Hi:
Please post your response to question #3 in Thinking Critically, from the following unit:
Click here for the Andrew Tanick article and the Thinking Critically Questions.
Please be specific and clear. I expect a complete, grammatically correct, well-developed paragraph. I recommend that you run your paragraph through the MS Word spell checker and grammar checker before you post it.
Thinking Critically Question #3
3. I believe that Dr. Talvitie-Siple was treated unfairly. I work at a high school therefore I see students and their parents being very disrespectful. I hear teachers comment on what a stressful day they had and they can’t wait until the school year is over. This does not mean that they do not want to come back the next school year; this is just a way for them to vent and take all their problems out. I am one of those who wish that the school year can be over quickly as parents and district personnel drive us to a point of insanity. Again, this doesn’t mean that I no longer want to work there. I love my workplace but there are just some people who makes it impossible for you to have a stress free day.
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I have mixed feelings about if she was treated unfairly or not. I don’t believe that she should have posted some rude things about other people’s children, because honestly that is asking for some kind of trouble. But on the other hand it is her right to vent her frustrations even if it is on a social network. She wasn’t stating people’s names or tarnishing them. Everyday someone somewhere is venting about another people or complaining about their tough day. Social networking has become the new way of venting our frustrations. So she should’ve have been forced to resign from her job, maybe just some discipline. You are forcing someone to give up their job for venting on a social network, yet we vent our friend’s every day. So at the end of the day what is the difference? Either way someone will find out what you said. Regarding the other cases listed in this essay, I do believe that the other people should have been terminated from their position. If you are posting pictures of yourself doing not so good things when you teaching children that is not acceptable, if you are causing harm or doing something that tarnishes a business or a person that you work for or that could even cause harm you should be terminated. So this is why I have mixed emotions about this subject.
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As an educator, we expect Dr. Talvitie-Siple to enjoy her job, to fill the minds of young adults with tales of Shakespeare and Albert Einstein to motivate kids and to have a warm smile as our bratty teenagers walk into her classroom day after day. We do not like to hear that teachers do not like their job or do not like the parents, as we can understand from reading the following quotes, “Residents are so arrogant and snobby” and “So not looking forward to another year at Cohasset schools.” This may have been further motivation for her dismissal. We are all guilty of not wanting to go into the office from time to time, but we cannot bear the thought of trusting our kids (even the bratty ones) to the hands of someone that is not 100% motivated, and in a nearly comical state of joy every morning, year after year. However, let us face it she is also human, one with a terrible luck and slight bad judgment. The change in privacy setting was not one she could anticipate and parents were probably in a bit of a hunt for information in her community, but if she were a clerk in an office or a CPA, she would probably not be asked to resign for not looking forward to going to work. She was rightfully terminated from her job, if we follow the “unwritten rule” at the time of the incident that her comments may have harmed the reputation of the school (her employer). As unfortunate as her case is, it does teach everyone a lesson that our comments are still amongst “friends”… but our “friend” the internet does not know how to keep a secret well.
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I feel that Dr. Talvite-Siple was treated unfairly; we have a freedom of speech and expression, whether it is face to face or social networking. No these issues should not be grounds for termination, because a person should be judged by their work conduct, not their personal conduct. People need to learn how to separate their personal lives from their work lives. When I go to work, my personal affairs do not come with me, and vice versa.
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As a public employee myself, I don’t think she was treated unfairly. When working as a public employee you have to conduct yourself in a professional manner at all times. Because you represent your employer, so doing or saying inappropriate things is unprofessional. For example if you have kids they represent you when and when not in your present. If there out somewhere without you and misbehave themselves, it is going to be a reflection on the parents. It is the same how a business look at it.
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It is very hard judge this situation since it could be seen from two different perspectives. However, my personal opinion is that this situation was taken to the extreme. I believe Dr. Talvitie-Siple had all the right to exercise her freedom of speech; after all, she was speaking her mind in a place where she trusted to be secure and it was only going to be seen by the people she chose to share her thoughts with. Besides, it is true that parents can be annoying and it is true that kids are always sick like she mentioned, they are “germ bags”. The only thing I do not agree on, it is the part where she says that she is “Not looking forward for another year at Cohasset Schools,” is it because she doesn’t like teaching or because she doesn’t like Cohasset Schools. My guess is that she doesn’t like Cohasset schools because she found another job as a professor.
We all have bad days at work and sometimes we say things we do not really mean like: I hate this job, I hate my boss, and this is the worst company ever, I know because I have said it many times. In reality, we are just stressed out and one of the ways that helps us vent is to say negative thing; I am confident that deep inside Dr. Talvitie-Siple’s mind, she loves teaching, but she was just having a bad day, and she posted the comments on a wrong place at the wrong time. I hope this story help people realize that we should not entirely trust these social networks and we have to be careful on what we say and how we say it.
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In the case of Dr. June Talvitie-Siple, I believe she was treated unfairly. She was just expressing herself to an audience she thought was her family and friends. Many of us express ourselves daily about conditions at work all the time. We usually talk amongst our friends, co workers or friends face to face or via the telephone. It just so happen, she expressed herself through a form of social network. The school board and parents, did not have a right to response in that manner. First of all, she did not name any names in her statement. Secondly, everything she expressed, as far as my own personal experience with the schools are fairly true. Finally, if the school board or parents wanted to get clarification as to why she wrote those comments, then they should have asked her instead of taking immediate disciplinary actions.
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1. The main point is to inform readers about employees networking. The intended audience ar employees as myself. I believe this because he describe numerous negative point of view in networking influence in working environment.
2.The statistic data effect people privacy on the internet. The information shocked me because I wasn’t aware that employees can actually access private information, and does not think I could ever agree to such practice.
3.I do believe that he was fired unjustly, because he did not make the statement at work. Limiting someones freedom of speech in their spare time should be considered a violation. Although if somehow the intended target was offended, he should have been forced to apologize, not to resign.
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As new technologies come available for computers users across the world, it is becoming ever more difficult to for users to learn what’s new in every computer update. My computer updates at least 5 new programs a day and the user agreements for each program vary in length, but all of them are lengthy. It would take hours out of my day, to read each one. Dr. June Talvitie-Siple, a Science and Technology Professor, was caught in an innocent communication between what she thought was private. Although she had placed the highest and most exclusive security setting on her Facebook social networking site, with the addition of a new update, her profile posts became no longer private, hindering the initial security settings placed. Facebook did notify her of these setting changes, but as I stated above, the majority of people do not read user agreements online. Never less, in general, private or not private, it is not highly recommended to ever write anything negative about your job or employer or in this incident, regarding students or the germs they do in fact carry. I do feel in this case after viewing the information provided and having read the private conversations between Professor Jose Blanco and Dr. June Talvitie-Siple,that the private conversation between Dr. June Talvitie-Siple and her online friends was taking out of context. I do think that firing Dr. June Talvitie-Siple, was a harsh punishment. I think a warning would have sufficed in this incident and placed under a probationary period, subject to any further complaints. Our school systems are in dire need of good teachers, and Dr. June Talvitie-Siple, did pass her review and was under contract for the following year. Incidents like these show that a new method for introducing new updates and especially ones that change or effect current security settings. The fact that Dr. June Talvitie-Siple, had set her account to the highest setting, no new program update should be ever be allowed to supersede those settings. I do believe that in this particular case that Facebook should hold some type of liability. Holding Facebook liable for incidents like these will prevent further incidents to come in the future. As there would surely be a new update released to prevent this from happening.
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Social networking implies that the audience is a more casual group than an employee’s professional peer group. Although I believe that an individual needs to exhibit discretion in what is posted in a public forum, Dr. Talvite-Siple was judged harshly for her indiscretion. According to the information provided to the readers, it seems that a reprimand of sorts would be better suited to the crime. Termination seems be an extreme penalty that does not fit the error in judgment on her part. We do not have all of the information on who saw the post in the community that may have contributed to her firing. Perhaps it was an individual with considerable pull, who had an emotional investment such as a child enrolled in the Cohasset school system. Dr. Talvitie-Siple may have used Facebook as a medium to vent during an emotionally trying school year; however, the decision was made in a 24-hour period to fire her. This implies that the parents and educators also reacted emotionally and did not give their reactions a cooling off period before sentencing her. Whether it is deciding what to post on Facebook or consequences for those posts, emotionally charged times can lead to irrational decisions.
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