In general, yes, an employer can fire an employee for speech that occurs outside of the office, as long as that speech is not protected by the First Amendment, the NLRA, whistleblower protections, anti-harassment laws, or anti-discrimination laws.

The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution protects basic freedoms of United States citizens. The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the freedom of assembly and the freedom to petition.

The First Amendment’s freedom of speech right not only proscribes most government restrictions on the content of speech and ability to speak, but also protects the right to receive information, prohibits most government restrictions or burdens that discriminate between speakers, restricts the tort liability of …

“Now wait a second,” you say, “that is a violation of her First Amendment right to free speech.” An employer does not need a reason to fire an employee, but the reason cannot violate public policy. Sorry Sharon, you have the absolute right to speak your mind, but your employer doesn’t have to put up with it.

Speaking up also helps to relieve the mental stress of feeling powerless about issues at work. Having too many people failing to question the way things are can cause issues because: When you fail to question the status quo, you might be missing out on a better way.

How to: Speak confidently at work

1. Identify your weakness. First things first, you need to figure out where you’re going wrong.
2. Take a confidence course. We’ll let you into a little secret: nobody is born a perfect public speaker.
3. Get rid of fillers.
4. Just breathe.
5. Practice.

1. Pick the right time to have the conversation. You should stand up to your boss in a one-on-one meeting with them – not in front of others. Ideally, you should schedule this meeting during a relative down time in the office, when the boss isn’t dealing with some kind of crisis, Dewett said.