Last Post: People Fired Because of Twitter or Facebook

In the last two weeks, the New York Post has “exposed” two New York City EMS workers, complaining about what they believe to be racist or otherwise inappropriate tweets.  One of those workers resigned as a result of the scandal.  The other is currently suspended without pay, awaiting a decision on whether he will lose his job.  They’re not the only people whose social media posts have affected their employment status.  Read about 48 others who lost their jobs based on social media posts.

1. Adria Richards, SendGrid. Whistleblowing on Twitter.

March 2013.  Adria was a developer for a company called SendGrid. While at a conference, she overheard two men making sexually charged remarks and jokes.  She complained about it on twitter, and one of the men was fired as a result. His firing brought huge backlash against her and the company she worked for, SendGrid.   Soon after Adria was fired.

“SendGrid supports the right to report inappropriate behavior, whenever and wherever it occurs,” writes CEO Jim Franklin. “What we do not support was how she reported the conduct. Her decision to tweet the comments and photographs of the people who made the comments crossed the line. Publicly shaming the offenders – and bystanders – was not the appropriate way to handle the situation.”

Adria Richards Tweet

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2. Connor Riley, Cisco. Complaining About Her job on Twitter.

March 2009.  Connor got a job at Cisco.  Connor tweeted her joy about getting a “fatty paycheck” for a job she would hate.  Connor lost her new job at Cisco.  But her tweet has become one of the most infamous twitter-based firings so far.

“Cisco 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.”

connor riley fatty paycheck

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3. Nir Rosen, NYU.  Insensitive Remarks.

February 2011.  Journalist and NYU Fellow.  When journalist Lara Logan was sexually assaulted while covering riots in Egypt, Nir Rosen wrote some tweets that upset more than a few people.

“Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal.”

“I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get,” and calling her  “a major war monger.”

Eighteen hours later he “resigned” his fellowship with NYU.

nir rosen

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4. Gilbert Gottfried, Aflac.  Insensitive Jokes.

March 2011.  After a series of jokes sent on twitter were deemed to be inappropriate, Gil lost his gig as spokesduck for Aflac.

“Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them.”

“I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, “They’ll be another one floating by any minute now.”

GOTTFRIEDTWITTER

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5. Nicole Crowther, Glee.  Revealing Show Secrets.

April 2011.  Glee actress Nicole Crowther tweeted a show spoiler, “K is PQ and Ka is PK”

The show’s producer, Brad Falchuk, tweeted in response: “Hope you’re qualified to do something besides work in entertainment.”  She was quickly fired.

nicole

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6. Scott Bartosiewicz.  New Media.  Tweeting From Company Account.

March 2011.  Scott, hired to be a social media strategist and employed by New Media, forgot which twitter account he was logged into when he accidentally posted from a client’s twitter account instead of his personal account.

He sent the following post from Chrysler’s twitter, thinking it was his own: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f*cking drive.”  Fired!

chrysler autos

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7. Damian Goddard.  Tweeting Anti-gay Marriage Comments.

May 2011.  Goddard, a sportscaster at Sportsnet,  tweeted in support of a sports agent who had made anti-gay marriage statements publicly and had come under fire.

“I completely and wholeheartedly support Todd Reynolds and his support for the traditional and TRUE meaning of marriage.”

“Mr. Goddard was a freelance contractor and in recent weeks it had become clear that he is not the right fit for our organization,” the sports broadcaster’s communications director, Dave Rashford, said. He was let go.

damian

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8. Jon-Barrett Ingels, Barney Greengrass.  Anti-Customer Tweet.

October 2009.  Jon was a waiter at Barney Greengrass in Beverly Hills, when one of his tables walked out on a bill.  The customer happened to be actress Jane Adams, who at the time was appearing on the HBO show “Hung”.  Jon tweeted about her walking out on the bill, and then later tweeted about how even when the bill was later paid, he still got no tip.  

PapaBarrett: “Tues: Jane Adams, star of HBO series “Hung,” skipped out on a $13.44 check. Her agent called and payed the following day. NO TIP!!!”

He was fired for tweeting about the incident instead of dealing with it through management.

no tip tweet

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9. Catherine Deveny, The Age.  Inappropriate Tweets.

May 2010.  Catherine Deveny, a comedian and writer for an Australian newspaper, The Age, attacked/roasted/made fun of various celebrities during an awards show.  The most famous of the remarks was a tweet saying she hoped Steve Irwin’s 11 year old daughter gets laid. She also wrote that she hoped a tv star’s second  wife “didn’t die too”, referring to his first wife who died of cancer.

bindi irwin

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10. Mike Bacsik, KTCK.  Racist Tweet

April 2010.  Mike was a former MLB Pitcher who was working as a radio producer for Dallas’s KTCK.  Got drunk and tweeted some racially-loaded comments during a Mavericks-Spurs game, including “Congrats to all the dirty mexicans in San Antonio.”  He was initially suspended, but then was fired soon after the news went national.

mike bacsik

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11. Andrew Kurtz, Pittsburgh Pirates.  Anti-Company Tweet.

June 2010.  Andrew worked as a Pierogi Mascot for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He posted on his facebook, “Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates.”  He was fired the next day and asked to turn in his Pierogi costume.

perogi

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12. Cameron Reilly. Buckingham Palace Guardsman. Derogatory comments about Royals.

April 2011.  The 18-year-old guardsman didn’t care for Kate Middleton, so he posted this on his facebook.  “Hur and william drove past me on Friday n all a got was a shitty wave while she looked the opposite way from me, stupid stuck up cow am I not good enough for them! posh bitch am totally with u on this 1 who reely gives a f about hur,” and was out of work soon after.

cameron reilly

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13.  Adam Smith, Vante.  Posting harassing video on YouTube.

August 2012.  Adam Smith was the CFO of medical equipment supplier Vante when he went to Chick-Fil-A to show support for same-sex marriage and gay rights.  He had planned to just order a glass of water as part of the protest against Chick-Fil-A’s anti-gay policies, and became enraged and shot of video of himself harassing the drive-thru worker.  He was fired.  They released a statement saying: ‘The actions of Mr Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner. Vante is an equal opportunity company with a diverse workforce, which holds diverse opinions.

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14. David Le, DOES.  Racism, Unprofessional Tweets.

June 2009.  David was a summer jobs contractor for the Washington D.C. Department of Employment Services and was working to help teenagers find work.  While employed by DOES, he  referred to Anacostia as a “ghetto” and admitted to being lazy at work. Councilman Marion Barry, who chaired the committee overseeing DOES, called the posts “unprofessional, wrong and racist.” Le was terminated and soon after set his twitter account to private.

–davidle630: “one of the schools I am in charge of is Anacostia HS. If you are from here, you know ANACOSTIA… about 100+ murders in one year…”

–davidle630: “In americas ghetto anacostia… If i get scared i will just yell chinese carry out! They will not shoot me.”

David Le Protected Tweets

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15.  “Timothy DeLaGhetto”, California Pizza Kitchen.  Complained About Employer.

September 2009.  Tim worked for  California Pizza Kitchen (CPK).  He posted on twitter as  @Traphik about how he felt about the new uniforms at work.   “@calpizzakitchen black button ups are the lamest shit ever!!!”  Managers tracked down the branch where Timothy worked and had him fired.

timothy delaghetto

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16.  Carly McKinney, Teacher.  Racy Tweets

March 2013.  Carly, everyone’s favorite 23-year-old high school math teacher, worked in Aurora, Colorado.  She was initially suspended for tweeting about smoking weed and posting racy photos on her twitter account @crunk_bear.   She has since been dismissed from her job.

“@Crunk_Bear: Listening to @diplo in the shower leads to this… #expressyourself #whitegirlass #twerk #twerkteam,” read one tweet.

carly 3 carly 2 carly mckinny

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17.   Matt Watson, All City Coffee.  Posting About Customers.

January 2013.  Matt worked as a barista at All City Coffee in Georgetown.  He says he loved his job but created an anonymous account under the name “The Bitter Barista” where he would post sarcastic and mostly made up tweets from a fictional Barista who was bitching about customers. Mostly he was trying to be funny, and sometimes would post to vent a little.  It got so popular the account was getting thousands of hits, and he was eventually outted and fired.

“When I tweet, I like to use big words, so if my if my boss every finds my Twitter account he won’t understand any of it.’

“If you remind me four times that you’ve ordered decaf, guess what you won’t be getting.”

bitter barista

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18. Octavia Nasr, CNN.  Political Tweeting.

July 2010.  The senior editor at CNN was fired after working for 20 years with the company, based on a tweet.  The Tweet proclaimed admiration for a deceased Lebanese cleric–  Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah — who had been an inspiration for the militant Hezbollah movement.

She tweeted, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

The company was quoted as saying in a memo that, “At this point, we believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward.”

octavia

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19. Caitlin Davis, New England Patriots.  Inappropriate Photo.

November 2008.  Caitlin was fired from her job as a New England Patriot Cheerleader when a photo of her surfaced on Facebook where she is posing next to an unconscious guy covered in magic marker with dick pictures, swastikas and comments like “I’m a Jew.”  She was holding a sharpie.  She was not the one to post the photo and said she posed before realizing what was written on the guy.

caitlin-davis

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20.  Denise Helms, Coldstone Creamery. Racism.

November 2012.  Denise was fired from her job at Coldstone Creamery after calling President Barack Obama “the n***er” and referencing his assassination.  She reportedly set the post to “private” on her Facebook page, but someone snapped an image and put it on Twitter.

denise helms

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Here are another 28 people fired for their social media postings:

  • Ashley Payne was forced to resign from her teaching job after posting a picture to Facebook holding two drinks.
  • Tania Dickinson was fired after referring to her job at the New Zealand Social Development Ministry  as a “very expensive paperweight.” She also bragged that she is “highly competent in the art of time wastage, blame-shifting and stationery theft.”
  • Frank Samuelson was a little league football coach in Georgia  before he posted on Facebook, “I was dining in an Asian buffet today (big surprise), and I heard this morning how Asian students are suppodely so much smarter than American kids. My personal observation is that those fishheads still eat with chopsticks. It took Western ingenuity to invent the fork. I’m just saying. … they ain’t that friggin’ smart.”
  • A female office worker was fired from a St. Louis non-profit after her boss discovered on Twitter that she maintained  a secret sex blog under a pseudonym, “The Beautiful Kind”.
  • Jennifer Carter, a former nursing school employee at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, tweeted about budget trimming to the Governor. “Glad the Legislature recognizes our [state’s] dire fiscal situation. Look Forward to hearing their ideas on how to trim expense,” the Gov wrote. Carter suggested that a better way to “trim expenses” would be for Barbour to “Schedule regular medical exams like everyone else instead of paying UMC employees overtime to do it when clinics are usually closed.” 
  •  Rene Gork lost her job at an Arkansas radio station in August 2010 when she tweeted on her personal Twitter account that she would rather cover the Gators than the Arkansas Razorbacks. 
  • David Noordewier worked for Walmart when he posted that the average IQ would increase if bombs were dropped on all the company’s stories.
  • A Texas Longhorn football player,  Buck Burnette, went on Facebook to express his anger at Obama being elected, and wrote “All the hunters gather up, we have a #$%&er in the whitehouse,” on his Facebook page. He was cut from the team.
  • Dan Leone, a former gate chief for the Eagles was out of work after he posted about the team for not resigning safety Brian Dawkins. He said “Dam Eagles R Retarded!!” 
  • Three legislative aides to Congressman Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Washington state, were fired after they sent tweets mocking the congressman, complaining about their jobs and spoke about drinking while at work.
  •  Ashley Johnson was a waitress at Brixx Pizza and was fired for complaining on Twitter when  two customers kept her late and stiffed her on a tip.  “Thanks for eating at Brixx,” she wrote, “you cheap piece of —- camper.”
  • 13 Virgin Airlines crew members were fired after publicly discussing aspects of their job on Facebook — they shared the number of times that certain  engines had been replaced and that the cabins were infested with cockroaches.
  • A Charlotte NC teacher was fired after she  listed “teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte” in her “Interests” section and “I am teaching in the most ghetto school in Charlotte” in her “About Me” section.
  • Christine Rubio, Teacher.  Complained about her job on Facebook.During a field trip, a sixth grader died during a field trip to the beach.  The next day, Rubio posted on her Facebook page,  “After today, I’m thinking the beach is a good trip for my class. I hate their guts.” She was fired, but a judge overturned the adminstrative decision, and Rubio was allowed to return to work.