Fired over facebook

[scruffybird]

I am in an awful position and wonder if any of you knowledgable ladies can help.
I work in a school and am under investigation for writing on facebook about my feelings after a recent school event.
Sorry don't feel I can go into too much detail on here. But I did not name anyone or the school.
I am worried they can get rid of me for gross misconduct and that I will not be able to then get references for my next job.
Any advice?

My employers have a strict internet policy and people have been sacked. One colleague was even reprimanded for posting 'Holidays in 2 days, can't wait for some sun' because it apparently suggested she didn't pay attention to work when she was there. Personally I think this was going a little too far but it has made me wary.

manticlimactic - it's not that you "can't" it's just you have to understand the risk you take if you do. Most companies have pretty stringent policies about the use of the internet these days. Eg. At our organisation we don't go trawling through the FB accounts of our staff to see what they have been saying but if comments are brought to our attention and they are considered detrimental or breaching our policy then we do act. I personally have never sacked anyone but we have issued warnings as the result of disciplinaries which could ultimately amount to termination of employment if the employee did not cease his/her behaviour.

mantic I was wondering the same.

I mean most people write 'long day' 'hard day' 'couldn't do another day like today again' etc.

Can you really be sacked for it? Just because part of that day happened to be time your in employment? I mean in all honesty it could be the day started when DC woke you up at 5am, then messed around causing you to be late, work was hard because you were already stressed and then got caught in traffic on the way home and boiler broke.

People don't write essays just a statement on FB.

I'm sure if its a general statement though they'd have to prove it was about work not you have to prove it wasn't?

Clearly if you wrote 'shit day at work' then yes that could be punishable - even though it actually doesn't state any bad press or event.

My sister once wrote 'some people are really gonna piss me off soon and wanna stop' At 1pm during her lunch break from her phone. It eluded to a collegue but never stated that - and afaik no-one ever commented on it from work.

The reason I said that it mattered if Op worked for a maintained school or not is because some people are talking about getting the LA involved, or looking for examples of LA employees doing stupid stuff on the Net. Not relevant if the school is an Academy for example.
I'm fully aware that most employees don't like in-house matters being discussed on the Net, I see the disciplinary hearings on a regular basis.

Op, if you like you can pm me and I'll try to give you some guidance - from the perspective of someone who is involved in situations like this, in schools, as part of their job.

in my work (nhs hospital) we are not allowed to post things on the internet.

When i work on maternity, i am not even allowed to congrats message to people i know until the mother has written it on her wall.

my boss started up a group on facebook and when the policy came into effect she had to take that group off facebook.

i have to be very careful what i write on facebook

I have no sympathy for anyone who slags off their job, boss, friends whatever on facebook and then gets upset when it comes back to bite them. Would you get up on a stage in front of your friends and colleagues and tell them just what you thought? no? well facebook is doing just that.

The issue with facebook and working in a school is that, let's face it, most people aren't too particular about who they add as friends, so it would be entirely likely that the op might have friends/family/colleagues/perhaps even parents of children at the school on her fb pages. So post that you've had a shit day and suddenly your shit job is playground knowledge. It doesn't matter that the school isn't named - the people you are addressing know you work there.

Well, dunno about you lot but we get a monthy cascade from the LA telling us that all social networking sites are discouraged but if we are foolish enough to belong to one, then all comments a are in the public domain - and lets face it, teachers are sneaky grasses at the best of times - expect to be haulled over the coals and disciplined for inapproriate comments/jokes and friends lists scrutinised - and a big no-no ever having a pupil, past or present as a friend.

Rule of thumb - dont have collegues as friends - no need - you see them every day

Surely it depends on your privacy settings?

I don't and wouldn't talk about work online but if I did, my friend group is tightly controlled and it isn't publically searchable.

Feel for you but sadly it is becoming increasingly common to get in hot water for what we write on the internet. Look at the juror the other week for example. The man who joked about blowing up a building. Footballers. etc. etc.

The internet is more public than many of us think and we should exercise caution while online and protect our identities as best we can.

Wow no Amazon is very extreme. I can understand FB etc.

I think people forget that unless you are very stringent with who you have as friends on fb, then you are in fact broadcasting to the world your feelings.
I do not have a facebook account (too busy on mumsnet!). If I need to vent then I do it on here or to my close friends/colleagues.
Be very carefull what you say is the message.

We have a very strict internet/social network policy at school. Check yours? I got into serious trouble for writing "lisad123 is wondering how she will get her work down before she leaves work, I may be sleeping at the office this week"!!

"The internet is more public than many of us think"

It's more public than anything ever.

The 1953 coronation of the current Queen was watched by over 20 million people; LiveAid in 1985 had an estimated audience of 1.9bn. But they were still only seen by people in countries where these were broadcast, who happened to sit in front of their tellies during the time of the broadcast.

Your Facebook update of "Just had a shit" or "Sunita Singh smells," is published to approx 2.1 bn potential readers right this minute, and could be around for decades more. And it's all searchable on demand: no longer blink-and-you-miss-it.

We actually don't know what this total-information world is going to be like, because none of us have ever lived there. But we're slowly finding out: it's certainly interesting.

Meself, I reckon there's a lot to be said for an elegantly bound, crisp-paged, old-fashioned diary, with a little lock and key and "Keep Out" scrawled on the front, hidden under your pillow. Yes, write about your crap day and your evil thoughts about your colleagues. Just don't fucking publish it.

None of which is a go at scruffybird, btw: hope things work out OK for you. There but for the grace of god...

i work in nhs i never mention work by name if, i,m feeling paticularly shitty about some thing i may send a private message lots of my collegues are also on fb and some posts i read i do think watch yourself the confidentiality issue playsa big part

It's a good rule to never post anything on the internet or send anything in an e-mail that you wouldn't be happy for absolutely anyone to read - because you can never be really sure who will read it.
I hope you don't lose your job but I hope you have learnt something too.

I think it would depend
A what you wrote
B If your school have a policy covering this sort of thing and if it has been communicated to you
C what your privacy settings are

what evidence they have of your posting.I assume you deleted everyting as soon as you found out

I'd be mightily pissed off if my DD's teacher was posting anything on FB, whether it named specifics or not it's unprofessional and immature.

LMSJ - but what specifically would you be pissed off about him/her posting? "Anything" is a rather wide remit. For instance, the example that one of the posters further down gave "holiday in two days, can't wait for the sun" I would have said is completely innocuous, although evidently the employer did not agree. Whereas I think anyone would agree that, for example, "my class were little shits today and I can't wait for the end of term" is an entirely different kettle of fish.
It also depends on privacy settings. If you have them set so that only "friends" can see your wall and you control your friends list tightly that is very different from carelessly allowing your wall to be public or randomly accepting anyone as a friend.

She said it was about her feelings after a school event, which is obviously not appropriate to post on FB.

LMSJ - sorry, I thought you meant anything at all. I agree that what the OP was posting about sounds like it was probably inappropriate. The other question is who could have seen it? If she is FB friends with parents or her privacy settings are insecure than definitely inappropriate.

Just a bit of closure for everyone who has responded as I know I like to know the outcome of threads I post on.
The matter has been closed and no warnings have been issued and I was just advised on how to deal with things in the future phew.
Thanks for all of you replies x