this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Outside of your job though, the company you work for has no obligation to protect you as you aren't acting as an agent of that company on your own time

They can and will fire you for posting things they don't like on social media on your own time, whether you're right or wrong, though. With the justification that you ARE acting as a representative of the company.

If I had a dollar for every time someone got fired for saying anything remotely supportive about Palestine or criticizing cops for being bastards, I'd have enough to buy Boston.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (4 children)

It isn't about being fired for a viewpoint.

Something that would happen a lot on some engineering forums is that someone without any experience would ask if something looked structurally ok and provide a photo. Now, if a PE said it looked ok but something happened to the building and the person was hurt, there may be a liability problem for the PE.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Yeah, but he DOES have the necessary experience to know and he's pointing out that there IS a flaw, so your hypothetical doesn't apply to the actual case here.

They're trying to use his license being temporarily lapsed to keep him from embarrassing them with the knowledge he's had the entire time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Your forum example is different from this.

The forum poster is soliciting advice, for the purpose of continuing use of the construction. The poster is relying on the engineer for their safety.

If a neighbor looks over the fence, and tells you "looking good Joe!", it won't create any sort of relationship between you, and if it is in fact not good the neighbor isn't liable. You weren't relying on their comment.

The engineer is publishing an open letter about work that somebody else completed, that they were never involved in. They aren't being relied on to approve the continued use of the construction. This is the same as lawyers blogging dissenting opinions on rulings or commenting on legal proceedings in areas they haven't passed the bar.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I can't see that anything like that would get anywhere if there was no compensation or contract entered into for that advice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

The point is that you dont need comp or contract.

This is the same principle that spurs the IANAL tag people slap on to any and all posts that discuss a legal situation. Because if you let someone think you are speaking from an educated authority, you are offering them a level of expert approval or advice. And thus, any misled person can blame you for making them think you were speaking from experience and knowledge.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

You don't necessarily need compensation or a contract.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If you're working for or licensed by a government agency in the USA, it gets more complicated. Your 1st ammendment rights carry more weight since firing you or pulling your license is the state taking action against you.

Obviously they can still punish you if you're bringing "disrepute" to your employer/professiom: bigotry, obscenity, misrepresentation, ethics violations, etc.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Let an AI speak on your behalf and you're free to say whatever you want. Just ask the correct questions and you're done

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Let an AI speak on your behalf

No thanks. It's bad enough that Zuckerberg is trying to take my data and spy on me, I'm not gonna make him my spokesperson too.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You got plenty of choices about AI, llama is just one of them

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wasn't talking about llama AI, I was referring to the fact that Mark Zuckerberg isn't a human.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Now now. It is bad manners to talk about the reptilian aliens.