Speechless
Subtitle: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace (BK Currents)
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: June 18, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9781576753972
Subjects: Employment & labour law; Freedom of information & freedom of speech; Labour economics; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; Politics/International Relations; Labor & Industrial Relations - General; Political Freedom & Security - Civil Rights; Political Science / Civil Rights; Political Science/Labor & Industrial Relations - General; Communication in organizations; Freedom of speech; United States
Description: A factory worker is fired because her boss dislikes the political bumper sticker on her car in the parking lot. Another is canned after refusing to display an American flag at his workstation. A flight attendant is grounded because her airline doesn't like what she's writing in her personal blog. Is it legal to fire people for expressing themselves, even when it's unrelated to performing their jobs? Can you lose your job because of a bumper sticker? For many American workers, the answer is yes. In "Speechless," Bruce Barry confronts the state of free speech in the American workplace. He shows how employers and courts are eroding workers' abilities to express themselves on and off the job, with damaging consequences for individuals, their employers, and civil society as a whole. In defense of free speech in and around the workplace, Barry argues that the experience of liberty in a free society, as well as in life, in general, depends in part on the experience of liberty at work. --From publisher's description.