Policing employee behavior outside of work

In the world of smart phones where we are constantly documenting so much of our lives, we have seen the rise of employees being fired from their jobs for unsavory, inappropriate, or otherwise damaging behavior that occurred outside of work. Do employers have a right to terminate employees for things they do when they aren’t on the job?

Fading separation between work and life

Although it was once easy enough to keep a separation between work and life outside of work, the advent of camera phones and social media has made such separation quickly begin to fade away. And while employers once paid little or no attention to employee behavior outside of work, the fear of public shaming, boycott, or an otherwise tainted reputation for being associated with poorly behaved employees or those harboring unpopular or socially unacceptable sentiments or politics has driven employers to police employees’ off-duty behavior. This has led to employees facing discipline up to and including terminations for actions that occurred wholly outside of the work environment and were seemingly unrelated to work.

In at-will employment states, such as Texas, employers can generally fire employees for off-duty activity. As with most rights, however, there are always exceptions. Employers can terminate employees for any reason, including for behavior that the employee engaged in outside of work, so long as such employment actions don’t violate local, state, or federal employee protections.