Partial rant, partially trying to find out if I'm being unreasonable, and partially trying to figure out other sides to it I may have missed.
When I go on social media, like Twitter, and say “Fuck, I hate my job.” How is it ok that a company has any control over that? I mean, sure, if I go on and start explicitly stating company secrets, ok. Fair enough. Competition is a thing, and I can see how a company might be allowed to have a say on that. But if I go on and say “This job is grinding on my soul”, regardless of how the company feels about it, that's my right to say it. And that's even the grey area. What if I just said “Fuck yeah, I just beat this hard game! I fucking rule!” And someone from the business corporate on their main account says “watch your language”. Obviously, I'm not going to listen. Probably get annoyed at them for trying to police my words. That's not up to them. Might even double down with something like “What the fuck makes you think you have the fucking right to tell me what I can and can't say?” Then the next day you're called in, this exchange is brought up, and you're fired. Like, that's almost baiting you at that point. It's not like you know the names of literally every single solitary employee to be able to recognize “Oh shit, this is the owner of the company! Do not retaliate!” And even if you did, so what? Im off the clock, and I'm on my own personal account. Who cares?
I've heard the argument of “You represent the company so you have to watch yourself”. Two problems with that. First, like Joe blow 2 town over is going to recognize my name, let alone link me to a specific company. Second, no, I'm on my own account on my own time. I stopped representing the company the second I take off my uniform and clock out. They don't own my life. They pay for my time. I give them my time. They did not pay for my entire existence.
None of this happened to me, but I've heard tons of stories. Even saw it happen to a guy I used to work with. Great guy. Off the clock, on his day off, he was smoking pot. Pot is legal here. He just so happened to smoke it on company property. So fucking what? They made a huge deal about it and everything. It pissed me off because he was a great worker. Always got the job done, enthusiastic, genuinely just wanted to help out. Nope, fired for bullshit. sigh….
… I fucking hate the corporate world.