Many people have lost their job as a result of their ideas and opinions shared on social media. Our ideas and opinions on social media should not be a reason for dismissal, but in the world we are today, where everyone wants people to talk good about them, whether they do good or not, dismissal is very common.
I remembered a woman that made a comment on social media about a particular tomato paste online, which led to her arrest. The company saw it as destroying its reputation. But would have been better if she had called the company customer care to tell them what she thinks about the paste. But in her own opinion, she came online to complain.
In the part of the company too, I can't say they are wrong for arresting her because they have their own reasons too, but they could have just reached out to the lady and talked things out. She may come online again with a different and good opinion, just like a popular chef did in Nigeria. Someone bought pepper soup from her restaurant and talked about her opinion about the pepper soup online. The owner of the restaurant reached out to her, apologized, and even compensated her.
It will also give room for improvement too, and people will see that they care for their customers. But everyone wants people to talk about how perfect they are, even though they are imperfect, that is why some companies, schools, etc. will dismiss a worker that says different opinions different from theirs.
A brother of mine got arrested in Lagos, Nigeria, because he worked in a company where they loaned out funds for people. They called all their workers to meetings and got them arrested instead of going out to arrest the people that collected the loan. They arrest their workers because they think that if they arrested them, they will be forced to do the same for their customers, so that they can refund the money on time. They were caught off guard, on a Monday morning. Instead of sitting together with their workers and find a solution to the repayment issues, they decide on their own to arrest all workers through which the money was loan out to business owners.
In this case, if someone goes on social media and talks about it, they will see it as spoiling their reputation and going against their organization policies, meanwhile, what they did was wrong. Talking about our opinions should not be a reason for a dismissal, but it's happening. Some companies just prioritize their reputation over workers opinions.
But in the case where the workers have already signed a paper not to make any opinions or ideas concerning the organization on social media, if that happens and it leads to dismissal, I don't think the organization is wrong.
While organizations have a right to protect their reputation, it's essential to strike a balance between this and employees' freedom of expression. By fostering open communication and addressing concerns constructively, organizations can build trust and improve their relationships with customers and employees.