Subway employee fired for lauding cop-killing. Rise of incivility or just poor filters?
The case of a Subway sandwich shop worker 鈥� who used Facebook to celebrate the shooting deaths of two Hattiesburg, Miss., police officers 鈥� demonstrates the riskiness of uncivil or hateful communication, and the importance of thinking before posting comments online.
Sierra 鈥淐-Babi鈥� McCurdy, of Laurel, Miss., was fired from her job at a Subway restaurant after she cheered the murders of Hattiesburg Police Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate who were killed in the line of duty during a routine traffic stop Saturday night, according to .
Ms. McCurdy鈥檚 posts on Facebook read: 鈥�2 police officers was shot in hattiesburg tonight鈥OT EM,鈥� according to media. 鈥淲e can turn this [expletive] into Baltimore real quick ... Police take away innocent people lives everyday now & get away w/ it, [expletive] them ... no mercy.鈥� She appeared to be wearing a Subway employee uniform in an accompanying photo.
Subway was quick to respond, firing McCurdy immediately, a spokesperson told The Clarion Ledger. Ms. McCurdy鈥檚 social media accounts all appear to have been deleted or locked since the incident.
According to the 聽survey,聽鈥淭he overwhelming majority of each generation perceives a civility problem in America. More than nine in 10 of each adult generation 鈥� Millennials, Gen Xers, Boomers, and the Silent Generation 鈥� believe that civility is a problem, with most leaning toward it being a major problem. The generations are also in agreement that incivility has reached crisis proportions in America.鈥�
The annual聽survey is conduct among American adults by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate, in partnership with KRC Research, since 2010.
The same survey found that a majority in each generation said that the Internet and social media were partially responsible for growing incivility. (Among other top factors cited were politicians, government officials, and "America's youth.")
And social media is an increasingly important platform for communication, as Americans spend up to on Facebook, and more and more companies gravitate to Facebook and Twitter for customer service. Many companies' Twitter and Facebook pages have taken on the role of complaint forums.聽According to a poll by Edison Research, expect a 60-minute response time to social media complaints.
Social media expert ,聽CEO of social-media consultancy firm Social Connect, says in an interview that people have lost their social filters.
Ms. Maman says that users need to take greater care with the content of their online postings.
鈥淭oday, people feel very comfortable talking about everything in every subject 鈥� what they eat, what they think, what they love, who are their neighbors, what they see in the bus, in the train, what鈥檚 going on in the airplane, everywhere on social media,鈥� she says. 鈥淧eople really need to start thinking about what鈥檚 going on because if [McCurdy] was posting the same thing not wearing the uniform she wouldn鈥檛 get in trouble.鈥�
Ms. Maman recommends that every business build a social media policy of 鈥渨hat to do and what not to do鈥� for employees. She also recommends that employers pay more attention to the social media feeds of potential employees.
鈥淭alking about a social media policy while interviewing people is one of the best ways to make sure you know who you are hiring,鈥� she adds. 鈥淏ecause these days what you post on social media is who you really are. Five years ago or three years ago it was fake but now it鈥檚 becoming more real because people see everyone else posting everything and they follow them. It鈥檚 become a part of people鈥檚 reality that whatever you post online, that鈥檚 who you really are.鈥�
