Disparaging Rants May Come Back To Haunt You
By Amy E. Feldman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - In this day and age, is it now acceptable to let the world know your feelings toward your former employer?
When PayPal's director of strategy, Rocky Agrawal, chose to express his feelings towards his coworkers, he did so in a spectacularly colorful and expletive-laden way, f-bombing many of his PayPal cohorts by name on Twitter.
The interesting part of the saga may be the remaining question: was this the stupidest, most public meltdown since Charlie Sheen was "winning" his way right off of Two and a Half Men, or was it, in fact, a well-played publicity stunt by Mr. Agrawal, to get investor interest in his newest venture?
Has conventional wisdom changed about publicly letting the world know of your unhappy exit? Lest we not forget, it's not just common sense but the law that should stop your epic rant in its electronic tracks.
Remember that making false statements about coworkers to others is still defamatory even in 140 characters. And should your next great venture not work as planned and you need to be hired by others, your trail of destruction - which never really disappears even if you take it down - will precede you.
