Employees Can Have An Opinion

Social media is a tool which many people use to have fun, pass time and ultimately exercise their freedom of speech. It is a very useful tool nowadays and most people use it on a daily basis. Some even use it to generate income by advertising, influencing, teaching etc. For this prompt I will focus on those who share their personal opinions on social media.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right and as long as an individual's speech is within his or her rights without affecting the rights of others or threatening the common peace of others, then there should be no repercussions from institutions just because the speech does not agree with their own values.

So long as the individual is not speaking on behalf of the institution in question then his opinion is just his opinion. The institution just has to turn a blind eye to such opinions.

Of course, this opinion of mine is not to be followed strictly as some circumstances or opinions from even the most junior member of an organisation is very important and contributory to the image of such institution but wisdom and objectivity should be embraced in such instances.

It is also important that before an institution accepts individuals to work for them, the whole set of expectations are explained to the intending employees so as to avoid coming in and realising that things are different from their expectations. If possible a manual or handbook containing the rules of the organisation should even be provided to ensure that everything is well said and documented.

That way, whomever proceeds despite knowing the rules can be held accountable if he defaults.

Many organisations have rules and belief systems governing their operations. Some of them assume compliance from their members without establishing it from the start.

It is important for these institutions to consider that before becoming their employee, people had a life and even after the work, they would still have a life outside. Hence, expectations must be lowered and not intimidating people to reduce their voices on issues that are important to them, especially if it was not agreed upon from the start.

We know that certain times because of the need to make ends meet, people work in conditions or organisations that are contrary to their personal, religious or cultural beliefs. Such people may carry out their work diligently but the opinions they share on social media may seem to be against the organisation.
An example is a religious person who works in an alcohol manufacturing company. He may occasionally make posts that show his lack of support but the company should not be punitive except it was stated in the beginning.

People need to learn to not abuse power especially when it comes to their employees. It is easy to abuse power in such settings because the individual is dependent on your payment for survival and hence you automatically have an upper hand but should it be exploited? Of course not.