23 People Who Didn’t Think Before Posting On Social Media And Ended Up Losing Their Jobs

Nicole Crowther was a one time extra on Fox show Glee who became known for posting spoilers of the show on Twitter. Unfortunately for her, one of the spoilers was a nail in the coffin of her career as she spoiled who was Prom King and Queen in the second season of the prom episode. This prompted Brad Falchuk, one of the show’s producers and creators to tweet “Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create? Hope you’re qualified to do something besides work in entertainment.” Nicole later admitted that the tweet basically ruined her life as she was blacklisted as an extra, so instead of pursuing her acting dreams she had to go work for her family's roofing business.

A daycare worker from Mesa, Arizona posted some questionable images on social media that got her fired back in 2016. The woman shared a series of images and videos that included one where she is flipping off the kids she was looking over with a caption that said 'swear i love kids!' Once the owner of the Kid's Play Learning Center received messages about the incident from angry parents, she terminated the employment.

As surprising as the fact that cricket teams have cheerleaders, the reason for Gabriella Pasqualotto's termination is just as baffling. In 2011, pro cricket team Mumbai Indians fired the cheerleader for blogging. Which later came to light was what she was hired to do. The team was aware that she could write, so they encouraged her to keep "The Secret Diary of an IPL Cheerleader". Reportedly, Pasqualotto was too honest on her diary and wrote who was flirting with who and the way her squad was treated by players during parties. After being given the boot, the South African cheerleader reported that she felt mistreated and thinks that it was one of the Australian cricketers who became upset with what she wrote about him and complained to get her fired.

After spending a New Year's Eve dinner in Kilroy's Bar N' Grill in Indianapolis, one hairdresser wasn't too happy with the experience and decided to take to Facebook to express her feelings. Holly Jones posted an emotionally loaded message back in 2016, but it probably still haunts her. After complaining about staff's reaction to saving a "junkie" who "overdosed", the lady received a reply from the restaurant manager who explained what really happened. Turns out, the person who Jones referred to as 'dead person' was actually a 70+ year old lady who suffered a heart attack and had to be taken to hospital. Luckily, the woman survived, though the same couldn't be said about Jones' career. After public outrage and personal attacks, the salon where Jones was working was bombarded with negative reviews and threats. The woman was soon fired from her job and has since disappeared from social media.

Back in 2012, one Taco Bell employee, Cameron Jankowski, decided that it was a good idea to tweet this image to a controversial internet figure and a now-convicted criminal Hunter Moore with hashtags #pissolympics, #nacobellgrande and captioned “guess where I work”. While Moore declared Jankowski the “winner of the piss Olympics”, the public only had outrage to offer. While plenty of people sent him angry messages, the 'vigilante' internet group Anonymous released his personal information. While the young man claimed he never served the food in the photo to anyone, some Twitter users claimed that putting human waste into food by a food handler could be considered a felony. While no charges were pressed, Jankowski had to find a new job as Taco Bell didn't share his carefree way of thinking.

Over a decade ago, this New England Patriots cheerleader was kicked off the squad for posting a photo online. The picture showed her posing next to a passed out guy with a sharpie in hand. While Caitlin Davis found the situation amusing, her management did not and she got the boot. Reportedly, what caught everyone's attention was the things that were drawn on him, like "I'm Jew" phrase and a penis. Davis defended herself saying that she's only to blame for poor judgment for taking this photo as she wasn't the one who actually drew on the guy's body. Still, the photo posted and the scandal that followed was enough to get her fired.

In 2015, Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo employee Rochelle Robinson decided to complain about being ignored by visitors at the zoo. Naturally, the woman took to Facebook, announcing that she's serving "rude ass white people". A situation that, according to Rochelle, made her quit her job. Robinson received many complaints and comments about her post that all resulted in a wave of negative attention. Brookfield Zoo representatives issued a statement on their Facebook page that said this: "Yesterday, we became aware of the actions of a single employee which we agree are unacceptable. This employee's statements in social media are in violation of our policies and do not reflect our institution's values. We have zero tolerance for these kinds of divisive behaviors. We treat all employment matters confidentially but please know that we took prompt action to remedy the situation this morning." They also later confirmed that Rochelle was no longer an employee at their zoo.

While on flight from New York to Cape Town back in December 2013, Justine Sacco made several tweets to her 170 Twitter followers. Among some of them was the unfortunate "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just Kidding. I'm white!" which Sacco claimed to be a satire intended to mock American ignorance of South Africa, as she's South African herself. Despite her comments, people on the internet weren't happy with the original tweet and started #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag, referencing her loss of job. Sacco's case became one of the most prominent examples of how a vigilante campaign of public shaming can affect and even destroy a person's life and career.

On May 2, 2011, observing the American reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden, the a former NFL running back posted his thoughts on Twitter. His criticism on the celebrations resulted in a backlash and soon afterwards Mendenhall lost his endorsements and was traded from Pittsburgh Steelers to the Cardinals. In 2014 he retired from a professional football career.

Damian Goddard lost his position as a sportscaster for Rogers Sportsnet after he decided to express his solidarity with Todd Reynolds and take a stand against gay marriage on Twitter. Although it was 2011, it was also the time right after the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, so many people had a lot to say. It all began with Sean Avery's support for same-sex couples which started a gay marriage debate. After Todd Reynolds, an agent with Uptown Sports, decided to criticize Avery's stance, Damian Goddard thought it's a good idea to join on with his homophobic views. Soon enough, Rogers Sportsnet representatives issued a statement that simply said that Damian Goddard is no longer with them.

Back in 2011, one Apple employee decided to post all the issues he had with the company on his Facebook feed. Unfortunately, one of Crisp's friend on the platform was also an Apple employee who tipped a manager off. Long story short, Apple terminated their contract with Samuel Crisp, well within their right, apparently. Samuel didn't want to give up and took the case to an employment tribunal in Bury St Edmunds. Too bad for him, the tribunal agreed with Apple and dismissed Crisp's complaint, stating that Apple was acting within its rights to fire their employee on the grounds of breaching business conduct policy.

If you remember the "McKinney pool party" incident, then you probably remember the outrage and discussion that followed as well. If you're not familiar with the case, it was basically a racially motivated American civil disturbance that occurred on June 5, 2015, when A McKinney police officer was recorded restraining an unarmed black 15-year-old girl on the ground. The police officer, Eric Casebolt, later resigned. It didn't stop the principal of North Miami Senior High School, Alberto Iber, to drop his two cents on Facebook, expressing support to the officer fighting unarmed teenagers in swimsuits. The Miami-Dade County school district responded to Iber's comment by removing him as a principal.

The comedian who has a history of making controversial jokes managed to turn another one out on Twitter back in 2011, when he posted a rather insensitive tweet on his page. The joke referenced the earthquake disaster in Japan that took over 15,000 lives and resulted in $360 billion damage. He was quickly dismissed from voicing Aflac's duck mascot which was unsurprising as Aflac does 75% of its business in Japan.

In 2013, Alicia Ann Lynch had no idea that her life would become a living nightmare after she posted a photo of her Halloween costume on Twitter. Unfortunately, she decided to dress up as a Boston Marathon bombing victim and people noticed. People noticed and people were outraged. They sent Lynch death threats, vile messages and some even went as far as to dig up her old provocative photos, despite Alicia's apologies and attempts to delete the initial photo. Her Twitter account was suspended and once she got access to it again, that's what Alicia tweeted: "I have been fired from my job. I am paying for what I thought was a simple joke. I know it was wrong now. I wasn't thinking".

Mr. Bartosiewicz had the misfortune of mixing up his personal account with the one that he was managing at his job. When he expressed his personal opinion in a tweet that said "I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to [effin] drive", Scott didn't mean to post to it to the effin official Chrysler account. To no surprise, Chrysler officials didn't take too kindly to someone dropping the f-bomb to their customers and promptly ended the contract with Bartosiewicz's employer, New Media Strategies. Oh, and Scott was fired, which also didn't surprise anyone.

Less than a year ago, a pastor at a local church and a CrossFit employee was fired for taking a stance on Twitter. Russell Berger, who was the company’s chief knowledge officer, tweeted in support of a CrossFit gym in Indianapolis, Indiana, where owners decided to cancel a workout in honor of Pride Month. While many employees and coaches decided to quit the gym, Berger only had words of encouragement for such a decision and went as far as calling LGBT pride celebrations a sin. It didn't take long before CrossFit announced that they fired Berger on Twitter.

Carly McKinney, a high school math teacher in Colorado came under fire after her social media posts caught the school board's attention. The photos shared on Twitter page "Carly Crunk Bear" showed the former teacher in some provocative situations, like smoking weed and appearing to be intoxicated or semi-nude. The social media posts got McKinney suspended at first, and later her employment was terminated. McKinney went on to defend herself, stating that the Twitter account was a parody and she never had drugs involved in her professional life. After her suspension, many students demanded her to be reinstated as many found her relatable and the board's decision unreasonable.

Reacting to Trump's response to 2017 London Bridge attack, producer and television host Reza Aslan took to Twitter to express his outrage. While many people, famous or not, have very strong opinions when it comes to the current President of the USA, CNN didn't take Aslan's descriptions of Trump too kindly and fired their employee. The news network wanted to make it clear what kind of speech, on or off-camera, they tolerate and approve off. Unfortunately for Aslan, calling Trump an "embarrassment to humankind" and "piece of [poop]" wasn't exactly welcome and had his documentary series "Believer" dropped from CNN.

Stephanie Bon was an HR assistant for Lloyds Banking Group when she heard about António Horta-Osório's pay deal, a whopping £13.5million in salary. She aired her grievances in a Facebook post saying "LBG's new CEO gets £4,000 an hour. I get £7. That's fair." While it might not be fair at all, it also wasn't exactly smart to complain on a social media site where people could see it, especially your coworkers... or your boss. After the company became aware of the post, Bon was promptly escorted from the office and fired. The former employee thought their decision was ridiculous, saying that "[she] can't believe [she has] been treated so appallingly for what essentially amounts to a chat with [her] mates outside work".