Facebook, Twitter missteps cause 10 pct. of firings

Missteps on social media is the cause of employees being fired in ten percent of all cases, new data released last week shows. Three hundred dismissals involved social media behaviour as a reason for firing in 2014, according to legal service provider DAS.

Other labor law experts see the rise of termination caused by social media misbehaviour as well. The online worlg has given people a chance to live their lives on the internet and cause damage to their employer, which did not happen in this way before, says employment lawyer Hanneke Boesveld from legal service provider ARAG.

Nonprofit legal service, Achmea Rechtsbijstand, sees the increase of employment disputes involving social media also. In 2010 they handled just five social media dispute cases, which has risen to 38 cases in 2014.

Posting a racist update on Facebook led a security guard from Rotterdam to lose his job. Another Facebook user had sent a caption of the update to the guard's employer, which decided to terminate his contract. Similar cases involving dismissal on the basis of inappropriate social media behaviour have been reported in other parts of the Netherlands as well, various sources tell the Volkskrant.

Rude commentary is not the only misbehaviour in social media that can lead to a loss of job. Incorrect behaviour at the workplace that can be deduced from employee's social media may also be the reason for dismissal.