I know & I agree. I got into a huge debate over (the woman who called 911 in Central Park against a Black man reminding her that her dog needed a leash) with a coworker.
Anyway, it became a huge thing to a coworker of mine in which I said look, like as not, we live in a public society and hey guess what:
“Actions have consequences”. You could have powered a foundry from the comments he gave me.
I got it: My personal life is mine as is my social media. But I also know that my actions outside of work is not private. Especially in a public sphere.
Huh? But as soon as you accost someone over birdwatching or toilet use it’s not your private life anymore but a public act? I don’t get your coworker’s reasoning
As soon as you leave the house, it’s public. And assume everything you do is online.
He was mad in that the Central Park woman in question got fired.
I agree that what I do off the clock is private, but he kept getting hung up the “Big Brother” aspect; in which I said (again) Central Park is public and once it’s uploaded to YouTube, it’s definitely public.
We can split hairs & all that, but if you get caught out in public being you…that’s on you.
I must have had a different printing of 1984. I didn’t remember the proles controlling the party when I last read it. Besides, sousveillance is not surveillance
It is interesting how the mantra of “if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear” disappeared from right wing talking points when minorities and marginalised people got easy access to cameras.
Fair enough. It’s not your job to make people “get” something and, at the end of the day, people are usually going to go to bed in the same bed of biases as they woke up in. In the case of the Central Park Karen (as in this case), the woman was caught on tape committing a crime, and it’s hard to make an argument that somebody shouldn’t get fired for crimes that they commit while off the clock, so I think your friend was playing the devil’s advocate or just confused.
Just so it’s clear exactly why he regrets doing this. Not because it was an assholish thing to do, but because he was filmed being an asshole. I sincerely hope he has plans for moving on with his life’s work, because he has no business around children.
My employer does not have the right to dictate how I conduct my affairs off the clock. Where my co-worker went wrong is that, setting aside ALL social media, this does not apply to a public space like Central Park, or indeed any space outside your home.
Simply because, for white people, actions having consequences is a fairly new development, hence the shrieking over “cancel culture.” For minorities of all sorts, actions, inactions, even just existing have always come with consequences. We white folk are very not used to this and often don’t consider the possibilities, because there have not really been any for most of our lives.
I also wouldn’t feel comfortable about somebody getting fired for something that they said in the privacy of their own home or a hotel room or some other place where they had a reasonable expectation of privacy (this obviously doesn’t apply to social media). But I do believe in the Harm Principle, and an action that harms another person is no longer just your own business. The Central Park Karen did in fact call the police, putting a man’s life in danger. That’s more important than the whole Big Brother idea here.
My contract, and many others, have a clause specifically stating that if I am convicted of a crime I will be considered for termination. The way it is phrased leaves a fair amount of wiggle room, but nonetheless, criminal actions outside the office can absolutely affect you employment status.
My answer would be that if being a racist, homophobe, transphobe or whatever your (not you, you understand) assholery of choice is, is so central to your personality that you fear any social interaction may lead to undesirable consequences, you should probably seek help, because you have a problem.
Added: Honestly, if you go to such a party and wind up assaulting, injuring or killing someone, do you think the argument that “it was not on the clock” would save your job? It is past time that assaulting the dignity of folks who have been oppressed is put inthe same catagory.
The Central Park Karen was fired before any criminal charges, much less a conviction, but it was all caught on tape, so I think we can bend the rules here.
