Social media and your job

FORT MYERS, Fla.- Many of you have vented about your job on social media for anyone to see.

But, if your boss sees those posts, even if you wrote them outside of the office, are they grounds for termination?

Short answer: it depends on where you work.

What happened to Brandy Bryant can happen to any one of us. She was in the hospital and says her employer was taking a while getting back to her about taking medical leave.

Frustrated, her husband posted on his Facebook page about the companies delay.

“Just that he was frustrated that nobody would respond to him,” said Bryant.

Bryant says when she returned to work she was punished by her boss for her husband’s post.

“They talked about how they didn’t trust my intentions anymore because I didn’t defend them,” said Bryant.

Turns out Bryant’s employer had the legal right to punish her. But what happened to freedom of speech?

“Those rights don’t apply to employees who work for private companies,” said local employment attorney Denise Wheeler.

Wheeler says if you work at a private company, an employer can punish or fire you if they  simply don’t like what you are posting on social media.

But, Wheeler says if you have a public job, like working for the government, you have many more freedom of speech rights online.

“If you go on social media and you express your opinion about pro-life or pro-choice, that would certainly be a statement that you would have freedom of speech rights and a public employer could not terminate you for those comments on social media,” said Wheeler.