Death threats for boss who fired contractor over 'homophobic' Facebook post

Whether or not an employee should be punished for something they did outside of their working hours is a debate that has HR at the heart of it. We’ve seen employees be let go for expressing their political and social views, for making racist remarks and for generally being unpleasant online.

And in today’s accessible age, it’s all too easy for employers to stalk out your social media page and find a post you haphazardly made years ago. The obvious moral of the story is not to vent on Facebook at three o clock in the morning, and yet some workers still find it impossible to resist the lure of online comment sections.

Madlin Sims, a businesswoman from Australia, has found herself in the centre of a Facebook row, after she posted a status explaining how she fired a contractor for their personal views. Simms claims that one of her workers made it “public knowledge” that they intended to vote No in country’s upcoming Marriage Law Postal Survey, which will gauge support for gay marriage. Sims said the post was “advertising” her “homophobia”, and therefore she decided to fire the girl.

ABC then tracked down the 18-year-old employee, a Christian named Madeline, who claims she just added a temporary filter to her Facebook picture saying, “it’s OK to vote no”.