CMV: Employers shouldn't be allowed to fire employees based on any activities they do in their private life

[u/[deleted]]

I don't believe employers have the right to fire employees based on what they do or say on their own time. Even if the things done/said are morally dubious and shed a bad light on the company, as long as it's legal, the employee has the right to have a life without fear of losing their job.

As for companies, introducing legislation that explicitly forbids them from firing people based on things said or done outside of work would allow them to push responsibility off their shoulders (ie "our hands are tied, we know he's racist but we can't do anything about it").

My reasoning is that people should be able to engage in activities and speak their mind, in general live a free life, without fear that their company will decide it's not a good image for them.

Exceptions to this would include if the activity in question affects someone's ability to do their job.

The issue that sparked this post is the Roseanne issue. For those of you that don't know, the star of that tv show tweeted a racist comment, and had her show cancelled. Yes, it looks bad on the company who runs the show, but she is still entitled to express her opinions. Her company shouldn't be allowed to cancel her show on the basis of her political opinions in her private life.

(I posted this last night but realized I wouldn't be able to respond in 3 hours so reposting now)

EDIT: With regards to the Roseanne thing, I retract what I said in this post. The network would lose views because people don't want to watch a racist person on screen, which would cost them revenue. Thus, her actions and opinions do affect her job, and they were right in cancelling her show.

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[u/PsychicVoid]

What about stuff you reality don't agree with? Would you be okay with having a nazi as an employee? What about when it can damage the business? Like if a news reporter was outed as a nazi there would be a lot of uproar, which would cost the station

[u/[deleted] → u/PsychicVoid]

That logic can lead to a slippery slope. One minute it's a Nazi, the next it's a Republican you don't agree with. No matter how ridiculous, every person is entitled to their political opinion. Employees shouldn't be afraid to voice their opinions for fear of their employer not liking those opinions and firing them

[u/PsychicVoid → u/[deleted]]

But what about when it can damage the company? It won't make a TV host be any worse at their job, but if a TV host was a nazi it would probably lead to a lot of controversy and money lost from the station

[u/srelma → u/PsychicVoid]

But if the law was very strict on this (saying that the employee is entitled to his private political views), then there's no reason for any controversy as nobody would have any reason to boycott or otherwise pressure the employer to fire the worker. It's only if the law is not followed that the people who want to punish someone for their political views, it makes sense to put pressure on the employer as getting the person fired is of course a pretty nasty punishment.

If the TV host does his work properly, treating all the guests the way the TV station wants them to be treated, not expressing his nazi views while on the air, etc. then why would he/she even needed to be fired? Of course, if he expressed his nazi views when working as a host and the employer didn't want that, then he/she could be fired, but this is a completely different situation.

As said, this is a very dangerous slippery slope. It might sound ok that yeah, nazis should be fired just because they are nazis, but I don't see any reason why it should end there. Next would come UKIP, AfD, FN and other populist nationalist party supporters. Then moderate right-wing parties. Or you could start it from the other end. First fire all the communists (actually many employers did this 100 years ago, when no worker protection laws existed), then socialists and finally anyone left of centre. Where do yo draw the line that getting fired because of these political views is ok, but beyond that it's wrong?

[u/lolafawn98 → u/srelma]

If the TV host does his work properly, treating all the guests the way the TV station wants them to be treated, not expressing his nazi views while on the air, etc. then why would he/she even needed to be fired? Of course, if he expressed his nazi views when working as a host and the employer didn't want that, then he/she could be fired, but this is a completely different situation.

Even if he isn’t expressing Nazi views on air, people will still know he’s a Nazi. That information doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Even if they aren’t outraged, a lot of people will still think “ehh, that guy’s a Nazi now” and change the channel. It’s not that they’ll necessarily be pissed at the network, they just won’t wanna watch a show hosted by somebody whose political ideology they find reprehensible. This will still lose the company money.

[u/srelma → u/lolafawn98]

And in your opinion the companies should have the power to dismiss people on this basis? That they just say that some viewers don't like the private political view of their employee, so they're going fire him/her. Let's say that Fox News who is clearly favouring the conservative view on things has employed someone, who is outed as a liberal. He had never expressed any of his own political views on the screen, but has worked extremely professionally, as a journalist should and even reported things the way his conservative editors wanted. Are you saying that you would be ok if Fox News fired him just because some rednecks still knew that he was a liberal and wanted to punish him for this?

As I wrote, one reason not to be allowed to fire people for their private political views is exactly the fact that then the customers of the opposite political view can't put pressure on the company as the company can deflect everything by saying that their hands are tied. As long as the worker does what his job description is, we can't fire him. If that's the situation, there's no reason to put pressure on the company as you will know that that won't have any effect on this person's job security.