What You Do Outside Of Work Can Be Held Against You

Of course, the suspension of Ray Rice from the NFL is a hot topic and some are wondering if it is fair that he be kicked out of the NFL for an incident that happened off-field in his personal life. Is it fair that something that doesn’t seem to directly effect the NFL cause him to lose his job? Would it still happen if Ray Rice was not famous. The short answer, it happens everyday, b.

For some reason people tend to think that work, home and the internet are all alternate universes that have nothing to do with one another and what you do at one won’t effect the other. Those people are stupid. Here’s the thing. As a normal, everyday, employed human being, a lot of us sign code of ethic agreements as part of our new-hire packets. Some jobs don’t but a lot do. If you read those agreements, most of them will clearly state that you are now a representative of their company — that means outside of work, too. I played sports in high school before going off to the military and one thing that has always remained constant was the fact that whether in or out of uniform I represented my team/company and if something I did outside of school/work made it back to them, I could still face disciplinary action. Heck, kids are still getting suspended for fights that happen off camps. What makes you think it can’t happen to you?

Do you remember the name Justine Sacco? She was a publicist who was on a flight to South Africa when she tweeted “Going to Africa, hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding, I’m white” from her personal Twitter account. Needless to say, before she could even land in Africa she was out of a job due to complaints to her employer from Twitter users. If that’s not realistic enough for you, do you remember the 17 year old Detroit teen that worked at Biggby Coffee and tweeted “I want to thank god… for that bullet that killed Trayvon Martin”? All it took was a few calls to her employer from Black Twitter and she was fired and Biggby’s PR team was forced to release an apology. Let’s also not forget the time where teens working at a yogurt shop thought it would be cool to post a Vine video of a black kid “slaving”, doing all the work while they did nothing. Those kids were fired as well.  If that’s not recent enough, Ceelo Green, who had his sexual assault charges dropped has also been dropped from three music festivals and had his reality show cancelled — all because of disgusting tweets about rape. 

So is the NFL giving Ray Rice the boot uncommon? Not at all. Regular people deal with the same all the time, it’s just not on TMZ. Why is this okay? Allow me to explain: When you work for a company you represent them. When you sign the contract to become an employee, that is what you are signing, read it. You are free to do WHATEVER you want on your personal time but if whatever you do comes back to effect the company you work for negatively, you can be fired for it. Anything that brings bad publicity to a company/brand/business can cost you your job. So while Ray Rice plummeting his wife in an elevator may not directly be an NFL problem, the negative press that comes with his actions are, and for that he was released. You see, when it’s being reported that Ray Rice knocked his wife out cold, it’s not just being reported that Ray Rice knocked her out. It’s being reported that NFL STAR RAY RICE knocked out his wife or BALTIMORE RAVENS’ RAY RICE knocked out his wife. These things matter. PR matters. 

The NFL is very hands on with organizations that cater to children and women. Women and children also purchase merchandise, tickets to games, etc. What kind of example would the NFL be making if they didn’t make an example of Ray Rice. 

So ladies and gents, remember the next time you Instagram, tweet or Vine something that you very well can lose your job. Be mindful of what you say, what you do and crimes you commit. If you don’t like all of that responsibility, get over it or work for yourself. 

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