Eagles in PR Minefield over Facebook Firing
Update: Former Philadelphia Eagles employee Dan Leone will be chatting on espn.com at 3:00pm EST on Thursday, March 12.
Former Philadelphia Eagles employee Dan Leone grew up just down the street from Veterans Stadium, and has been a die-hard fan his entire life. When the Eagles built Lincoln Financial Field Leone figured he’d fill out an application and see if he could land a gig with his favorite team.
Fast forward 6 years and Leone is the west gate chief on game days, that is up until last week when the team let 13-year veteran, and fan-favorite Brian Dawkins sign with the Denver Broncos. What does Dawkins have to do with this? Well, Leone, like many Eagles fans, was furious Dawkins was leaving and posted on his Facebook page, “Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver…Damn Eagles R Retarded!!”
The Eagles subsequently fired Leone. Should Leone have better judgment, yes. Was his Facebook status update inappropriate for an employee? Of course. But, the Eagles going as far as firing him brings up a host of questions from a PR and really a business perspective in general.
Christy Hammond at Sportsprblog.com brings up a great point. In this day and age every company should supply their employees with social media policies. Many companies are behind the curve on this, but as sites like Facebook and especially Twitter are exploding, more and more people are sharing their thoughts on-line, and companies need to decide what is and isn’t acceptable. That also means employees need to be extra vigilant in what they’re posting.
But, that doesn’t mean that this unfortunate situation rests solely on Leone’s shoulders. The Eagles took a lapse in judgment from an employee and turned it into PR nightmare. I don’t know how many “Facebook friends” Leone has, but usually it’s in the range of 100-200. So the Eagles fired a passionate employee over an inappropriate post that maybe 200 people saw.
In turn they ensured millions more now know about the comment. The story, and Leone’s comment, have now been all over the Philadelphia media, ESPN and almost every major sports media outlet across the country.
An even larger issue is whether firing an employee over a Facebook post is a wise PR move considering the current economic conditions. People are losing jobs left and right, and Leone was just fired for his Facebook status! Will the Eagles see any backlash for being insensitive during these time? Maybe something they should have thought about before pulling the trigger on this decision.
So, my question to you, did the Eagles make a mountain out of a mole hill? And, do companies in the current economic climate need to be more careful from a PR perspective for the reasons they let employees go?
Brian,
The Eagles absolutely made a mountain out of a molehill.
It’s easy to judge & hindsight is 20/20, but all the Eagles had to do was call Mr. Leone, ask him to remove the comment, & set up a time to discuss the comment with him to communicate that such a comment would not be tolerated.
Then they could have taken the opportunity to create some sort of policy for employee use of social media so that future organizational action in the future would be expected & backed up.
@SternalPR commented on Twitter: It’s really another example of a company trying to control, rather than participate, in the conversation.
Organizations (not just sports) need to realize that social media is a reality and that they must have policies in place to handle & participate (not control) what people say on SM sites. I currently live near Philadelpia, and I know Mr. Leone was not the only Eagles fan let down by the Dawkins news.
@tomokeefe1
Tom O'Keefe
March 12, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I would suspect that every Eagle’s employee is expected to act in ways that is supportive of the Eagle’s team on an off the playing field. I can’t speak for the Eagle’s, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was policy.
It’s simple to me. This man called the team he’s supposed to support “retarded”. That is not supportive at all, and could easily be grounds for firing him if it’s part of company policy.
And just because only 200 of his friends saw his status, who’s to say that 100′s or 1,000 of others wouldn’t have? It’s easy to see how his status could have been re-posted/tweeted and spread to thousands.
The part about using the economic times as a reason not to fire him is a bunch of bull. It’s like blackmailing an employer. “Don’t fire me now, or I’ll go public that you’re firing employees during this hard economic time.” If an employee is not working as they should or not following policy, a company should be able to fire them without repercussion.
Matt
March 12, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hi Matt,
Thanks for checking out the blog. I agree that what Leone posted on Facebook is most likely against company policy, and definitely not a smart thing for an employee to do. But even if 1,000 others saw his post, or even 5,000 others, the fact remains that the Eagles, by firing the guy, ensured that millions saw it. The Eagles made it national news. So, from a PR perspective, I think they made a mistake.
Jeff brings up a great point, that this easily could have been handled behind closed doors with a slap on the wrist. The original story says that Leone deleted the comment on his own, even before the Eagles brought this to his attention.
Brian Gleason
March 12, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I think you hit the nail on the head. PR people have to make this decision on a regular basis. Does responding to negative publicity (if we can call a Facebook status that) create more publicity or is ignoring it likely to make it go away faster? (Currently Facebook limits friends to a maximum of 5,000. That is a pretty small audience for an NFL franchise.)
Unless they have some kind of policy about this thing already in place, it is not only bad PR, but inappropriate to fire the guy. This is certainly something that is resolved pretty quickly, behind closed doors.
My company has policies in place about personal blogging. They are fine with people blogging, but they don’t want people blogging directly about our industry (Health Care Informatics). I am sure it still happens, but it is easily dealt with without firing people.
One final note, they could have been looking for reasons to cut staff, and this guy just walked into a buzz saw. Happened to a guy at my friend’s company. They needed to lay people off, and this guy had just been in asking his bosses for recommendations for other jobs, for which he was interviewing. Guess who got laid off.
Jeff
March 12, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Brian,
Just started reading your blog – great start! Some of the issues you are discussing should be not only an interest to all sports fans, but anyone that has a job! As an educator(I work with your Mom & my son Jared graduated with you in ’97!) this is relevant to the classroom & my job with technology in the school district!
Keep up the good work!
Jim
March 13, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Hi Mr. Albright,
Thanks so much for checking out the blog and leaving a comment. Good to hear from you and please tell Jared I said hi.
I agree, this blog tackles sports pr issues, but they’re really lessons that anyone can use in business, education or really life in general. I think the Eagles situation in particular would have unfolded quite differently if they had included a PR person in the decision.
I hope all is well.
Brian
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