Why you should keep your opinions in check at work and online
Special to The Globe and Mail
In this heated era of divisive politics and social media, people like to express their opinions. But experts say there are good reasons to use caution in the workplace.
“You don’t necessarily have to keep your views to yourself, but you’re not entirely protected in Canada from expressing certain views,” says Daniel Lublin, one of the founding partners of Whitten and Lublin Employment Lawyers, a Toronto firm that focuses on workplace disputes, and a regular Globe and Mail contributor.
Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Canadians the right of freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression (Section 2(b)), and this may protect government employees if, for example, they say they‘re going to vote for a particular political party.
“Few governments in Canada would want the fallout of going after a worker for expressing that type of political preference. It would make headlines and not in a good way,” Mr. Lublin says.
The law is more limited in how it applies to the private sector, though. For example, “There’s some leeway to express yourself freely in the private sector. But there are circumstances where individuals working for a private business might take their comments too far and their employer can take action against them,” Mr. Lublin says.
Employers can take disciplinary action – including firing someone – for comments that are offensive, discriminatory, harmful to other employees or to the company’s reputation. However, it‘s unlikely that someone’s job will be on the line if they‘re simply an office blowhard at the water cooler, he explains.
“It wouldn’t be illegal to terminate someone for expressing their views, but the employer would have to pay severance and they would also have to think about how taking this kind of action would affect the company’s reputation,” he says.
A lot of office behaviour falls into grey areas though. “Where people run into problems is if their expression of opinion starts to violate a company’s policies on harassment or other parts of the company’s code of conduct,” he says.
Such instances are rare, but occur in situations such as the recent federal election and have been coming up more frequently since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“It happens when people feel compelled to say whatever comes to their mind without necessarily contemplating the impact of what they say on other employees,” Mr. Lublin says.
The example he provides is if an employee tweets an opinion that the war between Israel and Hamas is a genocide – an allegation still being investigated by the International Criminal Court and disputed strongly by the Israeli and United States governments, among others.
“An employee who expresses this openly to coworkers and online could be disciplined and possibly dismissed if it brings a poisoned environment to the workplace,” Mr. Lublin says.
“There is freedom of expression in Canada and people are entitled to their opinions, but that doesn’t mean there’s freedom from having to face consequences in the workplace,” he says.
Employees in senior roles have more responsibility to keep their personal opinions out of the workplace, Mr. Lublin explains.
“Executives and people with public facing roles are held to higher standards. They have to be careful because of the precedents they can set with their comments; they are role models,” he says.
For example, shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, an Air Canada pilot was fired after posting on Instagram anti-Israel photos of himself at a protest wearing his pilot uniform and holding a sign referencing Adolf Hitler.
“Making statements that could expose your employer to disrepute runs contrary to the implied obligations you have in your employment,” Mr. Lublin says.
Social media and today’s highly divisive political environment have made disputes about workplace opinion more frequent and often more noticeable, he adds.
“Social media has made things a thousand times worse. It doesn’t matter whether you say something at work or you post about it online. You are protected from consequences if what you say or post is fair and balanced, but a lot of what people are putting online goes far beyond that,” he says.
Even reposting can have consequences. Mr. Lublin points to the case of NBA star Kyrie Irving, who was suspended by his then-team the Brooklyn Nets after reposting an antisemitic video. He eventually apologized.
“But in some ways, reposting something bad is even worse than just posting something bad yourself. You become the responsible party for disseminating it,” he says.
The controversies seem to be most acute in workplaces such as universities and colleges, where a wide range of free expression is ordinarily encouraged. The issue has become intense on U.S. campuses, with U.S. President Donald Trump accusing many of being lax on antisemitism. In Canada it has led to a Toronto Metropolitan University student filing a lawsuit claiming the school is failing to ensure a safe and respectful learning environment by tolerating allegedly antisemitic protests.
Such controversies about what is said and what is posted do not necessarily mean you shouldn’t bring your whole self to work, Mr. Lublin says.
“Just think about what you’re saying, and before you press send, think of the possible consequences,” he says.