Quick Overview:

I got a call from my boss today. He said I should edit my facebook profile and get rid of two things before HR comes after me. He said he was forwarded the e-mail from his boss. Who got the e-mail from another guy who works in Canada.

Those two things I was asked to remove: A picture of my Tokyo Marui airsoft gun. And my comment about the company I work at.

Details:
So, about 3 months ago, I bought a "toy" airsoft gun. I'm into a few paintball and airsoft hobbies. But, nothing hard core. So I post up a picture of my new MP5 airsoft gun on facebook. I guess it doesn't help that I'm asian and there is a picture of a gun on my facebook page (I have since then deleted it, but I haven't been to my facebook page in a month, so it was not up there deliberately).

Also, I made a comment about my company. It was literally, "(Company Name)... I work for the commies." I had put that comment up there because it was a running joke for me and my group of friends. They were always cracking on me for working at a Chinese owned company. Besides, I'm a contractor here. I have no stake in this company. They could care less about the company. I also don't remember signing any waiver forms that says, "You can't joke about the company if you work here."

This morning, my boss called me in to his office. My boss is a good guy. He's always watching out for me. Best boss I've ever had. He feels embarrassed that his boss even considered paying attention to the e-mail that was sent. But, either way, what was done was done. So, some marketing guy from Canada that works in the company, e-mails my bosses boss and complains that since I had a gun and I was poking fun of the company, then I must be a serious threat to the company.

I think this is full of crap. I thought this was America? Aren't we allowed to say what we want? And it was a picture of a toy gun WITH an orange tip... posted MONTHS before the VA tech shootings. I haven't even visited my facebook page since then. And everyone makes fun of our company and throws around the word "commies" or "communist".

Conclusion:
I'm kind of pissed off that some lame marketing guy goes around trolling for this kind of stuff. Why are people such whiny babies about toy guns and rude comments about a company on someone's personal facebook page? Well, either way, I may lose my job because some shmuck trolled the internets and started complaining about my personal opinions. I wouldn't mind getting fired for something this stupid. I love my boss and my current work enviroment, but if HR is gonna whine about an asian guy with an airsoft gun calling his company commies, then I rather go and find a new job.

[Edited on April 26, 2007 at 4:22 PM. Reason : ]

4/26/2007 4:21:44 PM

all i see is a bunch of whining - welcome to corporate america

4/26/2007 4:26:13 PM

the gun...maybe, but you should know better than to make fun of anywhere you work for online.

4/26/2007 4:32:50 PM

Quote :

"I thought this was America? Aren't we allowed to say what we want?"

You aren't working for the government, so the 1st Amendment doesn't really apply.

4/26/2007 4:34:01 PM

If you really do like your job and your boss, you'll do the two very simple things asked of you, and just carry on.

Do you really expect an entire company to be very laid-back, for no one to have a stick up their ass, and have the same sense of humor you do?

If you really do like your boss, you won't be stupid and cause trouble for him by being a kid about this. Asking you to to do these two things, to avoid causing trouble further up, is not at ALL unreasonable.

Quote :

"but if HR is gonna whine about an asian guy with an airsoft gun calling his company commies, then I rather go and find a new job."

This is unreasonable.

4/26/2007 4:35:35 PM

First of all, I've done those two things. Actually, I did those two things within 5 minutes of meeting my boss.

Secondly, again, the toy gun was not up there intentionally. It's been up since February. My wife and I actually share the page. She logs on to contact some of her classmates because she goes to Wake Tech (I believe they are an "accredited" school now, so she can honestly get her own page). Aside from that, I haven't visited the page since February.

Thirdly, we can leave 1st amendment out of this if you want, but that still doesn't justify someone raising alarms about an asian guy with a toy gun joking about a company. I mean, it's my job on the line here. It's not like I can't find another job. I'm just saying that's pretty rude to put someone through something like this and not consider their family situation. Racial profiling can be pretty harsh for minorities.

4/26/2007 4:54:26 PM

I'm going to jump in and ask ... can't you make your profile private? I'm not on there so I don't know much about it, but I've heard of ppl doing that with myspace

4/26/2007 4:58:07 PM

Quote :

"Legal for company to troll through personal info?"

Yes. You're not the only one surprised by this, though: http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=470136

[Edited on April 26, 2007 at 5:01 PM. Reason : ]

4/26/2007 5:01:10 PM

What is interesting is that someone is getting paid to look up your facebook and myspace page.

4/26/2007 5:03:44 PM

Quote :

"I'm going to jump in and ask ... can't you make your profile private? "

Yes, but by not being a facebook addict, you don't really pay attention to stuff like that. My profile was made avaliable to friends and network. So, I think somehow they linked either through my friends or my networks. I was apart of the company network, but since today, I've left it. Since I'm not a real employee anyways, just a contractor.

Quote :

"What is interesting is that someone is getting paid to look up your facebook and myspace page."

That's what my boss elaborated on during our meeting. I'm honestly one of his best employees, that's why he was willing to give me the full details of this situation. He said he can't believe they are paying someone to troll through people's personal pages. Kind of sad, knowing the company just laid off hundreds of people last week.

4/26/2007 5:08:41 PM

hey guys

is it legal for someone at my company to access publicly available information which i have endorsed?

4/26/2007 5:12:42 PM

your boss just emailed me. He said to stop talking shit about your company on TWW.

4/26/2007 5:13:31 PM

Sorry dude, they have every right to do what they did. You are employed at their will, so if they feel you are a threat to the company, valid or not, they can fire you. Be happy that they were fairly reasonable about this and didn't jump to conclusions too quickly.

4/26/2007 5:17:09 PM

go to a lawyer and see if you can sue them, then settle out of court, relax for 12 months and find a new job.

4/26/2007 5:18:27 PM

they didn't want to fire him because he is azn w/ a gun (airsoft).

Really do you want to fire that guy?









I'm just kidding.

4/26/2007 5:19:03 PM

sue for discrimination...besides, isn't the marketing guy from Canada? you should put something in your facebook about canadians aye, see how long that takes to get to your boss.

4/26/2007 5:29:31 PM

agentlion wins this thread

4/26/2007 5:39:09 PM

maybe you mean nothing bad by calling your company "commies" or by posting guns, or whatever. But as an adult and a professional you should realize that people do see things that way and you won't necessarily get a chance to explain to them that it was a running joke amongst your friends..

I've seen my boss interview someone and then as soon as they walk out the door look them up on myspace. It's easy to put on a facade in an interview or at work, but you had to put in effort on your own free time to post pics and write whatever you say on a webpage. So when it says "I LOVE WEED" on your profile, or "I HATE JEWS" or "I work for commies". well that's something you went out of your way to put out there. Like it, agree with it, whatever... doesn't make it stop happening.

Quote :

"I'm kind of pissed off that some lame marketing guy goes around trolling for this kind of stuff."

His job is to make the company, their products, services, and employees look good. He probably googled the company name or searched for it on facebook to see what comes up and found your page. Well, if he could do it so can everyone else. He had every right to ask you to remove the stuff, or to at least remove the name of the company from the page.

"I work for commies" - it's an inside joke, how do you think random people who come across it may take this if they don't realize it's a joke? Keep in mind that to many Americans being a "commie" is bad and it's typically used in a derogatory fashion. If they take it seriously it may affect how they view the company.

All this racial profiling shit; Did he say it was because you're Asian? Do you know of some white or black people at the company with pictures of guns on their web pages which contain the company name (which they refer to as commies) who weren't asked to remove the pictures? Or do you have your very own jump to conclusions mat?

4/26/2007 5:40:48 PM

Quote :

"Be happy that they were fairly reasonable about this and didn't jump to conclusions too quickly."

LOL, must not have read the rest of the thread. The Canadian guy jumped to conclusions as fast as white on rice. Otherwise, he would have just e-mailed me personally and said, "Why is there a gun on your page? And you should probably take that comment off the site because it offends the company and not good for business." Now, I'm my job is at risk because he cc'd Canada's HR manager and my boss's boss. And drew up this elaborate e-mail with screen shots of the gun and the comments.

(Yes, my boss let me read the whole e-mail)

Quote :

"It's easy to put on a facade in an interview or at work, but you had to put in effort on your own free time to post pics and write whatever you say on a webpage. So when it says "I LOVE WEED" on your profile, or "I HATE JEWS" or "I work for commies". well that's something you went out of your way to put out there. Like it, agree with it, whatever... doesn't make it stop happening. "

Well, you didn't have to make it worse by saying "pics"... there was only one pic honestly. I really didn't go too far out of my way. Probably took three whole seconds to type out that sentence. And it was kind of an impulsive comment. I didn't have too put much thought into the comment after my friend IM'd me and we joked about it. But, that's beside the point. I'm not denying that it was my fault to write that comment, hence why my page is now "private only".

Quote :

"All this racial profiling shit; Did he say it was because you're Asian? Do you know of some white or black people at the company with pictures of guns on their web pages which contain the company name (which they refer to as commies) who weren't asked to remove the pictures? Or do you have your very own jump to conclusions mat?"

I'm not complaining about racial profiling. Don't get me wrong. I do it "unconciously" all the time. See a scrappy mexican guy on a construction yard, I automatically assume he can't speak english well. I'm just saying, it sucks to be on the recieving end of it

If you see a fire, it usually means that it's very hot and you probably shouldn't go near it. It's safe to assume that seeing an asian with a gun (even if it has an orange tip and it was posted months ago) is probably not a good thing at this point in time. There is nothing wrong about jumping to conclusions. It's a natural behaviour built into us to help us survive.

MY FINAL COMMENT ON THIS THREAD
I KNOW IT WAS MY FAULT. NOW PLEASE STOP EXPLAINING TO ME THAT IT WAS MY FAULT. Just wanted to know the legal facts behind it... and rant a little

4/26/2007 6:26:16 PM

Ha. You immediately play the race card. So you are basically saying that if it had been any other race they wouldn't have to remove the image/comment? That tells me more about you than it tells me about the people you work for.

You represent your company - even when not on the job site. If a potential customer checks your facebook profile they might decide to not do business with your company if they read your commie comment.

4/27/2007 8:24:54 AM

WITH THE RECENT VA TECH SHOOTINGS I BET IF HE WAS WHITE THEY WOULDN'T HAVE SAID ANYTHING.

4/27/2007 8:49:07 AM

If you wouldn't say the joke (or show the pic, etc.) to your boss' face, don't put it on the internet where he could see it.

Dur.

Quote :

"I thought this was America? Aren't we allowed to say what we want?"

Sure. Nowhere does it say you have freedom of speech, and someone will hold your hand and make sure there are no personal consequences to your actions. You can't be thrown in jail for your joke, doesn't mean you can't be fired for not being a very good representative of the company.

[Edited on April 27, 2007 at 10:08 AM. Reason : sure]

4/27/2007 10:00:27 AM

It's legal but douchebaggy.

It's better to work somewhere that understands the difference between work and personal life.




[Edited on April 27, 2007 at 2:49 PM. Reason : ]

4/27/2007 2:46:12 PM

Quote :

"It's better to work somewhere that understands the difference betwen work and personal life."

Considering that xvang made a (easily interpreted as) derogatory comment about his employer on his personal facebook, I'd say that it is he and not the company that has difficulty keeping the two separate.

4/27/2007 2:50:39 PM

um whats so derogatory about it? Is China not a Communist society? and uh.....most people do put up something about what they do every day for a living on their facebook.....it's pretty standard. I think the stupid thing here is that facebook is a social networking site, not professional. Thus only social engagements should be searching on it. You probabally shouldn't have been on the work network though.

Man, If all everyone cared about at your job was looking good for the company, boy that would suck.

[Edited on April 27, 2007 at 3:24 PM. Reason : .]

4/27/2007 3:23:04 PM

Quote :

"Probably took three whole seconds to type out that sentence. And it was kind of an impulsive comment. I didn't have too put much thought into the comment after my friend IM'd me and we joked about it. But, that's beside the point."

Yeah, and so was my "GET A ROPE" comment, but you know how much people made a big deal about that. Hell, it was even on the news. Don't be an idiot. I learned my lesson.

4/27/2007 4:50:12 PM

This is why I don't do facebook or myspace. I think it's a waste of money and crosses a privacy line for companies to be poking around for info on your life outside of work, but at the same time, I realize what's at stake and that being employable is more important than principle for me right now.

4/27/2007 10:10:27 PM

You ought not work for the commies.

4/28/2007 9:14:07 AM

^^ too bad when potential employers try to look you up and find nothing they're either gonna think you're a spy/alias or they're gonna say "what kind of loser doesn't have a facebook or myspace. well, we certainly don't want to hire any losers here. NEXT."

4/28/2007 10:22:16 AM

No surprises here. Canadians hate guns.

4/28/2007 1:02:09 PM

Of course it's legal for them to troll through public info if you've associated yourself with them. And you can have whatever you want on your facebook profile, but they can also fire you if they think you're giving them a bad image. It's best not to take any of this personally, and to talk to your boss about it after letting him know that you've complied with what he wanted you to do.

4/28/2007 2:28:19 PM

^^^ maybe they want to hire someone > 14

4/29/2007 12:14:24 AM

Quote :

"Legal for company to troll through personal public info?"

fixed it for you

4/29/2007 10:29:52 AM