Here’s the scenario: You are sitting at a business conference chit-chatting with a business colleague about something between the “boys.” Someone in front of you overhears your conversation, takes offense, shoots you and your friend (with her cell phone camera), tweets your photo with a comment about you and your friend’s conversation and now, your career is dead (hers too).
What was not expected was how quickly the tweet went viral, that it would get back to your boss and that you would lose the job you love because unbeknownst to you, you violated the conference’s Code of Conduct. You’re not sure you even read it.
The shooter and twitterer didn’t see her pink slip coming either.
This scenario actually happened last week between Adria Richards, developer evangelist at SendGrid and developer Alex Reid of PlayHaven. To read the full story, click here…
Big Brother is here and watching your every move. With cameras on every cell phone, it’s hard to get away from Big Brother. What bothers me is that we’re not safe anywhere. Where are the rights of the individual who just happens to have a yuk-em-up conversation with friends?
Now, I’m not defending Mr. Reid. He and his friend should have carefully chosen their words. However, I’m wondering if Ms. Richards, warned the two that they were offending her. From the article, it seems she just turned around, pointed, shot and tweeted.
There are many lessons in this scenario. A few are:
- Always be on your best behavior on company time…no matter where you are.
- Always read, read and read again your company’s and any other’s participation agreement. Apparently, these Codes of Conduct are taken seriously.
- Always be on your best behavior, period.
- Big Brother is always watching…
Do I think anyone should have been fired? No. Everyone should at least get one warning. This social media world in which we now live is so new. We’re all getting used to it.
The age-old sexism issue that Ms. Richards cried is real and may be growing stronger. From the looks of the photo, she was out-numbered. Hers is a field where few women dare to tread. Is it because of sexism? Ms. Richards had a right to be offended. She had a right to voice her discomfort. But, did she have the right to take a photo of Mr. Reid and tweet it without his permission?
What do you think?