Anyone know about CA labor laws?...is this legal?

I'm wondering if anyone here has knowledge of labor laws in California ... Here is the scenario... Is it legal?

My friend posted something on his Facebook insulting the owner of his company (he called her a fat stupid c*nt).
She is not his Facebook friend, however a few of his co-workers are.
He took it down within 24 hours, but as you might imagine, word got out.

A few days later my friend got called into the Human Resources department for a meeting with the head of HR and his manager (not the company owner he insulted, but his immediate supervisor who is a level between himself and the company owner).
They told him that it had been brought to their attention that he had posted "harmful things about the company" on his Facebook, and the person who brought it to their attention showed them my friend's Facebook page (which is not open to either of these two).

They said that they determined he had *not* posted harmful things about the company ... what he said about the company owner was protected by free speech rights ...BUT. Upon reviewing his Facebook page they saw that he had posted some items during his work shifts. They took out a file and showed him printouts they had, of his Facebook page, with three items (a link, a video, and a status update) posted during work hours in the past few weeks. (They also had a printout of his status update about the company owner ... seems like this was only to intimidate him/show him the company owner knows what he said?)

Anyway they said he violated company policy about being on Facebook during work hours, and they suspended him for 10 working days without pay and put him on some sort of work probation.

So I am wondering if it is legal for them to do this ... given they were never authorized to see his Facebook to begin with?
It doesnt seem right to me, but with the job market the way it is, my friend doesn't have much choice except to suck it up and take the punishment.

Just wondering if anyone has knowledge of California labor laws and if this action was indeed legit.

Oh yeah the Facebook things is defs company policy and he was stupid to do that during working hours ...
Stupid to have co-workers as his Facebook friends ....
Stupid to post that stuff about the company owner when said co-workers were on his Facebook ...

This is a great guy, one of my best friends, but he has a tendency to let his need to vent and emote get in the way of basic common sense .....
*pisces* 😉

Your friend's not the brightest crayon.... using a work computer to trash his boss on a social networking site.... what's next? Banging the intern in the company bathroom and getting upset when he's reprimanded and claiming it wrong because the bathroom door was locked—??

Posted by GemsRaGalsBestPal
Your friend's not the brightest crayon.... using a work computer to trash his boss on a social networking site.... what's next? Banging the intern in the company bathroom and getting upset when he's reprimanded and claiming it wrong because the bathroom door was locked—??

Hee! No, he's not the brightest crayon, but not that dim. He posted all from his iPhone, not company equipment.
A co-worker who was also his Facebook friend printed everything out and showed company brass.

hi aquanot, i'm currently dealing with a situation with my ex-landlord regarding my security deposit. you should offer me some free legal counsel.

yeah and it was bullshit.

i don't know but i've been told that some people would prefer not to go to court period. i am definitely not one of those people. especially because filing this claim would be free where i live.

Posted by LittleAquanot
First of all, is your friend working under a contract or, is he an at-will employee? My understanding is that California, like most states, is an at-will state. This means that, unless you have a contract with your employer stating that you can only be terminated for cause, you can be terminated for any reason or no reason at all. If you walk into work wearing a blue shirt and, your supervisor decides she wants to fire you for it, she can. So, if he is eventually terminated for this, he is out of luck unless he has a contract protecting him. And, even still, I'm sure that calling the owner of your company a "c*nt" would constitute "cause" leading to a termination all day everyday, regardless of the state you are in.

He is a full-time employee at this company, so that would be at-will? (I've never heard that term before). I personally think this incident was a reason to punish him when they couldn't do so for trashing the boss. He could argue that he was on break or at lunch when he posted the other stuff ... but he is not arguing any of the punishment he has gotten ... he is accepting the suspension and keeping his mouth shut. (at least I hope for his sake that he is keeping his fcking mouth shut, for once.)

While your friend??s employer decided not to terminate or discipline him based on possible First Amendment concerns (which, I personally think are inapplicable in this case), your friend seriously might want to start looking for another job. They??re not going to let this ride..

Yep. I think if they had been able to fire or punish him for what he said on Facebook they would have ...they did show him a copy of the status he posted, which I think was to let him know that they (and by extension, the big boss) is aware of what he said and he is going to end up answering for it.

Bottom line, your friend fucked up.

click to expand

Yes he did and yes I also think his days there are numbered. Mostly I am curious as to: can a company use a person's private Facebook page against him ... at what point does a person's Facebook cease to become private, and be fair game for disciplinary action at work? I guess it's when someone else prints out a copy and shows other people ....

Posted by splitnconfused


I also think that had it not been for the fact that his friend blew the whistle his boss would most likely not have suspected anything nor would he have decided to track his activities...
In any case there is a reason why posting slanderous comments on your FB page can come back to haunt you..what was he thinking?? Stupid move! I seriously doubt he'll last on that job.

You know, when I saw what he had put on his Facebook I was really wondering if he had done it on purpose trying to passive aggressively get himself fired.
I couldnt believe he had done that ... he is in a very tough industry to find good stable work (creative/performing arts) and it was just inexplicable.
I figured he had either posted it:
A) to get himself fired on purpose;
B) while drunk and with zero judgment (he has posted dumb TMI while drunk/ under the influence in the past)
C) out of stupidity.

Unfortunately the answer was C.
I was so bewildered about this that I made a thread on it in the Pisces forum (called "is he trying to get himself fired?"), wondering what his motivations were ... what i found out though is that i am apparently a control freak because I emailed him asking what was up with that update and if he didn't intend to get himself fired, he should take it down, lol.

Pisces have to express themselves dontchaknow!

Posted by ianthepisces
you dont get it do you...

is he in a union? does he have a contract for the work he does?

if the answer is no to those questions, then they can fire for whatever in the hell they want...

a company can fire an employee at any time for basically anything...

more than likely they have lawyers at their disposal, does your friend? does he have money to hire one?

there aint a damn thing he can do...

best thing to do is just ride it out and dont quit... let them fire him.. then maybe he can get unemployment..

He is in a union, but does not have a contract. He is a full-time salaried employee.
I don't think he is going to quit, I think this was a big wake-up call that good work (especially in his field) is hard to find and if he needs to vent and bitch, he should do so AMONG PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT HIS CO-WORKERS.

He does know who ratted him out but cant prove it.

Let's put it this way ...I love this guy dearly but I personally would not keep anyone on my payroll if he called me a fat stupid c*nt.

Actually ianthepisces I have very little idea how it goes in the private workplace in the U.S. ... I'm an independent consultant/ contractor and have been for years.
Prior to that, I worked for an entity run by a state university so technically I was a state employee. And it was VERY hard to fire a state employee, at least at that time ... there was definitely dead wood there who needed to be let go. At the time I pretty much could have taken a dump on my boss' desk while calling him a fat stupid c*nt and he couldn't fire me, lol.
Add to the fact I am not living in the U.S. at the moment and yeah, I'm pretty clueless about what could constitute grounds for firing in a private/ non-government company in the States.

Now that I know, I am sooo frigging glad I am not in that situation. Self employment FTmfW.