One Man’s Firing Sets a Powerful Example When it Comes to Online Abuse

If you’re going to act like an asshole during your spare time, odds are it’s going to cost you in one way or another – whether you lose friends or your sense of pride.

You could even lose your job, especially in this age of social media shaming.

From the dismissal of a Hydro One worker after his vulgar comments to a female reporter went viral to the firing of Jian Ghomeshi from the CBC in the wake of his abuse allegations, we’ve seen how off-the-clock actions can have real consequences for your professional life.

And in cases that involve sexual harassment, assault, abuse, or racism, they most definitely should.

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A headline-making story got me thinking about the degree to which your actions outside of the workplace affect your job, social media shaming, and where to draw the line.

An Australian newspaper columnist has sparked a debate about how to handle harassment on social media after she discussed her decision to contact the employer of a man who was leaving abusive comments on her Facebook page.

On Nov. 25, the International Day of the Elimination of Violence against Women, Daily Life columnist Clementine Ford crafted several Facebook posts that included screenshots of some of the abusive comments sent to her, in all of their vulgar and uncensored “glory,” including violent images.

Clementine Ford

One of the comments included that of Michael Nolan, a hotel worker that had called her a “slut.” Not having it, Ford contacted Nolan’s employer and asked if they were aware of their employee’s online behaviour. Nolan made this simple for her; his employer was listed on his public Facebook page. Ford even included screenshots of Nolan’s other posts – which she described as “vile racism” – to show his employers.

As it turned out, Nolan’s employers weren’t exactly impressed; this week, they confirmed that he was no longer working for the company. Not surprisingly, that sparked backlash against Ford (largely from a group of angry men, who began to harass her themselves) with some people demanding that she be fired as well.

Defending her actions – and this isn’t the first time she’s shamed her online harassers – Ford wrote a column explaining why she did it:

“I did it because I’m sick and tired of men abusing women online and continually getting away with it. I can bear the brunt of this behaviour, but I’m angry about the number of women who tell me they can’t,” she writes.

“There are basically no consequences for men who behave like this, so we have to start making consequences for them,” says Ford, echoing a sentiment she shared back in June, when she told the Channel Ten program The Project that she takes matter into her own hands because she didn’t feel that Facebook had appropriate mechanisms in place to handle online abuse, and was frustrated with the current system in place. She feels the same way about Twitter, a platform where online harassment is even more prevalent.

Of course, you can always block the inappropriate set (as I have numerous times), but that doesn’t get to the root of the problem. The culprit will just move on to the next.

CBC points to a report released in May by Women, Action and the Media (WAM) that deals with online harassment, specifically on Twitter. The report found that severe online harassment targeted young women in particular. Victims of online harassment were most often vocal about topics historically dominated by men, or by women who identified as feminists or expressed feminist views. And no, there’s nothing reassuring about that (sigh).

When it comes to pre-existing mechanisms on social media for reporting abuse, WAM’s research found that there was room for improvement, something that Twitter acknowledged themselves. They offered a series of recommendations that range from broadening the definition of harassment to improving users’ ability to filter abusive content, and holding abusive users responsible for what they post. They also call for a change in social media sites so that they no longer have the level of anonymity that permits abusive harassment without consequence, whereby abusers can hide behind their computer screen.

But because these don’t currently exist, Ford decided to do something about it herself. And I applaud her for it. In doing so, she has set a powerful example in terms of self-conduct, and advanced the current shift in the standards expected of employees. It’s also a reminder that the court of social media increasingly governs our actions, holding us more accountable than ever for our public behaviour both offline and online.

More than ever, abuse of any kind in a public forum is considered unacceptable and grounds for dismissal by employers, even though they’re not legally obliged to do so. In an age of increased transparency, they are held accountable too, after all, and few companies cite “harassment,” “racism,” or “abuse” among their core values.

When it comes to other behaviour that’s potentially unsavoury to employers – whether it means smoking weed on the weekends in public or dancing on tables wearing next to nothing – just remember to be smart about what you post. Especially if your account is public. Even if it isn’t, let’s not forget that everyone has a camera at their fingertips.

And nobody, nobody, seems afraid to publicly call you out for being an asshole these days.

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