Friday, July 15, 2011
I Am Amazed!
It amazes me that in this day and age an employer can have policies in place that deprive their employees of basic rights like freedom of speech. I'm not talking about when they are at work, representing the employer. I'm talking about policies that make it a violation to say anything negative about the company or any of its representatives when the employee is NOT on the clock. That's what my employer does. They make it a violation to speak out against any entity of the company on public forums such as Facebook or blogs like this one. Just how is that legal? If what I'm doing is not illegal then how can my job be jeopardized by what I do outside of work? The policy is mute on the point of positive statements, by the way. It's only negative that they want to control. Well, I'm here to tell you that my opinion is MY opinion and does not represent the opinion of any person or entity of my employer. I have a right to freedom of speech in any form. I think there would be a civil suite waiting for them if they tried to deny me the rights that are given to me by the government of this country. This is not a dictatorship! These so called "media policies" were put in place to protect the company from liable by limiting the statements to the media to those who are better equipped to handle "touchy" subjects, but somehow the policies have morphed into something else entirely. All I can tell my readers is to watch what you post. Most of these policies contain clauses that say if you list your employer, by name, as your employer on your profile (such as Facebook) or have any image that represents your employer (such as pictures taken at work) then you are, in fact, representing that employer with everything that appears on your post. So, I for one, have removed all such images and references from my Facebook page. I refuse to not mention my employer on my blog simply because I post this anonymously and would just like to see them trace this back to me. Plausible deniability anyone?
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4 comments:
I agree with you with the exception of one point. Your right to free speech is not given to you by the government of your country. Freedom of Speech is one of the inalienable rights that is granted by your creator. Whether you believe in the existence of god or not doesnt matter. If you believe that your rights come from government, then government can take that right away. If you believe that your rights preceed government and come from a higher power then no government can take away a right they did not bestow.
Oh, I do stand corrected on that. I absolutely believe that God has given us basic rights as His creations. Thank you so much for the "kick in the butt". I had my mind on our founding fathers when I was writing my blog post and I was thinking about legal issues protecting those rights. By the way, my company also has a basic "don't ask don't tell" policy about voicing faith-based beliefs as well, but that's a topic for another post. Thanks
I'm not amazed. It's sometimes bad for business if a professional actually working at the business (not in the PR department) speaks out honestly. WARNING: this is a bitter statement, but remember, our judicial system is heading toward legalities along the Republican view that corporations are individuals and have rights of individuals under the law.
I never mention my work on facebook, not because I care about their policies or procedures, but because I dont give a flying sh*t about what they do. Its just my job. It gives me money. I trade my time for their money. My facebook is for my personal life and my friends. I do not count any work superior as a FRIEND. They would sooner FLAY me than FRIEND me.
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