Posting to Facebook, in and of itself, would tell you nothing about the values or honesty of an employee. No more than posting comments at a website would, anyway. The content of the postings could tell you quite a bit, however.

I have no sympathy whatsoever. If she was dumb enough to post to Facebook, who would really want her working for them anyway?

All we have to go on in this story is the fact that she was “spotted” on Facebook while on a sick day. Despite Facebook’s public nature, this is *not* the same as being spotted at the golf course. A person can use Facebook while sick in a way that a person can’t play golf while sick. The only way the employer’s actions make sense is if they were the last in a series of established instances of dishonesty – but we have no information about that, so our discussion is about the the apparent firing of an employee for a single instance of Facebook use.

At best, her use of Facebook while on a sick day suggests that she wasn’t entirely disabled by her condition. One can reasonably ask for time off from work without being rendered insensible by one’s condition. If not, where do you draw the line? If Facebook is off limits, is MSN/Yahoo/Gmail Chat? How about text messaging? The telephone? Web browsing? Commenting on a blog?

She was fired because she lied to her employer about being sick. Whether she was on facebook, or at the mall shopping, or at a bar drinking, or at on the golf course, she is still misleading her employer and making use of sick days for an improper purpose.

Facebook is a public space much like the mall, the golf course or the bar. What is amazing is that there are so many people who don’t understand this.