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Can You Fire an Employee for Blogging?

By Jonathan A. Segal
July 29, 2005

What employees do on their own time is their own business, right? Except when you think it may adversely impact your business. It's one thing for an employee to harbor extreme political views. It's another thing to blog them to the world. An employee's private sex life is, well, private. But what if an employee blogs his or her sexual fantasies to the world? Does an employer have the right to take action against an employee for off-duty blogging it finds offensive or otherwise problematic?

The answer is “Yes,” unless there is specific legal protection for the blogging. After all, an at-will employer can discharge an employee at any time, for any reason, no reason, a good reason or a bad reason, just not an illegal reason. The question is whether and when discharging an employee for off duty blogging would be for an illegal reason.

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