ST. LOUIS (First Alert 4/Gray News) – A former teacher at a high school in St. Louis who resigned after her OnlyFans page was reported to district officials has been fired after just days on a new job. Brianna Coppage was a teacher for five years, spending two at St. Clair High School. She was ... Read more
Gonna get roasted for this, but why?
I think it’s pretty reasonable for an employer to fire someone for posting racist things on the Internet. I think we can all agree on that. Actions outside of work can have an effect on work and so I think it’s reasonable to make employment decisions based on how the employer acts outside of work. I would argue racism is morally wrong and sex work is not, but I don’t think it’s possible to define employment laws in a way that fits a universal moral code.
I love the protected classes we have for employment now: age, gender, color, religion, etc. I think these protections are valuable to employees everyone, and I think they make sense because they don’t affect your ability to do the job. I having “does sex work on the side” on this list makes much less sense.
I think many, maybe even most, jobs wouldn’t be affected by an employee having an onlyfans, and so in my opinion someone shouldn’t get fired for it most of the time. But I think there’s a clear line between the protected classes and people who post on onlyfans.
Simple answer. Most of us (and most of the world) thinks At-Will employment is barbaric.
It is entirely reasonable to require some substantive effect to warrent termination, even if that substantive effect is not directly the teacher’s fault. Her having an onlyfans account, not grounds for firing. Her onlyfans account passed around by students? Grounds for termination.
There’s a (not so new) trend in the US for companies to crack down on side gigs. Yes, sex work is a politically charged side-gig, but we shouldn’t ever be supporting a company’s right to fire people having side-gigs without a very good reason. So long as your side-gig never encroaches into your day job in any real (not hypothetical) way, there really isn’t a good reason.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond so thoughtfully.
I hear what you’re saying about not firing someone until an actual effect on the business is felt. I think that makes sense in this situation but there’s certainly situations where you could find something out about an employee and should be able to fire them before it’s affecting the business. Maybe my accountant committed tax fraud when they filed their taxes. That’s totally in their personal life and if no one finds out about it, then it doesn’t affect the bussiness. I still think it would be totally reasonable to fire that person.
I’ve worked my whole career in salary positions where side gigs are against my contract/need special approval so I think I’m just used to that way of thinking.