Have you ever sent a message into the ether via Twitter or Facebook that could be construed as offensive? If you answered ‘yes’, firstly you’ll probably find yourself in the company of at least 50 percent of social media users, and secondly consider the following a cautionary tale about the potential shit storm that ‘honest’, ‘humourous’ or drunk social media messages can wreak on your reputation.
An awarded Austereo producer for the Kyle & Jackie O show, Bruno Bouchet, has had his job terminated as the consequence of a stream of ‘jokes’ he published on Twitter about The Dark Knight Rises massacre in Aurora, Colorado. The radio network released a statement announcing the axing of the producer saying: “Southern Cross Austereo has a strict social media policy that all staff must adhere to, and Bruno’s activity on Twitter was in breach of this policy. It is for this reason that Bruno’s employment has been terminated, effective immediately.”
Bouchet claimed that he was drunk at the time but admitted to media/marketing news site Mumbrella that “What I said was really fucked up. There’s no getting around that… I have no excuse. I’m so mad at myself. I’m humiliated and I’m embarrassed. It was a dick move.”
It really was a dick move, and just one more case to emphasise the importance of self-censoring when it comes to your social media activity. As the world gets more and more digitized, it is increasingly difficult to separate our private selves from our professional lives, and so once something has been released into the ether there will always be a chance it can emerge at some point to bite you in the ass. There have been hundreds of examples over the last few years. A few of the high profile cases include:
– The Virgin Atlantic flight crew who were busted using Facebook to insult passengers and criticise the company’s safety standards.
– The high school substitute teacher who was banned from teaching after writing Facebook messages to female students were discovered, including one suggesting that the girl’s “boyfriend [did not] deserve a beautiful girl like you.”
– Australian journo Catherine Deveny was sacked after a tweet she sent during the 2010 Logie Awards suggesting Bindi Irwin needed to “get laid”.
If you aren’t operating your social media under the guise of an anonymous troll (which, in some circumstances, isn’t a bad idea) or you are self-employed and can therefore say whatever you please, you are best off keeping potentially controversial or antagonising opinions offline. Find out some great tips for How to Avoid Getting Fired Due to Social Media at the Flowtown website.
Via The Australian
