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Facebook and Twitter: Losing Jobs, One Idiot at a Time

By John Danz Jr

It's almost second nature these days.

You get home after a long, stressful day at work and you need to unwind. You sit down at your computer and open Facebook. You click on the familiar "What's on your mind?" text box that is soon to contain a profanity-laced diatribe about how all of your coworkers are inept cretins and your boss is an autocratic, egotistical, contemptuous turd. In a far more believable scenario, it might look something like this:

"MY BOSS SUCKS! MY COWORKERS SUCK! MY JOB SUCKS!"

I'm sure many of us have been there before. What's my point? You're an idiot. Unless you don't need your job and couldn't care less if you got axed. If not, then you are an idiot. And as usual, I have my reasons.

According to an article on CNN, about a quarter of employers surveyed by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics in 2009 had chastised an employee for unsavory activities on social networking sites.

Only 10 percent had policies dealing with social networking sites. Which to me is quite sad, because when five o'clock rolls around, I can always count on my activity feed being inundated with rants and tirades from long, adverse days at work. I never quite understood it myself - you're making a salary, you're autonomous and independent, so why complain about the job? Without the job, you'd most likely be ranting on Facebook about how cold it is in your parents' basement.

Social media has made us all more content with cowardice. I guarantee you that none of the things people tweet or post on Facebook about their jobs would be said to their boss' face. It's basically digital gossiping, OK?

Another thing these tweeting idiots don't realize is that everything they put out there about the company they work for basically represents the company. If a drive through worker at Wendy's tweets that her manager is an irascible jerk, everyone sees that. Given the frequency in which people believe what they read online these days, people will possibly avoid that Wendy's because of the big bad boss man, and they have the loquacious idiot employee to thank. Usually, bosses are demeaned because they actually make these bums do their job.

There are many other possible scenarios there, but I trust you get my point.

You've all read the stories about people getting fired due to Facebook or Twitter posts, and I'd bet a shiny golden egg that many of you have said "WHAT THE HELL? What they say online is THEIR business!" You must realize, however, that what these employees of the month say online could mean LESS business.

John Danz Jr. is a work in progress, who enjoys the freedom of writing. Contact him at undertakerlives@gmail.com.