Twitter can be a great place to share ideas. The microblogging platform has a large worldwide
audience. It is estimated that every day 100 million
people are daily active users on Twitter and that Twitter has 261 million international
users. However, as with any other social media, you
have to be careful about what you say and post on Twitter. A growing problem is people losing their jobs
over inappropriate tweets. Employers attempt to address this problem
by establishing rules for employees to follow. According to lawyer Bryan Wood, “many major
employers have social media policies that address activity on both personal and professional
accounts.” They include advice about “basic decency”
and what would seem to be common sense measures such as “be respectful” and “protect
proprietary company information.” What can happen if you don’t follow these
policies? We will find out as we examine our top 20
job-ending tweets in this episode of The Infographics Show, “Worst Tweets That Got People Fired.” 20. Teen’s Job Hating Tweet
When will people learn not to trash their jobs online if they want to keep them? Buzzfeed News tells the story of Twitter user
Cellla_. Before her first day of work at a pizzeria,
the teen tweeted, “Ew, I start this f--- ass job tomorrow.” Her boss, Robert Waple, found out about her
tweet from one of his workers and decided to fire her online. He tweeted back, “And. . . . no you don’t start that FA job today! I just fired you! Good luck with your no money, no job life!” 19. “Got Pot?” Tweet
If you are going to do something illegal, the last thing you want to do is announce
it on social media. Sunith Baheerathan, a Mr. Lube employee working
in Toronto, learned this lesson the hard way when he tried to make a drug deal via Twitter. To make matters worse, he gave out his location
so that everyone could track him down, including the police. “Any dealers in Vaughan wanna make a 20sac
chop? Come to Keele/Langstaff Mr. Lube, need a spliff,”
Baheerathan tweeted. “Awesome! Can we come too?” responded Constable Blair McQuillan of York
Regional Police. Not surprisingly, Baheerathan got fired instead
of getting pot. 18. “Party Girl” Teacher Tweets
Carly McKinney was a Colorado math teacher who was not afraid to show her wild side outside
of the classroom on social media. The attractive young teacher posted semi-nude
photos of herself on Twitter, and she made her penchant for pot smoking public. According to one source, she wrote “Naked. Wet. Stoned” in one tweet and “Maybe I’ll
teach high just to see what happens!” in another. There was a Twitter photo of herself actually
smoking pot inside her car. Once word about her racy tweets got out, she
was first suspended and then fired, although “her students tried to save her” from
losing her job. 17. Broke Girls Tweet
Phil Hardy worked as a congressional staffer for Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador until
he made an embarrassing mistake. Not realizing he was still logged into Labrador’s
official Twitter account, Hardy wrote, “Me likey Broke Girls.” According to a Daily Mail article, Hardy meant
to post this comment on his own Twitter account in response to seeing a sexy Super Bowl ad. It featured the two stars of the CBS comedy
Broke Girls, Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs, pole dancing to Def Leppard’s song “Pour
Some Sugar On Me.” The comment was online for only 14 seconds,
but it was 14 seconds too long. Labrador’s office “apologized for the
tweet,” and Labrador fired Hardy. 16. Chrysler Tweet That Chews Out Drivers
According to a Business Insider article, Scott Bartosiewicz “was a social media strategist
for New Media Strategies.” He managed Chrysler’s Twitter account until
one day, like Phil Hardy, he posted an inappropriate tweet meant for his own personal account. On Chrysler’s official Twitter account,
he dropped the F-bomb and mocked Detroit drivers when he tweeted, “I find it ironic that
Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f*cking drive.” Needless to say, Chrysler was not happy about
what this tweet did to its public image, and Bartosiewicz lost his job. 15. Whistleblower Tweet
In 2013, developer Adria Richards attended a conference where she heard two men near
her making sexual jokes. She was offended by the jokes and could not
resist the temptation to vent about the men on Twitter. According to ABC News, she photographed them
and tweeted, “Not cool. Jokes about forking repo’s in a sexual way
and ‘big’ dongles. Right behind me.” The tweet had more negative consequences than
Richards could have imagined. One of the men who made the sexist remarks
was fired and so was Richards. The CEO of SendGrid, the company Richards
worked for, explained that he dismissed her because “he took issue with her decision
to ‘publicly’ shame the offenders by tweeting the comments and photos” and that “her
actions have strongly divided the same community she was supposed to unite.” ABC also reported that Richards “received
rape and death threats on websites” and that the hacking group Anonymous released
“a statement that it would take action against SendGrid's users and computer systems if it
didn't fire Richards.” One source reported that Richards stopped
tweeting for a year due to threats and harassment but has since returned to Twitter. 14. Insensitive Tweet about a War Hero Widow
Turning tragedy into an opportunity for political mockery backfired for former Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama volunteer Dan Grilo. In response to Trump’s tribute to the widow
of fallen U.S. Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, Grilo tweeted, “Sorry, Owens' wife,
you’re not helping yourself or your husband’s memory by standing there and clapping like
an idiot. Trump just used you.” According to Fox News, Grilo’s tweet offended
“commentators on both sides of the aisle.” It also caused Grilo to lose his job as a
principal for Liberty Advisor Group. A company statement said, “Regardless of
whether the comments in the tweet were intended to cause the hurt and anger that they ultimately
generated, they were unacceptable to us, and the individual who issued the tweet is no
longer affiliated with Liberty.” 13. Tasteless Costume Tweet
In 2013, Alicia Ann Lynch lost her job and made herself a target for social media persecution
because of her thoughtless choice of Halloween costume. On her Twitter and Instagram accounts, she
posted a photo of herself dressed as a bloody Boston Marathon bombing victim for Halloween. The tragic event was still fresh in people’s
minds because it happened earlier that year in April, and Internet users were merciless
in their online attacks against her. According to the New York Daily News, Lynch,
her parents, and her best friend received “vicious threats” from strangers who called
them after obtaining personal details from a partial photo of Lynch’s driver’s license. Another source states that “Twitter users
circulated nude pictures and videos of her found on Tumblr.” Unable to tolerate the hate, Lynch closed
down all of her social media accounts, but “later reopened her Twitter account in an
attempt to be forgiven for the costume.” 12. Sports-Related Racist Tweet
In 2010, former MLB pitcher Mike Bacsik was working as a sports producer and radio personality
until he cranked out a racist tweet in a fit of drunken dismay over the outcome of a Maverick-Spurs
game. “Congrats to all the dirty mexicans in San
Antonio” is the tweet that got him suspended and then fired from his job. In an interview with ESPN, Bacsik was apologetic
and took responsibility for what he tweeted. "If you want to do a job like this, your guard
always has to be up," he said. "It's tough because my guard was down. I learned my lesson. I'm owning up to what I did. I did a horrible thing. I'm very sorry and will try my best for my
actions to speak louder than my tweets." 11. Sacco Sacked for Racist Tweet
You would think that public relations executives of all people would be careful about what
they post on Twitter, but Justine Sacco was not. According to one source, she wrote, “Going
to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” By the time her long flight to South Africa
was almost over, her racist comment spread across the Internet, offending people far
and wide. The company she worked for, InterActive Corp,
could not keep her on as a PR executive amidst the public outrage caused by her racist tweet. Sacco was fired and joined the ranks of the
other doomed public relations people on this list. 10. Roseanne Barr’s Racist Tweet
Roseanne Barr made headlines earlier in 2018 when she was fired from her sitcom for posting
a racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Barr tweeted that Jarrett “was equal to
the ‘Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes’” according to a Guardian article. Since her firing, Barr is somewhat apologetic
and has provided a wide range of explanations for this indefensible tweet. She said in a YouTube video that “she thought
Valerie Jarrett was white.” She even tried to blame Ambien, but Sanofi,
the company that manufactures Ambien, wouldn’t let her get away with that excuse. The company tweeted, “Racism is not a known
side effect of any Sanofi medication.” 9. Firefighters’ Sexist Tweets
In 2013, two Toronto firefighters named Matt Bowman and Lawaun Edwards were fired for posting
sexist comments on their Twitter accounts. It was widely reported that Bowman tweeted
remarks like “Reject a woman and she will never let it go. One of the many defects of their kind. Also weak arms” and ““I’d never let
a woman kick my ass. If she tried something I’d be like hey!
you get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!” According to the Observer, both lines were
from TV shows that were “intended to make fun of people who are sexist.” Edwards is best known for his misogynistic
tweet, "Would swat [sic] her in the back of the head been considered abuse or a way to
reset the brain?" Both firefighters were fired because these
tweets “were deemed to be in violation of city policy” according to one source. However, they challenged their dismissals. Bowman’s termination was upheld because
he posted other tweets that were more disturbing than the offensive TV lines, such as this
one reported by an online legal news website called AdvocateDaily.com: “if you were deaf
I would rape you and then break your fingers so you can’t tell anyone ...” However, AdvocateDaily.com states Edwards
was reinstated because his “swat” tweet was considered to be an “isolated instance.” An arbitrator overseeing the firefighters’
case said in her decision that “While I have found that the ‘swat in the back of
the head’ tweet was inappropriate, I find that termination is too harsh a penalty for
that comment.” 8. “Instant Karma” Tweet
In 2017, sociology professor Kenneth L. Storey unleashed a storm of social media outrage
with this irrational and insensitive tweet about Hurricane Harvey: I dont believe in instant Karma but this kinda
feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the
GOP doesnt care about them. People did not like Storey’s belief that
Texans deserved to suffer hurricane damage because of their political preferences. According to one source, his employer, the
University of Tampa, “received a flurry of criticism for the post, and Storey was
promptly fired.” 7. Police Death Cheer Tweets from Subway Worker
Some people hate the police, and Subway worker Sierra “C-Babi” McCurdy is one of them. She was far from sad when she found out about
a double murder of two police officers. She tweeted, “2 police officers was shot
in Hattiesburg tonight . . . GOT EM” and “police take away innocent people lives
now & get away w/ it, fxck them . . . [no mercy].” Twitter users who came across her coldhearted
tweets showed her no mercy, demanding that Subway fire her. Subway complied with their request. 6. Insensitive Sexual Assault Tweets
Making fun of people’s tragedies is a bad idea whether you are online or not. According to a Mashable article, veteran war
correspondent Nir Rosen raised public ire with some thoughtless tweets about Lara Logan,
a CBS chief foreign correspondent who “had suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault.” Instead of offering sympathy, he tweeted such
“insensitive” comments as "I'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she'll get" and
"it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too." Rosen was not technically fired from his position
as a Law Fellow at the NYU Center for Law and Security, but Forbes reports that a statement
from NYU indicates “that his resignation was almost certainly under pressure from the
Center.” 5. Trump Incest Tweet
According to an entertainment news website called The Wrap, Politico reporter Julia Ioffe
tweeted in 2016 that Donald Trump “is either f—–g his daughter or he’s shirking nepotism
laws.” In response to her tweet, Politico ended her
contract early and sent a letter out to employees. “We understand how absolutely infuriating
it is to have incidents like this tarnish POLITICO and the great work being done across
the company,” the letter said. “We feel the same, and as such there will
be little tolerance for this type of behavior.” Fortunately for Ioffe, she was on her way
to another job at The Atlantic at the time she made the offensive tweet. The Atlantic did not seem worried Ioffe might
make a similar blunder in her new position. Washington Post reporter Erik Wemple tweeted,
“Atlantic says it is ‘confident’ Julia Ioffe will adhere to mag standards when she
comes aboard in January.” However, she did not stay long with The Atlantic,
leaving it in 2018 to become a political reporter for GQ. 4. Gross Golden Nachos Tweet
We’ve all heard horror stories about what restaurant employees do to the food they serve
to customers, and Taco Bell employee Cameron Jankowski provided his own disgusting contribution
by tweeting a photo of himself peeing on some nachos at work. According to a Daily Mail story, Jankowski
defended his action by calling the photo a “prank.” The photo won him the title “winner of the
piss Olympics” from Hunter Moore, who is known for the “now-defunct ‘revenge porn’
website Is Anyone Up?” Jankowski also tweeted that he did not give
the urine-soaked nachos to anyone and that “There are no laws saying what you can and
cannot piss upon.” These arguments did not quell the growing
backlash from Internet users. A hacking group called Anonymous “asked
their 140,000 followers to ‘Find This Taco Bell Employee,’” and it “created a video
of Jankowski’s Tweets with a series of photographs of him to shame him.” Taco Bell soon found out what Jankowski did
and fired him. Taco Bell spokeswoman Amy Kavanaugh said,
“We find this prank absolutely unacceptable, and we plan to terminate anyone involved and
work with authorities to pursue legal action.” 3. James Gunn’s Rape and Pedophilia Tweets
There’s a saying that once something is on the Internet, it stays on the Internet
forever. Director James Gunn would probably agree after
losing his job as director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise over some old but
still offensive tweets that recently surfaced. USA Today reported that tweets such as “I
like when little boys touch me in my silly place” and “The best thing about being
raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like ‘whew this feels great, not
being raped!' " did not uphold Disney Studio’s values, so the company fired him. 2. Anthony Weiner’s First Lewd Public Tweet
This list would not be complete without mentioning the first major social media mistake of sexting
addict Anthony Weiner. The troubles for the New York congressman
began when he tweeted an indecent photo of himself to a 21-year-old female college student
in 2011. Unfortunately, Weiner sent it as a public
tweet. The tweet was deleted but not in time to avoid
detection. According to salon.com, a Twitter user named
Dan Wolfe retweeted Weiner’s scandalous tweet, and the retweet got the attention of
blogger Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart later published a piece on Weiner’s
deleted tweet, and soon the tweet received national attention. To make a long story short, Weiner tried to
deny the tweet was his, but later he owned up to it and was out of a job after he resigned
from Congress. 1. Infamous Trump Head Tweet
Kathy Griffin likes to shock people with her comedy, but she went too far in 2017 when
she posted a photo of herself on Twitter and Instagram holding what looked like the bloody,
decapitated head of President Donald Trump, which was actually a mask. The horrible social media stunt received widespread
public condemnation. Even Democrats such as her friend Anderson
Cooper did not approve of the photo according to one source. There were other negative consequences. An article posted on The Wrap reports that
“in the aftermath of the incident, Griffin lost a number of jobs including on CNN’s
New Year’s Eve show with Anderson Cooper and multiple live gigs.” She was also investigated by the Secret Service
and received death threats according to a Hollywood Reporter article. Do you know of a tweet that should be on this
list? Have you or someone you know lost a job over
an inappropriate tweet? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our other video
called Why Winning The Lottery Is The Worst Thing That Can Happen To You! Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t
forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!
