The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

Fired from my job because of a post I made on a forum here

Its been a while since I've posted, but some of you might remember this post I made back in August when I was debating about taking the job because of its religious affiliations. Well, last night my boss googled my name. Who knows why. She fired me for it. She wanted me to delete it, but I refused. I'm really feeling like shit right now. I probably shouldn't be writing this as she will probably look for a legal way to make me remove the first post I made.

0 members like this

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by J.P.M. on March 5, 2010 at 1:41pm

Wow, that is pretty extreme. I read your post, I mean, you didn't even mention the name of the school fer crissakes.
Make you delete it !? That goes counter to free speech in a fairly big way.
There is no legal way she could force you to remove it.
And there is no way this could reflect badly on the school, unless some parents were nervous about their kids being tended by a non-theist. Even then, I think you might have a good case for religious discrimination. Freedom of religion should also mean freedom from religion.
Clearly, her actions seem intended to punish your non-belief, or to cow you into submission to theirs.

Google is one reason a lot of us are on here under pseudonyms (although mine is a long way from bulletproof, I must admit). I really hope things work out for you and will be checking back to hear the latest...

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Nicole on March 5, 2010 at 1:41pm

She's probably afraid the parents will google you, find this, and then complain to them about an atheist "corrupting" the youth. However, I recommend you find a lawyer to talk to about whether or not this could be considered wrongful termination. But you have to be able to prove that she really did fire you over a post and not any complaints from your job.

Permalink Reply by Richard Haynes on March 5, 2010 at 1:41pm

Ashley, if this is true please contact me. I can put you in touch with some people who might be able to help you go after them.

For everyone else, this is one of the reasons you might want to make your profile and posts private. Or not use your real name.

So who's ready to start an atheist legal defense fund? We are going to have to take some of these cases to court.

Permalink Reply by Garrick McElroy on March 5, 2010 at 4:49pm

Nah, I'll earn my living by suing companies that discriminate against me until they give me the shirts off their backs. Lol.

But, seriously, we do need one. This isn't right. At all. It's really, excuse my language, fucked up. I think she should definitely contact you and curbstomp these people.

Permalink Reply by Lorien on March 5, 2010 at 7:22pm

BR, it would help when people sign up for an account here that it is explained that a real name is not required if they don't want to be googled and outed by A|N. I made that mistake the first time.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on March 6, 2010 at 9:43am

This is a very good suggestion, but for the less 'net savvy, it's not Nexus that outs people. Technically search engine spiders do.

Permalink Reply by Lorien on March 6, 2010 at 12:52pm

True, but when you sign up it asks for your name and it uses it in the url of your page and makes the user name from it too. Before you realize it, google catches it and you are now outed on the web. There should be something on that sign up page that explains exactly how that information is used. I wish I didn't have to hide my true identity here.

Permalink Reply by Richard Haynes on March 6, 2010 at 1:12pm

I agree Lorien. I'm not sure how to work it out however. We have been discussing it. The same should be said for MySpace and Facebook but I guess our site is a little bit more controversial.

On another note, I understand not all are willing (or able), but we as a community must "come out" and confront this bigotry when it shows its ugly head. Although our blight is not nearly as bad as it has been for the homosexual community, this was crucial for them to gain any respect at all. It wasn't until individuals knew people who were openly gay that they could disagree with ministers who painted homosexuals as evil.

Permalink Reply by Lorien on March 6, 2010 at 6:08pm

I am out in person, at work, family, in the public and stickers on my car but limit the places I am out on the web. This is for future employment reasons and for some of the things I may say. I may not be too politically correct sometimes....

I may be getting in trouble at work though, some JWs working there are starting to complain about my "outness". I think the Canadian Government work locations are demanding religious tolerance..... I think it is BS and will comment whenever I hear any reference to religion, god or jebus. I say, I will remove the pictures of the atheist buses, pictures of Dawkins signing my God Delusion book and The Greatest show on Earth (with me in them too) when everyone else removes their religious calendars and crosses from their necks!

I actually enjoy parking my car with all the stickers on it near the front entrance of the building....... Waiting to hear a demand to park it somewhere else.....

Permalink Reply by Creature on March 6, 2010 at 12:58pm

Freedom From Religion Foundation is a good place to start.

Permalink Reply by Sonny Mobley on March 5, 2010 at 1:46pm

Whoa, that's discrimination. This is illegal. If this ever happened to me 'd prolly go postal. ^_^ I refuse to be anonymous.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on March 5, 2010 at 1:52pm

Contact the ACLU and CLIMB ALL OVER HER CASE! This is a free-speech issue and if she hasn't a direct "fire-for-cause" reason, her ass is EXPOSED!

I am stone-dead serious, Ashley - CONTACT THE FRAGGIN' ACLU!!!!