<story><title>Amazon fires two UX designers critical of warehouse working conditions</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-com-warehou/amazon-fires-two-employees-critical-of-warehouse-working-conditions-idUSKCN21W0UI</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>A4ET8a8uTh0</author><text>Uhh, I don&amp;#x27;t want to be Amazon defender, but in US most of the employment is at will. In practical terms, they can fire you for any or no reason at all. There are practicalities that come into play that have to do with unemployment insurance and whatnot, but company policy violation is a defensible &amp;#x27;cause&amp;#x27; for firing.&lt;p&gt;I am not a lawyer nor am I condoning this, but them is the facts.&lt;p&gt;edit: added play</text></item><item><author>advisedwang</author><text>&amp;gt; “We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies,” Herdener said.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Amazon’s external communications policy prohibits employees from commenting publicly on its business without corporate justification and approval from executives. Herdener previously said the policy did not allow employees to “publicly disparage or misrepresent the company.”&lt;p&gt;Amazon is straight up firing these people for expressing their personal opinions. Amazon isn&amp;#x27;t even claiming they lied, or pretend to speak officially, or any other reason.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alexandercrohde</author><text>I think people are outraged not because it&amp;#x27;s illegal, but because it&amp;#x27;s unconscionable. I think the general understanding is people shouldn&amp;#x27;t have outside-work activities be held against them, maybe it&amp;#x27;s time for the law to catch up.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s pretty easy to come up with a lot of absurd and &amp;quot;legal&amp;quot; at-will policies (e.g. we&amp;#x27;ll fire anybody who watches porn)</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon fires two UX designers critical of warehouse working conditions</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-com-warehou/amazon-fires-two-employees-critical-of-warehouse-working-conditions-idUSKCN21W0UI</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>A4ET8a8uTh0</author><text>Uhh, I don&amp;#x27;t want to be Amazon defender, but in US most of the employment is at will. In practical terms, they can fire you for any or no reason at all. There are practicalities that come into play that have to do with unemployment insurance and whatnot, but company policy violation is a defensible &amp;#x27;cause&amp;#x27; for firing.&lt;p&gt;I am not a lawyer nor am I condoning this, but them is the facts.&lt;p&gt;edit: added play</text></item><item><author>advisedwang</author><text>&amp;gt; “We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies,” Herdener said.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Amazon’s external communications policy prohibits employees from commenting publicly on its business without corporate justification and approval from executives. Herdener previously said the policy did not allow employees to “publicly disparage or misrepresent the company.”&lt;p&gt;Amazon is straight up firing these people for expressing their personal opinions. Amazon isn&amp;#x27;t even claiming they lied, or pretend to speak officially, or any other reason.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xenocyon</author><text>&amp;gt; nor am I condoning this&lt;p&gt;Nobody&amp;#x27;s questioning the legality. The question is whether it should be condoned.&lt;p&gt;Private censorship is legal, but IMHO it can be unethical, especially when the balance of power is so far askew. An employer firing or threatening to fire an employee for speaking can have a large chilling effect.</text></comment>