I would like for someone to tell me whether or not I'm being reasonable.
No one should have been fired over this. Write-ups...sure, whatever. But this is just another case of Twitter being awful for people in general. This didn't need to get so heated.
I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but there are reasons why social media offenses can’t be handled with traditional employee discipline.
The main reason is that the offense took place in a very public way. It’s not something private like being late for work a few times, or calling out too many times, or having shoddy work output that needs addressing. Jumping on social media and going viral leaves the business having to spend money and time to repair image damage. Apologies from the offending employees aren’t going to be much good here.
In Price’s case, she also has a documented history of questionable-to-poor social media behavior. She trashed her previous employer publicly. She genuinely believes that she has the right to speech without personal consequences— while collateral image damage isn’t her concern.
I referred to her as a “loose cannon” earlier in the thread, and I stand by this. When she’s got herself under control, she’s manageable and might even be a decent employee. Once the safety is off and she starts dropping social media pipebombs, though, she becomes an instant liability.
Moreover, she chose a fairly important somebody in the community for the business she works for to blast. That’s a serious offense, full stop. Apologies and excuses don’t fix that damage. A pledge from her to cease using social media is the only way, and ANet can’t do that.
Termination is a reasonable outcome in this case. Of course Price doesn’t like it, and she can feel as blindsided as she wants. It doesn’t take multiple offenses when it comes to social media controversy to get fired. It’s a common occurrence. She chose to use social media irresponsibly, and she has paid the just consequences for her actions. She isn’t the first, and most definitely will not be the last.
My apologies if you saw this earlier and/or for sounding like a broken record.