Digital identity homework

A look ahead into the dangers of social media and the damage your digital footprint can do to you.

With the prevalence of social media, it's getting harder and harder to separate our personal and professional lives.

It's to the point that we need to assume that almost everything we share online, even privately, will be public.

On the following slides are a number people who lost their jobs for using Facebook.

22-year-old North Carolina waitress Ashley Johnson condemned two customers over Facebook for not giving a tip and keeping her late. She also took the time to mention her workplace by name.

She was fired for breaking a rule about slating customers.

A British woman serving jury duty posted details of the case she was serving on. She wrote, "I don't know which way to go, so I'm holding a poll.“

An anonymous tip resulted in the woman being immediately dismissed from the jury.

A woman called out of work at National Suisse in Switzerland complaining of migraines and saying she needed to work in a darkened room at home. She stayed home, and when her Facebook activity started showing up, she was promptly fired.

Great Western Hospital staff in Swindon, Wiltshire, England were suspended for participating in "The Lying Down on the Job Game," where people photograph themselves lying face-down at work. The staff were lying on the hospital's floors, resuscitation tables, and even the helipad.

13 Virgin Airlines crew members were fired after publicly discussing aspects of their job on Facebook. They shared the number of times that certain airplane engines had been replaced and that the cabins were infested with cockroaches.

They also took the time to insult the passengers who ultimately pay their salaries.

A Charlotte, NC, teacher was recommended for firing by the superintendent after making some remarks that the superintendent perceived as racially insensitive.

The teacher listed "teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte" in her "Interests" section and "I am teaching in the most ghetto school in Charlotte" in her "About Me" section.

Ashley Payne was forced to resign from her teaching job after posting this picture to Facebook.

She is currently fighting to get her job back.

Nathalie Blanchard had been living off of disability insurance for depression since 2008. But when Manulife, the Canadian insurance company making the payments, got into her Facebook page, they saw her "relaxing at the beach, hanging out at a Chippendale's-style club, and generally having a lot of fun.“

She immediately lost her insurance benefits.

The day after a 6th grader died during a field trip to the beach, 15-year teaching veteran Christine Rubio posted the following to her Facebook profile:

"After today, I'm thinking the beach is a good trip for my class. I hate their guts.“

The school board is figuring out how to proceed.

Sister Maria Jesus Galan was asked to leave the Santo Domingo el Real convent in Toledo, Spain, because she was spending too much time on Facebook. Fellow nuns said that her Facebook activity “made life impossible.”

This all after she used the computer to digitize the convent's archives and help handle banking over the Internet.

Tania Dickinson identifies her job at the New Zealand Social Development Ministry on her profile as a "very expensive paperweight." She brags that she is "highly competent in the art of time wastage, blame-shifting and stationery theft.“

The expensive paperweight was fired.

You might side with the business or the employee, but the lesson is the same: think twice about what you share online.