For most people, having a higher-paying job leads to more censored posts on their socials. The tech industry is infamous for having all sorts of secrets, especially secrets that the general population typically would like to know. For this reason, non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality forms are assigned to new employees immediately, but how much do they truly manage when it comes to the their signers freedom of speech?
Recently, one woman in Denver, Colorado shared her salary through a TikTok video and found out the hard way just how far these tech companies will go to keep their information private.
TikToker Lexi Larson shared a video earlier this week explaining how a video posted by her regarding her new salary got her fired from her new job. Below, you’ll find the full story/video from Lexi and see some of the responses her video received.
TikToker Lexi Larson posted a video detailing how she was fired only two weeks after being hired for sharing content online.
Lexi, confused and frustrated, went on to ask the company if she had actually done anything wrong. She asked:
You can watch the original TikTok here
When I was younger, my parents always told me to be careful of what I posted on the internet, because it would be there forever. Given that there is complete truth to this statement, most of us tend to at least consider what we’re about to post before we put it out there for the world to judge. Everything can be screenshotted and shared with a thousand people before you can even say “Ew, delete that!” Why Lexi felt the need to post her new salary on her highly-viewed TikTok account, I do not know.
Regardless, doing so clearly seemed to trigger a reaction from her new employers. Companies almost always have policies and fine print in place specifically describing what can and cannot be posted, so generally, employees don’t have to play a guessing game about what they are allowed to share. In this situation, Lexi actually asked her employers if she had broken any policies or posted anything that was a potential security concern, and they responded that she had not. Despite perhaps some poor judgment on what she should have posted, it definitely was unfair of the company to terminate Lexi’s contract based on the “fear” that she might violate a policy at some point in the future.
In the United States, individuals have the right to openly discuss their wages, at work and in other places, without being retaliated against by their employers. This right is protected by the National Labor Relations Act, and even notes that when it comes to communications like social media, employers enacting “policies that specifically prohibit the discussion of wages are unlawful.” Hopefully, this story and Lexi’s bad fortune will help to keep other companies from getting away with wrongful termination. Given that talking about your salary is completely legal, it would seem Lexi could consult a lawyer and see if her $40k salary could potentially be pocket change.
Commentators have responded with outrage for the situation, telling Lexi that if she wanted to sue, she would have a case
Do you think her employer was completely in the wrong for dismissing her, or did they maybe have valid reason to suspect her secret-keeping abilities?