Freedom of Speech in the workplace

Post Reply New Topic

Although it is in opposition to that mantra which is often heard loudly and at length that "the customer is always right", would it be completely detrimental for, not only customers and managers, but also workers to have freedom of speech in a workplace? I know that some of you shall give extreme examples of situations where this would not work, and then proceed to say that it would not work in all situations, however such a fallaciously compositional approach to reasoning is lame to the point of death to say the least. Certainly it may be true that some customers would walk out upon hearing that those that serve them aren't mindless robots, or moreover the case when a customer attempts to verbally abuse a person serving them only to have it reciprocated upon them without fear of losing work due to tiring of being a constant doormat. However, as is the current case in all places that I have worked, freedom of speech is treated as nearly a capital offense and it leads to the perpetuation of a wrongful mentality in the mind of customers and managers - the mentality that some people are worth less than others and may thus be mistreated freely.

Do you have any examples so we can look at the related principles? I cannot think of a time when "freedom of speech" has ever even been an issue in the workplace.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from any repurcussions of the things you say. It just means you can't be jailed for it. The only person who got their freedom of speech violated in this thread was the kid in Demonabyss's anectdote about a kid sent to juvie when a discussion of farcry (a videogame????) was mislabeled as actual threats.

You are free to say what you want (within the confines of the law) and other people are free to react to it how they want (also within the confines of the law). If saying some things makes managers hunt and hunt for legitimate reasons to fire you, it is on you to make sure that there are no legitimate reasons or to not say those things. Insubordination is a legitimate reason so you have to be very careful of the way you phrase things.


This issue comes up with considerable frequency for people who are in the public eye because of something like a TV show or radio show. They will say something on the show and then get fired for it. Rick Sanchez getting fired from CNN for saying "the media is run by Jews" is a recent example. Many people react by saying that this person's Freedom of Speech got violated. But it didn't. They didn't get arrested. They got fired. Freedom of Speech protects you from arrest (which is why it's relevent in DemonAbyy'ss anecdote) but it does not guarentee that you get paid for saying these things. If it was actually illegal for people to be fired over what they say at work, Rick Sanchez and countless others would have both a good legal case and a job.

'keet, all I did was to pare things down to relevant facts ... and I always mean to do that without casting any bad light on you (or anyone else) or your (or anyone else's) beliefs, convictions, perceptions or whatever. There is simply nothing anywhere saying anyone has any kind of right to speak up in the workplace and expect no retribution. There have been many times I have spoken up about one thing or another in the workplace, and there have been many times I have been warned or even chastised for doing so. Some people want to hear "Truth, Justice and 'The American Way'" and deal with those kinds of realities -- others do not. As wrong or as unjust or however else this might be, the fact yet remains that the business owner and/or his or her managers and/or supervisors decide what is acceptable in the workplace and what is not as long as no actual civil or human right or any law or other regulation has been violated or broken ... and that occasionally leaves many of us with risk-assessed decisions to make about things we either do or do not say and/or do at work. Maybe things would be different in what some people might believe would be an ideal world, but that is how things presently are in this one as we happen to know it.