# data[].attributes.body
Myles White

# data[].attributes.headline
Worker post a picture of her smoking weed in her car

# data[].attributes.subject
Worker post a picture of her smoking weed in her car

# data[].attributes.body
Disagree

# data[].attributes.headline
Worker gets fired about making remarks about how she hates her job

# data[].attributes.subject
Worker gets fired about making remarks about how she hates her job

# data[].attributes.body
Disagree

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6 min read

If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

Unfortunately, Hy's not alone in miscalculating what is and isn't appropriate to post on social media. And compared with the following individuals, he's lucky: he kept his job (so far).

Take heed from these seven folks who made some serious judgment slips over social media -- and got the old pink slip.
Related: 7 Social Media Fails So Disastrous, They Shocked the Experts
1. The former-Chipotle employee who dissed his wages in a tweet, got fired, sued Chipotle and won.

Last year, 38-year-old war veteran James Kennedy took to Twitter to complain about the low wages Chipotle paid to its crew members following a free food promotion.

His tweet read: "@ChipotleTweets, nothing is free, only cheap #labor. Crew members make only $8.50hr how much is that steak bowl really?"

Kennedy later deleted his tweet after a supervisor showed him the company's social-media policy, which states that an employee cannot make "disparaging, false" statements about Chipotle publicly. Following another incident involving his asking for shift breaks, he was let go.

However, the buck didn't stop there. Kennedy took Chipotle to court for his wrongful termination -- and won.

The court found in favor of Kennedy and stated that Chipotle's social-media policy violated federal labor laws and ordered the casual dining restaurant chain to rehire Kennedy and pay him lost wages. The court-case victor, who now has a job with American Airlines and has no plans returning to Chipotle, says that he will accept his lost wages in the form of Chipotle food vouchers. (Now that's customer loyalty.)

2. The Yelp employee who posted an article on Medium about her low pay.

Last month Talia Jane posted a very public letter to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelmann on Medium, in which she complained the company paid her so little she was forced to spend 80 percent of her paycheck on rent.

Jane won't be getting anymore Yelp paychecks in future. Promptly after posting the Medium letter, she was informed by Yelp's HR department that her actions violated Yelp's "Terms of Conduct" and was canned.

Unsurprisingly, she took to social media -- this time, posting a tweet -- to share the news with her followers.

3. The publicist who tweeted a joke about getting AIDS before takeoff on a flight to Africa.

Justine Sacco, once the senior director of communications at media company IAC, which owns Tinder and The Daily Beast, was boarding a flight to South Africa when she tweeted the following:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

While she was in the air, her tweet went viral. By the time she landed, she was the number-one worldwide trend on Twitter. She was sacked soon afterwards.

4. The comedian who tweeted jokes about the tsunami in Japan.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was once the voice for the Aflac duck. However, following a series of flippant jokes about the 2011 tsunami in Japan that killed over 3,000 people, his distinctive voice wasn't enough to save him.

His tweets included the following:

"Japan called me. They said 'maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they're all sinking."

Another read:

"Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."
Related: Take Care to Learn From These 4 Big Social-Media Blunders
Less than an hour after posting the tweets, Gottfried was relieved of his duck-duties.

5. The former-MLB pitcher who drunk-tweeted racially offensive comments during a game.

Beware of drunk-tweeting. In 2010, Mike Bacsik, a former MLB pitcher who went on to work as a Dallas radio producer for a sports broadcast, attended an NBA match in which the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks.

After the game, Bacsik tweeted: "Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio."

While Bacsik was reportedly drunk when he posted the tweet, that wasn't a good enough excuse for his employer. Soon after, he lost his job.

6. The recent college graduate who tweeted how much she hated her new job.

Bragging about a job offer on Twitter and insulting the company that offered you said job is not a smart move. Conner Riley, a 22-year-old recent with a degree in information management (ahem), found that out the hard way.

After being offered a position from California tech company Cisco in 2009, Riley tweeted:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."

Her tweet elicited a huge response on Twitter -- including from a Cisco associate who responded he'd be happy to pass her sentiments on to HR. Suffice it to say, her job offer disappeared.

7. The Taco Bell employee who tweeted a photo of himself urinating on the food.

In 2012, Taco Bell employee Cameron Jankowski of Fort Wayne, Ind., tweeted a photo of himself urinating on a plate of nachos. He later claimed he never served the dish.
Related: Was Hostess' Bizarre #OpeningDay Tweet an Epic Fail or Savvy Social Media Marketing?
His tweet elicited the expected outrage, and the infamous hacker group Anonymous (yes, the one that claimed to be behind the Ashley Madison hack scandal) got involved and released a YouTube video containing Jankowski's personal information.

Soon after, he was let go from Taco Bell. In what was probably a wise decision, he also deleted his Twitter account.

When Nicole Crowther, an extra on the now-canceled Fox show Glee, tweeted out who was crowned prom queen and king in a not-yet-aired episode in 2011, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk responded by tweeting:

"Hope you're qualified to do something besides work in entertainment...Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create?"

Although Crowther claims she didn't work on that particular episode and got her information second hand, she got fired from the show anyway.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
These Social Media Fails Got People Fired

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
6 min read If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

# data[].attributes.body
Ashley Payne, a teacher in Barrow County, Georgia, was asked to resign from her job at Apalachee High School in August 2009 because of photographs and status updates she posted to Facebook.
Payne's Facebook page was private, however she had befriend some other teachers in her school. When the principal found out about the photos, she was told to render her resignation or face suspension.

I agree

# data[].attributes.headline
Prison guard jokes about getting raped in jail

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Prison guard jokes about getting raped in jail

# data[].attributes.body
Disagree

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Music, Film, TV and Political News Coverage

# data[].attributes.headline
Worker jokes about leaving the US and saying she hopes she doesn't get AIDS going to Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Worker jokes about leaving the US and saying she hopes she doesn't get AIDS going to Africa

# data[].attributes.body
Disagree

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
6 min read

If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

Unfortunately, Hy's not alone in miscalculating what is and isn't appropriate to post on social media. And compared with the following individuals, he's lucky: he kept his job (so far).

Take heed from these seven folks who made some serious judgment slips over social media -- and got the old pink slip.
Related: 7 Social Media Fails So Disastrous, They Shocked the Experts
1. The former-Chipotle employee who dissed his wages in a tweet, got fired, sued Chipotle and won.

Last year, 38-year-old war veteran James Kennedy took to Twitter to complain about the low wages Chipotle paid to its crew members following a free food promotion.

His tweet read: "@ChipotleTweets, nothing is free, only cheap #labor. Crew members make only $8.50hr how much is that steak bowl really?"

Kennedy later deleted his tweet after a supervisor showed him the company's social-media policy, which states that an employee cannot make "disparaging, false" statements about Chipotle publicly. Following another incident involving his asking for shift breaks, he was let go.

However, the buck didn't stop there. Kennedy took Chipotle to court for his wrongful termination -- and won.

The court found in favor of Kennedy and stated that Chipotle's social-media policy violated federal labor laws and ordered the casual dining restaurant chain to rehire Kennedy and pay him lost wages. The court-case victor, who now has a job with American Airlines and has no plans returning to Chipotle, says that he will accept his lost wages in the form of Chipotle food vouchers. (Now that's customer loyalty.)

2. The Yelp employee who posted an article on Medium about her low pay.

Last month Talia Jane posted a very public letter to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelmann on Medium, in which she complained the company paid her so little she was forced to spend 80 percent of her paycheck on rent.

Jane won't be getting anymore Yelp paychecks in future. Promptly after posting the Medium letter, she was informed by Yelp's HR department that her actions violated Yelp's "Terms of Conduct" and was canned.

Unsurprisingly, she took to social media -- this time, posting a tweet -- to share the news with her followers.

3. The publicist who tweeted a joke about getting AIDS before takeoff on a flight to Africa.

Justine Sacco, once the senior director of communications at media company IAC, which owns Tinder and The Daily Beast, was boarding a flight to South Africa when she tweeted the following:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

While she was in the air, her tweet went viral. By the time she landed, she was the number-one worldwide trend on Twitter. She was sacked soon afterwards.

4. The comedian who tweeted jokes about the tsunami in Japan.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was once the voice for the Aflac duck. However, following a series of flippant jokes about the 2011 tsunami in Japan that killed over 3,000 people, his distinctive voice wasn't enough to save him.

His tweets included the following:

"Japan called me. They said 'maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they're all sinking."

Another read:

"Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."
Related: Take Care to Learn From These 4 Big Social-Media Blunders
Less than an hour after posting the tweets, Gottfried was relieved of his duck-duties.

5. The former-MLB pitcher who drunk-tweeted racially offensive comments during a game.

Beware of drunk-tweeting. In 2010, Mike Bacsik, a former MLB pitcher who went on to work as a Dallas radio producer for a sports broadcast, attended an NBA match in which the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks.

After the game, Bacsik tweeted: "Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio."

While Bacsik was reportedly drunk when he posted the tweet, that wasn't a good enough excuse for his employer. Soon after, he lost his job.

6. The recent college graduate who tweeted how much she hated her new job.

Bragging about a job offer on Twitter and insulting the company that offered you said job is not a smart move. Conner Riley, a 22-year-old recent with a degree in information management (ahem), found that out the hard way.

After being offered a position from California tech company Cisco in 2009, Riley tweeted:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."

Her tweet elicited a huge response on Twitter -- including from a Cisco associate who responded he'd be happy to pass her sentiments on to HR. Suffice it to say, her job offer disappeared.

7. The Taco Bell employee who tweeted a photo of himself urinating on the food.

In 2012, Taco Bell employee Cameron Jankowski of Fort Wayne, Ind., tweeted a photo of himself urinating on a plate of nachos. He later claimed he never served the dish.
Related: Was Hostess' Bizarre #OpeningDay Tweet an Epic Fail or Savvy Social Media Marketing?
His tweet elicited the expected outrage, and the infamous hacker group Anonymous (yes, the one that claimed to be behind the Ashley Madison hack scandal) got involved and released a YouTube video containing Jankowski's personal information.

Soon after, he was let go from Taco Bell. In what was probably a wise decision, he also deleted his Twitter account.

When Nicole Crowther, an extra on the now-canceled Fox show Glee, tweeted out who was crowned prom queen and king in a not-yet-aired episode in 2011, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk responded by tweeting:

"Hope you're qualified to do something besides work in entertainment...Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create?"

Although Crowther claims she didn't work on that particular episode and got her information second hand, she got fired from the show anyway.

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These Social Media Fails Got People Fired

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
6 min read If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

# data[].attributes.body
A Bank of America employee has lost her job after posting a racist rant on Facebook.“I hate face book for this reason you f---ing n----rs,” the Atlanta-based personal banker wrote in her comment. “F---ing n----rs go back to Africa get over your pity party you created this hatred and you own kind that brought your reat great parents over here.”
l agree.

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Minutes after the hateful post, an eagle-eyed Facebook user quickly noticed Lindgren was an employee at Bank of America, through her Facebook profile. Looks like she has a new reason to hate the social network.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bank of America employee fired after racist Facebook rant, thousands of social media complaints sent to her bosses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Minutes after the hateful post, an eagle-eyed Facebook user quickly noticed Lindgren was an employee at Bank of America, through her Facebook profile. Looks like she has a new reason to hate the social network.

# data[].attributes.headline
 Police officer acts like he is stealing cocaine from the evidence room

# data[].attributes.subject
 Police officer acts like he is stealing cocaine from the evidence room

# data[].attributes.body
Disagree

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
6 min read

If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

Unfortunately, Hy's not alone in miscalculating what is and isn't appropriate to post on social media. And compared with the following individuals, he's lucky: he kept his job (so far).

Take heed from these seven folks who made some serious judgment slips over social media -- and got the old pink slip.
Related: 7 Social Media Fails So Disastrous, They Shocked the Experts
1. The former-Chipotle employee who dissed his wages in a tweet, got fired, sued Chipotle and won.

Last year, 38-year-old war veteran James Kennedy took to Twitter to complain about the low wages Chipotle paid to its crew members following a free food promotion.

His tweet read: "@ChipotleTweets, nothing is free, only cheap #labor. Crew members make only $8.50hr how much is that steak bowl really?"

Kennedy later deleted his tweet after a supervisor showed him the company's social-media policy, which states that an employee cannot make "disparaging, false" statements about Chipotle publicly. Following another incident involving his asking for shift breaks, he was let go.

However, the buck didn't stop there. Kennedy took Chipotle to court for his wrongful termination -- and won.

The court found in favor of Kennedy and stated that Chipotle's social-media policy violated federal labor laws and ordered the casual dining restaurant chain to rehire Kennedy and pay him lost wages. The court-case victor, who now has a job with American Airlines and has no plans returning to Chipotle, says that he will accept his lost wages in the form of Chipotle food vouchers. (Now that's customer loyalty.)

2. The Yelp employee who posted an article on Medium about her low pay.

Last month Talia Jane posted a very public letter to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelmann on Medium, in which she complained the company paid her so little she was forced to spend 80 percent of her paycheck on rent.

Jane won't be getting anymore Yelp paychecks in future. Promptly after posting the Medium letter, she was informed by Yelp's HR department that her actions violated Yelp's "Terms of Conduct" and was canned.

Unsurprisingly, she took to social media -- this time, posting a tweet -- to share the news with her followers.

3. The publicist who tweeted a joke about getting AIDS before takeoff on a flight to Africa.

Justine Sacco, once the senior director of communications at media company IAC, which owns Tinder and The Daily Beast, was boarding a flight to South Africa when she tweeted the following:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

While she was in the air, her tweet went viral. By the time she landed, she was the number-one worldwide trend on Twitter. She was sacked soon afterwards.

4. The comedian who tweeted jokes about the tsunami in Japan.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was once the voice for the Aflac duck. However, following a series of flippant jokes about the 2011 tsunami in Japan that killed over 3,000 people, his distinctive voice wasn't enough to save him.

His tweets included the following:

"Japan called me. They said 'maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they're all sinking."

Another read:

"Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."
Related: Take Care to Learn From These 4 Big Social-Media Blunders
Less than an hour after posting the tweets, Gottfried was relieved of his duck-duties.

5. The former-MLB pitcher who drunk-tweeted racially offensive comments during a game.

Beware of drunk-tweeting. In 2010, Mike Bacsik, a former MLB pitcher who went on to work as a Dallas radio producer for a sports broadcast, attended an NBA match in which the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks.

After the game, Bacsik tweeted: "Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio."

While Bacsik was reportedly drunk when he posted the tweet, that wasn't a good enough excuse for his employer. Soon after, he lost his job.

6. The recent college graduate who tweeted how much she hated her new job.

Bragging about a job offer on Twitter and insulting the company that offered you said job is not a smart move. Conner Riley, a 22-year-old recent with a degree in information management (ahem), found that out the hard way.

After being offered a position from California tech company Cisco in 2009, Riley tweeted:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."

Her tweet elicited a huge response on Twitter -- including from a Cisco associate who responded he'd be happy to pass her sentiments on to HR. Suffice it to say, her job offer disappeared.

7. The Taco Bell employee who tweeted a photo of himself urinating on the food.

In 2012, Taco Bell employee Cameron Jankowski of Fort Wayne, Ind., tweeted a photo of himself urinating on a plate of nachos. He later claimed he never served the dish.
Related: Was Hostess' Bizarre #OpeningDay Tweet an Epic Fail or Savvy Social Media Marketing?
His tweet elicited the expected outrage, and the infamous hacker group Anonymous (yes, the one that claimed to be behind the Ashley Madison hack scandal) got involved and released a YouTube video containing Jankowski's personal information.

Soon after, he was let go from Taco Bell. In what was probably a wise decision, he also deleted his Twitter account.

When Nicole Crowther, an extra on the now-canceled Fox show Glee, tweeted out who was crowned prom queen and king in a not-yet-aired episode in 2011, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk responded by tweeting:

"Hope you're qualified to do something besides work in entertainment...Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create?"

Although Crowther claims she didn't work on that particular episode and got her information second hand, she got fired from the show anyway.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
These Social Media Fails Got People Fired

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
6 min read If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

# data[].attributes.body
The former-MLB pitcher who drunk-tweeted racially offensive comments during a game.

I agree.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
6 min read

If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

Unfortunately, Hy's not alone in miscalculating what is and isn't appropriate to post on social media. And compared with the following individuals, he's lucky: he kept his job (so far).

Take heed from these seven folks who made some serious judgment slips over social media -- and got the old pink slip.
Related: 7 Social Media Fails So Disastrous, They Shocked the Experts
1. The former-Chipotle employee who dissed his wages in a tweet, got fired, sued Chipotle and won.

Last year, 38-year-old war veteran James Kennedy took to Twitter to complain about the low wages Chipotle paid to its crew members following a free food promotion.

His tweet read: "@ChipotleTweets, nothing is free, only cheap #labor. Crew members make only $8.50hr how much is that steak bowl really?"

Kennedy later deleted his tweet after a supervisor showed him the company's social-media policy, which states that an employee cannot make "disparaging, false" statements about Chipotle publicly. Following another incident involving his asking for shift breaks, he was let go.

However, the buck didn't stop there. Kennedy took Chipotle to court for his wrongful termination -- and won.

The court found in favor of Kennedy and stated that Chipotle's social-media policy violated federal labor laws and ordered the casual dining restaurant chain to rehire Kennedy and pay him lost wages. The court-case victor, who now has a job with American Airlines and has no plans returning to Chipotle, says that he will accept his lost wages in the form of Chipotle food vouchers. (Now that's customer loyalty.)

2. The Yelp employee who posted an article on Medium about her low pay.

Last month Talia Jane posted a very public letter to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelmann on Medium, in which she complained the company paid her so little she was forced to spend 80 percent of her paycheck on rent.

Jane won't be getting anymore Yelp paychecks in future. Promptly after posting the Medium letter, she was informed by Yelp's HR department that her actions violated Yelp's "Terms of Conduct" and was canned.

Unsurprisingly, she took to social media -- this time, posting a tweet -- to share the news with her followers.

3. The publicist who tweeted a joke about getting AIDS before takeoff on a flight to Africa.

Justine Sacco, once the senior director of communications at media company IAC, which owns Tinder and The Daily Beast, was boarding a flight to South Africa when she tweeted the following:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

While she was in the air, her tweet went viral. By the time she landed, she was the number-one worldwide trend on Twitter. She was sacked soon afterwards.

4. The comedian who tweeted jokes about the tsunami in Japan.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was once the voice for the Aflac duck. However, following a series of flippant jokes about the 2011 tsunami in Japan that killed over 3,000 people, his distinctive voice wasn't enough to save him.

His tweets included the following:

"Japan called me. They said 'maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they're all sinking."

Another read:

"Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."
Related: Take Care to Learn From These 4 Big Social-Media Blunders
Less than an hour after posting the tweets, Gottfried was relieved of his duck-duties.

5. The former-MLB pitcher who drunk-tweeted racially offensive comments during a game.

Beware of drunk-tweeting. In 2010, Mike Bacsik, a former MLB pitcher who went on to work as a Dallas radio producer for a sports broadcast, attended an NBA match in which the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks.

After the game, Bacsik tweeted: "Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio."

While Bacsik was reportedly drunk when he posted the tweet, that wasn't a good enough excuse for his employer. Soon after, he lost his job.

6. The recent college graduate who tweeted how much she hated her new job.

Bragging about a job offer on Twitter and insulting the company that offered you said job is not a smart move. Conner Riley, a 22-year-old recent with a degree in information management (ahem), found that out the hard way.

After being offered a position from California tech company Cisco in 2009, Riley tweeted:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."

Her tweet elicited a huge response on Twitter -- including from a Cisco associate who responded he'd be happy to pass her sentiments on to HR. Suffice it to say, her job offer disappeared.

7. The Taco Bell employee who tweeted a photo of himself urinating on the food.

In 2012, Taco Bell employee Cameron Jankowski of Fort Wayne, Ind., tweeted a photo of himself urinating on a plate of nachos. He later claimed he never served the dish.
Related: Was Hostess' Bizarre #OpeningDay Tweet an Epic Fail or Savvy Social Media Marketing?
His tweet elicited the expected outrage, and the infamous hacker group Anonymous (yes, the one that claimed to be behind the Ashley Madison hack scandal) got involved and released a YouTube video containing Jankowski's personal information.

Soon after, he was let go from Taco Bell. In what was probably a wise decision, he also deleted his Twitter account.

When Nicole Crowther, an extra on the now-canceled Fox show Glee, tweeted out who was crowned prom queen and king in a not-yet-aired episode in 2011, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk responded by tweeting:

"Hope you're qualified to do something besides work in entertainment...Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create?"

Although Crowther claims she didn't work on that particular episode and got her information second hand, she got fired from the show anyway.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
These Social Media Fails Got People Fired

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
6 min read If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

# data[].attributes.body
A worker tweeted a photo of himself urinating on a plate of nachos. He later claimed he never served the dish.

I agree.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
6 min read

If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

Unfortunately, Hy's not alone in miscalculating what is and isn't appropriate to post on social media. And compared with the following individuals, he's lucky: he kept his job (so far).

Take heed from these seven folks who made some serious judgment slips over social media -- and got the old pink slip.
Related: 7 Social Media Fails So Disastrous, They Shocked the Experts
1. The former-Chipotle employee who dissed his wages in a tweet, got fired, sued Chipotle and won.

Last year, 38-year-old war veteran James Kennedy took to Twitter to complain about the low wages Chipotle paid to its crew members following a free food promotion.

His tweet read: "@ChipotleTweets, nothing is free, only cheap #labor. Crew members make only $8.50hr how much is that steak bowl really?"

Kennedy later deleted his tweet after a supervisor showed him the company's social-media policy, which states that an employee cannot make "disparaging, false" statements about Chipotle publicly. Following another incident involving his asking for shift breaks, he was let go.

However, the buck didn't stop there. Kennedy took Chipotle to court for his wrongful termination -- and won.

The court found in favor of Kennedy and stated that Chipotle's social-media policy violated federal labor laws and ordered the casual dining restaurant chain to rehire Kennedy and pay him lost wages. The court-case victor, who now has a job with American Airlines and has no plans returning to Chipotle, says that he will accept his lost wages in the form of Chipotle food vouchers. (Now that's customer loyalty.)

2. The Yelp employee who posted an article on Medium about her low pay.

Last month Talia Jane posted a very public letter to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelmann on Medium, in which she complained the company paid her so little she was forced to spend 80 percent of her paycheck on rent.

Jane won't be getting anymore Yelp paychecks in future. Promptly after posting the Medium letter, she was informed by Yelp's HR department that her actions violated Yelp's "Terms of Conduct" and was canned.

Unsurprisingly, she took to social media -- this time, posting a tweet -- to share the news with her followers.

3. The publicist who tweeted a joke about getting AIDS before takeoff on a flight to Africa.

Justine Sacco, once the senior director of communications at media company IAC, which owns Tinder and The Daily Beast, was boarding a flight to South Africa when she tweeted the following:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

While she was in the air, her tweet went viral. By the time she landed, she was the number-one worldwide trend on Twitter. She was sacked soon afterwards.

4. The comedian who tweeted jokes about the tsunami in Japan.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was once the voice for the Aflac duck. However, following a series of flippant jokes about the 2011 tsunami in Japan that killed over 3,000 people, his distinctive voice wasn't enough to save him.

His tweets included the following:

"Japan called me. They said 'maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they're all sinking."

Another read:

"Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."
Related: Take Care to Learn From These 4 Big Social-Media Blunders
Less than an hour after posting the tweets, Gottfried was relieved of his duck-duties.

5. The former-MLB pitcher who drunk-tweeted racially offensive comments during a game.

Beware of drunk-tweeting. In 2010, Mike Bacsik, a former MLB pitcher who went on to work as a Dallas radio producer for a sports broadcast, attended an NBA match in which the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks.

After the game, Bacsik tweeted: "Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio."

While Bacsik was reportedly drunk when he posted the tweet, that wasn't a good enough excuse for his employer. Soon after, he lost his job.

6. The recent college graduate who tweeted how much she hated her new job.

Bragging about a job offer on Twitter and insulting the company that offered you said job is not a smart move. Conner Riley, a 22-year-old recent with a degree in information management (ahem), found that out the hard way.

After being offered a position from California tech company Cisco in 2009, Riley tweeted:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."

Her tweet elicited a huge response on Twitter -- including from a Cisco associate who responded he'd be happy to pass her sentiments on to HR. Suffice it to say, her job offer disappeared.

7. The Taco Bell employee who tweeted a photo of himself urinating on the food.

In 2012, Taco Bell employee Cameron Jankowski of Fort Wayne, Ind., tweeted a photo of himself urinating on a plate of nachos. He later claimed he never served the dish.
Related: Was Hostess' Bizarre #OpeningDay Tweet an Epic Fail or Savvy Social Media Marketing?
His tweet elicited the expected outrage, and the infamous hacker group Anonymous (yes, the one that claimed to be behind the Ashley Madison hack scandal) got involved and released a YouTube video containing Jankowski's personal information.

Soon after, he was let go from Taco Bell. In what was probably a wise decision, he also deleted his Twitter account.

When Nicole Crowther, an extra on the now-canceled Fox show Glee, tweeted out who was crowned prom queen and king in a not-yet-aired episode in 2011, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk responded by tweeting:

"Hope you're qualified to do something besides work in entertainment...Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create?"

Although Crowther claims she didn't work on that particular episode and got her information second hand, she got fired from the show anyway.

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These Social Media Fails Got People Fired

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6 min read If you're a police officer, posting a Vine in which you joke about stealing cocaine from the evidence room is probably not the best idea. Richard Hy, a cop from Buffalo, New York, found that out that out the hard way when, after posting said Vine, he was suspended without pay.

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A worker complained about his low wages on social media. He later deleted his tweet after a supervisor showed him the company's social-media policy, which states that an employee cannot make "disparaging, false" statements about Chipotle publicly.
I disagree.

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Before you "like" your friend's status update, consider whether your boss will like all the time you are spending on Facebook.

Advancing technology has long been a catalyst for change in the workplace, in good ways and bad. Now social media is raising the stakes by disrupting the way we work, or don't work, as the case may be.

"Social media is booming with networking opportunities and the chance to share your accomplishments," said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. "But it could also lead to the end of your career if used incorrectly."

In fact, 28 percent of employers report that they've fired people for using the Internet for non-work-related activity (such as shopping online or checking out Facebook, for example) during the workday and 18 percent have dismissed employees because of something they posted on social media, according to CareerBuilder.

" To expect someone to maintain focus for eight hours straight is unreasonable," countered Suzana Flores, author of " Facehooked: How Facebook Affects Our Emotions, Relationships, and Lives ." "People need a break and, in today's world, that break includes social media access."

The question is what constitutes a break: One in 4 workers admitted that, during a typical workday, they will spend at least an hour on personal calls, emails or texts, according to a separate CareerBuilder survey. Twenty-one percent estimated that they spend an hour or more surfing the Web, browsing photos and so on.

According to the U.S.Chamber of Commerce Foundation, people also typically spend one hour of their workday on social media. Millennials are even more attached, spending 1.8 hours on such sites.

But other reports have shown that more limited use of social media can actually boost productivity. The majority of millennials said that an employer's provision of state-of-the-art technology was an important factor when considering a job.

A whopping 78 percent of millennials even said that access to the technology they like makes them more effective at work, according to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Some companies have benefited from offering designated social media breaks - perhaps two or three breaks lasting 15 minutes each - during the workday. This downtime can give your mind a much-needed rest and poise you to be more productive with the rest of your time, Flores said.

"My advice to corporations is don't restrict or overmoderate [social media usage at work], but you can limit it," she said. "And also have in place policies and procedures that will protect the integrity of your company."

Having clear policies about social media is the best practice for employers, Haefner added. "Because employees have their own mobile devices in the workplace, blocking access to social sites via your company networks won't stop employees from engaging in the same behavior that blocks were designed to prevent," she said. "The best thing to do is set guidelines and expectations."

More important than how much time is spent on social media networks is how it is spent. It may only take one thoughtless post or tweet to ruin your reputation and damage your career - regardless of when it's published.

"Whether using social media in the workplace or not, it's important to keep your personal brand appropriate and make sure [what you post is] something you'd feel comfortable with your employer seeing," said Haefner.

Only say or share things online that you'd be comfortable saying or sharing with your boss and colleagues in person, Flores said. She recommends being cautious about whether to friend co-workers on Facebook and suggests not befriending your managers online at all. And be sure to keep your privacy settings tight.

Still, "privacy on social media networks is an illusion," Flores said. "But people are treating these platforms like their personal diaries, venting about work or other problems. Or they want people to have their backs, and it's normal for people to seek validation, but it's the public nature of these sites that gets them in trouble."

Disrespectful behavior - whether displayed online or off - is still what is most likely to get you fired. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter aside, you're much more likely to get sacked for being chronically late for work than for anything you do on online, according to CareerBuilder.

Other top reasons employees get fired, according to Haefner, are refusing to follow directions, sexual harassment, engaging in office gossip and of course, performing poorly on the job.

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How using social media can get you fired

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Before you "like" your friend's status update, consider whether your boss will like all the time you are spending on Facebook. Advancing technology has long been a catalyst for change in the workplace, in good ways and bad. Now social media is raising the stakes by disrupting the way we work, or don't work, as the case may be.