It’s quite common these days for employees to get fired over their social media activity. Despite privacy settings, it’s amazing how many people manage to lose their jobs over ridiculous things they post online. And it’s not just about losing a job, it’s about getting one too – prospective employers just won’t consider candidates without scrutinizing their online profiles first.
Well, the job market sure is tough, but there do exist a few kind souls who believe that our social lives and professional lives should be kept separate by law. Like Brian Zulberti, a Delaware lawyer who is currently on a hunger strike to raise awareness about this issue. He’s actually posted a number of naked photos of himself online, in the past, and he wants the right to keep doing things like that it without it affecting his professional career.
“This is about privacy and the advancement of technology,” said Zulberti. “Soon it will be the total informative age, privacy out the window. The best we can do is adapt the law to the future now so we don’t turn into 1984, George Orwell style.”
Photo: NBC10.com
I can see why it’s difficult to take Zulberti seriously – he’s trying to make his case while resting on a reclining chair, wearing a hat that says ‘Us Versus Them’ and a shirt with a picture of himself posing naked in front of the Capitol Building. But I suppose he deserves to be heard. After all, the man is a victim himself.
Photo: Brian Zulberti
Zulberti was fired as a high school tennis coach for a few comments that he wrote about an opposing team’s player. In 2013, he applied for a string of jobs by sending out a picture of himself in a rolled-up t-shirt, instead of a resume. He managed to become a minor internet celebrity, as a result, but he didn’t really secure any jobs. Then, he posted a picture of himself wearing nothing but underwear on Facebook with a sign begging people to hire him as a lawyer (not an escort).
Photo: Washington Post
These are extremely unconventional ways of looking for employment, almost guaranteed to fail. But Zulberti is a man with a cause, and it doesn’t look like he’s giving up any time soon. The Villanova Law School graduate has been traveling around the United States, trying to draw attention to various cases of people being fired for their messages on social media. The naked pictures are just a ruse, he says, to get people to pay attention to the issue. “Look, if I’ve got to get your eyes to my penis to see the problems with the nation, then so be it.”
Zulberti, who says that he is ‘about as gay as the day is long’, recently visited New Jersey to talk about Sam Falcetano, a Department of Public Works employee. Sam was fired for writing homophobic posts on Facebook. Interestingly, Zulberti wasn’t bothered by the comments at all – he said that he may wish horrible things upon the man, but he still shouldn’t have been fired.
Source: Washington Post
