Odds are that you have not been fired for it. Not the case for four employees at Fidelity Investments, whose office is apparently located in my neighborhood. Rob Radcliff at Smooth Transitions has the complete story, Fantasy Football Firing, complete with a poll of Fort Worth Star Telegram readers on whether they think the company over reacted. (No surprise how that one turned out.)
This is an interesting and timely story for me as I will be speaking at the Advanced Employment Law Seminar sponsored by the Texas State Bar in early January. My topic: "You're Not the Boss of Me: When and How Much Can an Employer Regulate Employee Conduct On and Off the Job."
Rob correctly points out that the key is likely to be that Texas is an employment at will state. I think the most interesting long term question is whether or not somewhere down the road, the expectations of the general public on what employers should do, as opposed to what they can legally do, becomes so at odds with employment at will, that the venerable doctrine is abandoned.
Of course that could never happen. And Lehman Brothers could never go bankrupt, Arthur Andersen could never fail, and Tiger Woods could never .... You get the point.
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Nice comment !