A literary agent in Wasilla has been abruptly fired for having two social media accounts — one at Gab and the other at the now-defunct Parler.
According to the literary agency Jennifer De Chiara, the agent in question has been using the social media platforms.
“We do not condone this activity, and we apologize to anyone who has been affected or offended by this.” the agency wrote on Twitter.
Colleen Oefelein, of Wasilla, has specialized in representing romance genre authors. She wrote on Twitter that she had been fired by the agency, and in fact, searches for literary agents at the Chiara agency show that she is no longer with the company.
Parler was de-platformed by Amazon and Google, while Gab evidently owns its own servers and is still operating. It is owned by a Christian. Oefelein identifies herself as a Christian.
Must Read Alaska has reached out to Oefelein for comment.
File a lawsuit for wrongful termination and for the company violating her first amendment rights.
Alaska is an at-will employment state, which most conservatives support. That means an employer can fire a worker for virtually any reason. First Amendment Free Speech rights to not apply to employers, only to governments.
And the lesson here is? Never hire a Marxist.
No, I think the lesson might be to never choose a boss/company who you know would fire you over membership to a social media account. It’s not a free speech argument unless the employer canned her for what she said/posted. Simply having a social media account in itself — is that really grounds for termination though? That would be like my employer canning me for becoming a member of the NRA.
Says the Marxist
Why it’s so……. much better to hire a fascist. Heheh!
Why it’s so……. much better to hire a fascist. Heheh!
Not against discrimination.
It is possible to prove that her connection to Gab and Parler is essential for her Christian faith. Being fired on religious grounds violates her rights.
That’s hilarious. I’m going to guess you’re not a lawyer.
No, they can’t.
Funny you should post this. Alaska is an “at will” state, but Alaska is also unique in that there are special circumstances to the at will employment specific to Alaska. One of these special circumstances is that an employee handbook can and is considered a contract between the company and employee.
If the handbook makes no mention of social media membership, she may have a case. If the handbook does make mention of social media membership, she would be bound by the handbook, or contract.
Not as cut and dry as one would imagine in an At Will state.
Good point. Same in several other states. Employers are now requiring employees to sign the handbook. Case can be made of worker refuses to sign & employer let it slide.
An employer still can’t terminate without a reasonable cause. Especially if not work related. They would have been better off just saying they don’t need her anymore or can’t afford the position etc. That is what the at will employment is for and if there is any kind of contract, implicit or implied they are liable, unless it states you can’t do certain things outside of the workplace. There is a good faith and fair dealing exception in Alaska and other states. May not be easy to win in court but it’s certainty not a simple act of firing someone for “any” reason.
Unless you have a union contract or an employee contract of some other kind your employer can fire you for any reason except discrimination based on being a protected class such as race or gender. They can fire you for any reason or no reason. Yep sucks
I am a pro-union conservative and I do not support at-will-employment. Don’t try to put us all in one box. We’re not all libertarians lol.
Some parts of the country (such as Connecticut, Colorado and Illinois, to name a few) have laws protecting employees from retaliation for their political beliefs and/or lawful social media activity outside of the workplace. Washington D.C. considers a person’s politics to be a protected category (like religion) and therefore protected by anti-discrimination laws. It is a shame that Alaska (as well as many other states) don’t currently enjoy the same protections.
BS
As long as she didn’t say anything derogatory about the company she works for, or any of its clients, and what she posted was totally her opinion on any given subject unrelated to her employment she has a case.
She wasn’t fired for having the accounts, she was fired for posting to them during work hours. This may come as a shock to you, but your employer can most definitely prohibit you from posting to social media when you are on their time. She spent hours online espousing her political views, and had been warned twice in the past.
I would sue that POS company.
You’d just be wasting your money.
What activity, exactly, are the saying they don’t condone? It can’t be that it’s just for the simple fact she has the two accounts. That doesn’t make a lick of sense.
The agency that fired her stated specifically that it was due to her having those social media accounts. The agency has now protected its tweets but I copied them
———
The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency was distressed to discover this morning, January 25th, that one of our agents has been using the social media platforms Gab and Parler. We do not condone this activity, and we apologize to anyone who has been affected or offended by this.
The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency has in the past and will continue to ensure a voice of unity, equality, and one that is on the side of social justice.
As of this morning, Colleen Oefelein is no longer an agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.
———
Bottom line- a Christian working for a left-wing extremest company gets fired for “social justice” (political and religious views). More of this is coming. Beware.
You’re overthinking it, the company just didn’t want to have the nightmare that ensues if her usage gets blown up. It’s merely a precautionary measure any company lawyer would advice upon when the heat is on something, in this case its those apps.
Oh boy, you poor christians just love being victims, don’t you? This is why people are leaving the christian faith in droves, nobody can take you seriously anymore.
Need more information.
Was she using the services for her work? For personal reasons? What it on company computers?
.
How exactly did this move to termination. The sniff test does not pass. I suspect there is more to this story.
Please have her contact me…I’d like to hire her as my agent! thanks for letting me know what agency to stay away from.
Silence; putting a muzzle on us is how they’re going to win. Abolishing communication between people who have different views than you is now the new normal and speaking your mind will cost you your job. I hope the people who condone this are the first to get one between the eyes.
Ideally, what would happen – besides the erstwhile employ filing a massive lawsuit (discrimination, wrongful termination, etc.), would be for the authors under contract to the agency to also file lawsuits because they stand to lose out on book sales because of this. People are not going to buy the authors represented by this company now. Authors best bet will be to publicly disavow what the agency did and try to distance themselves from the agency as fast as possible. Jump ship and find an agency who keeps it’s nose in its business, rather than politics.
Great point…
.
Turn the tables on them… Love it!
Alaska is an at-will state and you can be fired at any time for any reason barring actual discrimination(reasons listed by the EEOC). People too lazy to look up that basic information will most surely be too lazy to find out what authors are represented by this company and they will face very little sustained backlash for this stunt. Authors under contract can’t simply “jump ship” unless there is a stipulation in the CONTRACT they are under allowing for such a thing. So to wrap this up, the lawsuits against the company you listed would be laughed out of court and any authors who were in breach of contract would then be taken to court by the agency and would be taken to the cleaners. Feelings don’t negate facts just because they did something that we don’t like. I feel that it is garbage that some one was fired just because they have an account unless it was based off of things posted to a public page, this article gives very little to no actual information and is just sensationalism at best.
Lawsuit
Don’t know all the details other than this article but this sounds messed up
The double standard since the company uses both platforms on their web page
Hmm sounds like a lawsuit to me on the first amendment.
I can see a very high priced lawyer group getting 1/2 of a huge settlement out of NY
Have heart It took several Alaskans 5 years to beat the US Air force IN FEDERAL COURT )
(No. 98-463 C (Filed: June 16, 1999) ))
We did it for justice AND it sets a precedent that future disputed claims can refer to in FEDERAL COURT.
Twitter and Facebook CEOs trying to discourage people, leaving their tools for their competition; meanwhile they are reducing users based on deemed unacceptable content? Those two know they don’t create power, they create tools that bring people into using their tools. I want to see more Americans deleting themselves off these social media tools and make Twitter and Facebook as old as Myspace. Hahahaha Must Read Alaska should have seen a decline in real voices across all its social media reach except those dissenting voices criticizing the writer’s reporting writing skills hahahaha.
It be nice one day to not hear business owners telling me look them up on Facebook only to hear I don’t have a Facebook, and they don’t know what to do or how to reach me. Hahaha. The businesses will have to find a new marketplace when they see they lost community reach, if Facebook no longer can reach more customers beyond the users left behind.
It was about comments she made about Nazis.
Just me speculating but pretty safe to assume since this just hit the wires a day or so ago and the timing is suspicious.
That makes it okay then?
Unless you have burden of proof that this actually occurred and what the implication behind the comments were (in support or non-support), it’s just an allegation. I can make comments about Nazis all day long — but what is the intent determines whether or not I may have violated my employer’s code of conduct or company policies. That would have to be proved in order to rule out discrimination or free speech to justify the employer’s right to an “at-will” employment termination.
When Beijing Joe was inaugurated it gave a green light to every Fascist in the United States to censor, harass & cancel anyone who disagrees with the new Cancel Culture.
What is the company’s policy regarding other social media? Are they singling out Gab and Parler? Are they accepting of Facebook or Twitter, etc., were these personal accounts? If it is simply which social media accounts she holds then it seems there are grounds for a lawsuit albeit not enough info to determine.
The company tweeted this explanation. Seems self-explanatory enough. Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency was distressed to discover this morning, January 25th, that one of our agents has been using the social media platforms Gab and Parler. We do not condone this activity, and we apologize to anyone who has been affected or offended by this.
The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency has in the past and will continue to ensure a voice of unity, equality, and one that is on the side of social justice.
As of this morning, Colleen Oefelein is no longer an agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.
She was a typical right wing Christian posting hateful comments about minorities and commies on work time.
Plus I’m tired of her using the Christian ‘victim’ card. Hateful towards others including unions and demanding union type rights. Got what she deserved! Too many nutcases with conspiracies and hate!
Don’t you have some Chinese boots to lick? just because you don’t like what she may or may not have said doesn’t give your feeling leverage over rights.. I find it disgusting and absurd that you spew hate as a solution to your perceived hate..
The 1st amendment isn’t just for the leftist liberal anti-American socialists, it’s for all Americans. I hope the company is sued out of business.
Wake up. Libs are at war.
The time will come for all of us to chose between paycheck or principles. Consider it the first shot in your personal revolution.
Bravery is contagious.
It’s interesting how fascism is showing its ugly head in this country, albeit in a different form. In 1930s Italy and Germany, the government influenced or coerced corporations into playing along. Now it seems the corporations are leading at the behest of NGOs and a few powerful Silicon Valley magnates.
Fascinating to watch the spirit of evil work its magic on entire segments of the population — people who would otherwise have nothing in common, yet somehow their messages seem to be perfectly in sync. All seem to have a goal of silencing opposition.
In this case, what an employee does on their own time is none of the employer’s business. If this is the case then I feel the employer fire the employee for expressing practicing their “Freedom of Speech”
We read this here first!…?…
And then yesterday, I saw her interviewed by Tucker on FOX National News.
Way to go MRAK for publishing news of national interest!
Last time I checked, extreme right wingers were not a protected group, so the privately-owned company she worked for has the right to protect their brand and image by firing her.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is headed for the same fate sooner or later, when Karma finally comes calling.
Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene and what did she do? I misread your post and originally thought you said Kamela not Karma. Quite certain that is my mistake.
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