What responsibility do employers have to hold their employees accountable for actions in public?

In today’s divisive world of political and social enragement people are sometimes driven to extreme actions that are motivated by social media brainwashing.

In our specific instance, the Senior Sales Manager for PolicyWatch out of Round Rock Texas made multiple attempts to run my wife and I off the road at highway speed because he was so entirely enraged by seeing someone driving a Cybertruck. It became clear that his intent was to cause a potentially fatal accident that would have left our daughter without her parents.? At the end of the encounter, he blocked us at a stop light, exited his vehicle and began banging on our window with his middle finger while screaming unintelligibly.??As he realized he was being recorded and the police were on the phone he fled the scene.

This event has been reported to Houston Police Department

As an individual these actions are entirely his own.? However, for this event he was driving away from a work conference while wearing a company shirt and name tag for PolicyWatch.

Clearly this individual is damaging the reputation of his employer and should be dealt with accordingly.? Of course, if no action or minimal action is taken then that becomes an endorsement by his employer of his actions.?

Though this situation is extremely clear, let’s consider actions where the employer is not evidently represented by the individual and what role does freedom of speech play?

As protected by the constitution our words and actions are protected as freedom of speech up to the point of infringing on the rights of others or making direct threats against the rights of others.

Saying, “I hate Cybertrucks and think they are ugly” is completely protected.? However, saying “I hate Cybertrucks and plan on going out to run them off the road” is not protected and is a crime.

The question becomes, should employers take action against employees who present themselves as a threat to others on social media or in their private lives?

This is a very slippery slope, who gets to judge what is just overly excited internet rhetoric and when does is become a credible threat?

Do employers have any responsibility to police the behavior of their employees once this line is crossed?

I would say that this will need to be left to each employer.? Employees represent their employers at all times whether directly or indirectly.? Each employer will need to decide how different their employees personal values and behaviors are from the company values.

As an insurance company for example, do you want to keep a senior sales manager who is given to events of road rage and reckless endangerment?

As a general thought on this. Social media is the double edged sword of our times.

On one side it is a great place to connect with people, make friends and share idea.

On the other side is the best brainwashing tool ever created. We voluntarily expose ourselves to it on average every 90 seconds and all to often accept everything we see there as fact and then go on to base our opinions and behaviors on those newly perceived facts.

Social media also provides a level of anonymity which will prompt some people to show the absolute worst parts of themselves without fear of consequences. It is a very short trip to go from being an internet troll to taking violent action in the real world.

As with any new technology, it becomes and individual responsibility to realize both the benefits and risk of using it.