Actually, when faced with protests Chick-fil-A repudiated Dan Cathy’s homophobia and stopped funding anti-LGBTQ lobbying groups, and I’m unaware of it penalizing employees for their views on the issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil ... ontroversy
You can bet that any affected in the way you suggest would have run to HRC or other LGBTQ groups and we would have heard all about it.
I’m not sure what you expect of me here. It is and always has been perfectly legal for bosses to limit off-duty speech, Akima LLC apparently had an existing policy against “lewd or obscene”, and her going to HR was either an admission that the company would be linked to her act or was for some reason a provocation by her. So, dependent on the contract or policy handbook, there is no free speech issue here legally, none.
If bird-flipping and other obscenities started appearing on the social media posts of your coworkers, do you think that your boss would do nothing?
Just as people have 1st Amendment protections from government action to limit speech, businesses have 1st Amendment protections from government action to limit free association, restricted only by civil rights protections against discrimination that have their own constitutional and legislative backing. Your “those restrictions need restrictions” ain’t gonna pass and would probably be found unconstitutional if they did.
So, the only controls on your slippery slope fears are employee or public action, but they’re pretty good ones. If a company crosses the line to the places you imagine, employees can revolt or choose not to work there in the first place, or there can be massive public outcry. I’m all for these and I’ve frequently shared my bitchy notes to employers, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one from you. However, I’m not sending one yet because:
1) There’s something weird about her having gone to HR.
2) A lewd gesture is different from a ‘Boo Trump’ sign, and there’s apparently content-neutral extant company policy on the issue.
3) She chose to brag with her Twitter and Facebook profiles.
4) We only have her word for it that there was unequal treatment of a different obscene social media employee poster.
5) She seems happy, is most irked by #4 rather than the the fact of being fired and hasn’t called for action against the company.
"I don't speak for them and they don't speak for me" sounds lovely, but hasn’t and won’t ever stop boycotts and other public actions against companies that retain the really bad actors like Nazis, Klan and other known racists, but the public doesn’t and shouldn’t get riled up about less extreme and hateful employee views.
I’ll be happy to write Akima LLC if I learn more that changes these facts, but I’m not there yet. With all the time you’ve spent arguing with me today, have you written them yet?