Its good for democracy for citizens to be engaged in civic activism and publicly working to shape policy.
In legal parlance, this is known as a dick move.
First, consider your employer.
In a nutshell, theres far fewer protections for most private-company employees out there.
Federal employees enjoy greater protection from the First Amendment and theHatch Act, as well as some other statutes.
If so, you might want to:
Agitate anonymously if you could.
The National Parks Service employees famously solved this problem withan alternative Twitter account, (as haveNASAand theU.S.
Forest Service) and Twitter has so far refused to identify the owners of those accounts to the government.
Dont do anything on company time.
Or on company email, company computers, or even the company photocopier.
If youre an at-will employee, Wachtel says, Dont use your employers computer to plan your trip.
Do not identify yourself by who you work for.
You also want to check that that your political activity is legal.
All of this will reduce your chances of attracting attention and giving your boss a reason to fire you.
Consider if your activismdoesaffect your ability to do your job effectively.
Bachman says, It cant create a disruption in the workplace by virtue of your conduct or your statements.
Be good at your job.
Also relevant to consider: How useful areyouto your company?
Most employers dont want to be firing good workers left and right for merely marching for science or whatnot.
Long term, punishing speech not a productive way to get good work out of your employees.
In the short term?
Get your anon Facebook count up and running, do your photocopying at Kinkos, and dig in.
If you have to do your community organizing under the handle BingoMavensForJustice, so be it.
Civic activism is worth a tiny bit of virtual cloak and dagger.
