Social Media On the Job FAIL

Fails in the social networking world don’t always lay at the feet of mega-corporations or the very famous. Sometimes it is a regular Joe/Jane that does something that is so filled with fail that you have to wonder if their mother had any kids who lived. Yeah, that is incredibly harsh to say, but sometimes the magnitude of fail is such that there is no other explanation. Today, we’ll take a look at some very well known social networking fails as well as a few you likely missed – and this isn’t about prolonging their torture. It is so you can see what they did wrong, how it impacted them and know what not to do to wind up in the same position.

In 2009, a young lady from California named Connor Riley – someone that basically grew up in the digital age – landed a job with Cisco. For most 22 year olds a job with good pay, benefits and plenty of upside would be a dream, particularly given how bad the economy is.  Instead of going online and bragging about scoring a primo job, she decided to go online and bitch about it – and keep in mind she hadn’t worked day one yet . Not even minute 1.

Her tweet that she didn’t know if the “fatty paycheck” was worth how much she knew she’d be “hating the work.” The thing about Cisco is that they have people that monitor mentions of their company. They do monitor their  brand online. A Cisco employee saw the tweet and decided to pass it on to HR. HR saw it and passed it on up the line. Before she ever started the job she was fired from the job. In 2010, Riley landed a job with Bittorrent as the rumor goes, and hopefully has enjoyed that seeing as they are pretty close to being extinct – while Cisco is still going strong comparatively speaking.

Anyone remember NFL running back Larry Johnson, formerly of the KC Chiefs? His Twitter tirade referring to people’s “broke ass mom birthed you broke”, another fellow “wit your fag pic” along with the usual references to people being little girls or and just so much crap – spelled so incorrectly even for Twitter shorthand – that I’m not sure he left any group un-offended.

The team wasn’t happy about him doing that – no one that makes money from the type of people he ripped mercilessly wants to be anywhere near that kind of mess. He became toxic property within minutes. Not only did the people he worked for and with want nothing to do with him, 32,000 Chiefs fans petitioned the team to immediately release him – and they did.

In a matter of just over two years, Johnson went from a pro Bowl player with superstar written all over him to rushing for a mere 208 yards and no touchdowns before finally being released from his 4th team in 2 ½ seasons. No team has even entertained giving Johnson a shot at making a roster spot since.

A woman over in the UK, who to this day remains unknown to all, decided to rip her boss on Facebook calling him a “pervy wanker” that made her do “sh*t stuff”. What she forgot however is that she added her boss, the alleged pervy wanker, to her friend list so he was able to see her mini tirade along with everyone else. His response to her – on that thread no less, was priceless.

He first pointed out that although he didn’t prance like a queen, he was gay and it was no secret. He had no reason to take any pervy interest in her. Also, the “sh*t stuff” she was asked to do was her job – and she didn’t do it well. Finally he wrapped up reminding her that she was 2 weeks shy of finishing her trial period – which was now not necessary as she was being let go.

I iz ur boss... lookin' at ur Facebook.

Just for fun, who can forget Kevin Colvin, AKA Pixie Fail, who got busted in a rather embarrassing way. Colvin was working as an intern at a bank when he called boss to tell him that he needed a day off at the end of October due to a “family emergency”. As you can guess, the only emergency Colvin was facing was figuring out how to get to a Halloween party – it was that time of the year. In almost no time at all, Colvin was busted.

He went to a party dressed as a full on fairy – or maybe it was supposed to be a pixie. Either way he was holding a wand of some sort in one hand and can of beer in the other. Did I forget to mention people took pictures of him – lots of pictures. They went all over his friend’s Facebook pages. Worse that that, they were time-stamped so there was no arguing these were old pics from last year.

They aren’t the first and they won’t be the last. Fail Kitty has a whole tub filled with social networking and social media fail. The big players make mistakes and the little guys make mistakes. The famous do it just the same as the guy next door. If you take nothing from this today but one thing, make it be this one guiding mantra:  It is not only possible to over-share online, it is a very bad idea as well.