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The Employer Handbook Blog
A pro golfer gets his revenge on Twitter; causes a heckler to lose his job.
He got the hook, all right. Or, you could say that his position was sliced. Boo-yah! I mean, Baba Booey!
Hey, I’ll be here all week.
I was going to start the week with this story from Del Milligan at TheLedger.com. But, then, that whole HR getting sued for FMLA violations thing caught my attention, and now has most of you refusing to come out from under your desks.
But, come on out! Trust me, this golf story is pure gold!
The price is wrong!
Like something out of Happy Gilmore (link NSFW-ish), J.J. Downum, an assistant Athletic Director at a Florida Southern, bragged on Twitter that, during the Valspar Championship, he yelled at PGA Tour professional Ian Poulter, “You will NOT make the Ryder Cup team! You will hit it in the water!”
According to Mr. Downum, Mr. Poulter asked a tournament rules official to remove him from the premises. And, sure enough, after Poulter hit his next shot into the water, Mr. Downum was removed. But, then, Mr. Poulter really got his revenge. Mr. Poulter found Mr. Downum’s tweet and Mr. Pouler responded on Twitter, “I’m sure @FSC_Athletics & @FscSports are really proud of your professionalism. I wish you the very best.”
Well, according to Mr. Milligan, getting kicked out of the tournament was the least of Mr. Downum’s problems:
“He’s no longer employed at the institution,” said Pete Meyer, Florida Southern’s director of athletics and dean of wellness on Wednesday.
…
The tweets reflected on Florida Southern, as Downum’s Twitter handle included the college, @JdownumFSC, and the page had the Mocs’ logo at the top.
Employer takeaways:
- Generally, there’s no such thing as employee free speech, especially not on Twitter. (Although, when an employee tweets about working conditions, there may be issues relating to protected concerted activity)
- When an employee does something dumb on Twitter, she compounds the stupidity by referencing her employer on her Twitter page and in her Twitter handle. Because, then the business is taking shrapnel too.
- Ultimately, no amount of training will eliminate employee stupidity on Twitter altogether. However, no training at all will help your business grab headlines; although, not necessarily the one you want to make.