I know you’re probably tired of hearing about the Connecticut woman who was fired over her Facebook rant but please bear with me.

I don’t like to be overly judgmental of anyone and I’m all about empathy.  But no matter how bad her situation was at work, venting to the Facebook community was stupid and she deserved to be fired.  This is not about big bad Corporate America picking on the defenseless employee.  It’s about an employee, who acted on a stupid decision and is now being forced to take responsibility and face the consequences for that decision.  Why is that so wrong?

No, she shouldn’t have been counseled or gone through progressive discipline.  Slander is slander.  Would you want someone who works for you to do that to you without any consequences?

Remember the rules about e-mail etiquette?  Never send anything in an e-mail that you wouldn’t want to appear on the front page of the Wall Street Journal?  This is much worse — a public slam against your employer and your supervisor with colorful name calling.  Really?  Who does that?!

This case will go in front of a judge in January to decide if the posts crossed a legal line.  The argument is that this woman did this on her own time and while using her own computer.  Even if the judge finds that she should not have been fired for her actions, it was still a downright stupid thing to do!

The takeaway here is easy.   Use common sense and vent to your friends, family or pet, but never publicly for the world to see.  It really isn’t rocket science, folks.

I welcome your comments.