This topic was brought into the spotlight in early 2021 when Gina Carano was fired by Disney for daring to be a stunning and brave woman who spoke her mind. She made inoffensive remarks on Twitter that had nothing to do with her work or her employer. But she has fired anyway because Disney doesn’t like women who speak their minds. This is an everyday occurrence in Hollywood, but what about in the corporate world? Let’s say that you posted a Twitter message about how stray dogs should be saved, and your dog-hating boss fired you, could you hire a California employment lawyer and sue them?
Yes You Can Sue and Win
There are several reasons why you should sue your boss. For example, you were fired based on your opinion and not on your work performance. You may be seen as an ambassador for a company when you are outside of work and on a public forum, but even if you are not kind about your employer, you shouldn’t be fired unless you say something libelous or scandalously untrue about the company. Under most circumstances, you can sue your employer and win if you were fired for a non-work-related social media post.
You Can Sue and Not Win
If you are in Gina Carano’s position, you can sue, but you are going up against a multi-national corporation that owns most of the news and entertainment outlets, so your chances of winning are minimal.
Many people have gone up against massive companies and have won very big cases, but you would need a team of lawyers to go up against Disney, and that would cost more than the claim would ever payout.
Your hometown California employment lawyer will probably fail in this case. If you are going up against a big company, then contact a lawyer and sue them. If you are going up against Disney, you should probably just cut your losses and run.
You Can Probably Sue
Disney really messed up because they said they were firing Gina Carano because of her inoffensive social media posts. Gina didn’t follow the political narrative of the head of the company, so she was fired. Disney was happy to state why they fired her because they know nobody can touch them. However, your employer will not be so bold, and ergo not so foolish.
What often happens is that your employer sees something you wrote on social media and doesn’t like it, so they start searching for a reason to fire you. Back in the 90s, we called this process, “Starting a paper trail” on somebody.
What an employer does is to look for all the reasons you could be fired, and then start issuing warnings so she/he may go ahead and fire you. All of a sudden, your 5-minutes late to start work start to make their way into your performance reports. In these cases, where the real reason for your firing is hidden, your California employment lawyer will have a harder time getting a big payment.
However, it is often possible to prove that your reasons for being fired were false, which in itself is enough to claim damages. The process of suing your boss for firing you is never as clear-cut and easy as we see in Hollywood. If you need real expert advice on what to do next, then get in touch with Belal Hamideh Law team in California.