. In some states, you can be fired because the boss didn't like your opinions on foreign affairs.

That's silly to me

 

[SpotThe]

How can you be fired for posting something non target related?

If you work in "at-will" workplace. The owner has a right to fire you for ANY REASON with the exceptions of sex, sexual orientation, religion, & race if stated in state law. In some states, you can be fired because the boss didn't like your opinions on foreign affairs.

That's silly to me

I'm not saying I think it's fair to fire someone for something they do on their time, but what obligation does target have? They don't owe anything to their workers. Is it a good idea to treat your workers fairly and just according to certain standards that have been met in recent years? Yes, especially if you are a publicly traded company, but by no means do they owe anything to any of their workers.

 

[Barcode]

I once had to coach a team member on something that they said about another team member that was pretty rude. (this was all in the store, on the clock) Then once they got home they posted some really really mean things about me on facebook and tagged everyone they were friends with that worked in our store. Another team member took a screenshot of it and took it to HR. That person was fired and two others who commented and posted similar things. I was shocked when it happened but it made my work life a lot better as these three were constant issues and i was finally able to breathe at work again.

In this case its okay. If they are directing their post negatively at Target or its Employees, there is grounds for termination. To top it off, it was retaliation for the discussion you had.

However if they called out that night and posted about how sloshed they got at that party, then there is nothing Target can do. The post is completely unrelated to Target.

Social Media policy is a fickle one.

 

[Softlines Owns My Soul]

How can you be fired for posting something non target related?

If you work in "at-will" workplace. The owner has a right to fire you for ANY REASON with the exceptions of sex, sexual orientation, religion, & race if stated in state law. In some states, you can be fired because the boss didn't like your opinions on foreign affairs.

But employers usually don't fire people for no reason because they will have to pay someone to not work (unemployment). If your ETL-HR fills out an initial request for information on a UI claim for a termed TM and writes that the cause for dismissal was that the boss didn't like your opinions on foreign affairs, the TM will win and it'd be a waste of time for Target to even attend the UI hearing.