Best Practices For Social Media: How Your Next Post Can Get You Fired

We all say or post personal comments from time to time; in fact, social media encourages us to express our every thought, often for the whole world to see.  However, before you post your latest status, take a moment to consider potential repercussions.  We are seeing more and more stories of people being reprimanded, or worse, terminated, for their social media activity, even when it is occurring in their personal time.  Case in point, prior to President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday, Daniel Grilo was a principal at a financial firm in Chicago.  The following day, he was unemployed.

The reason for termination?  A Tweet referring to the widow of a Navy Seal who was killed during a raid in Yemen.  “Sorry Owens’ wife, you’re not helping yourself or your husband’s memory by standing there and clapping like an idiot. Trump just used you.”

His Tweet immediately sparked responses and controversy across multiple social media platforms.  It didn’t take long for people to discover his place of employment, Liberty Advisor Group, flooding them with complaints, ultimately leading to Grilo being fired.

Liberty Advisor Group released a statement condemning Grilos’ comments for being inconsistent with the company’s values and the unyielding respect it has for members of our nation’s Armed Forces.

While some may support Grilo’s position and believe he was unjustly terminated, especially given that his comments were not directed at his employer, the fact remains he lost his job for little more than 140 characters, a few retweets, and some likes.  Which in my opinion, isn’t worth anyone’s livelihood.