In this day and age of the unbridled Internet access, employees in all sectors are learning to navigate the increasingly blurred lines between personal social media posts and their professional personas.

Just last month, two Toronto firefighters were fired after sending sexist tweets from their personal Twitter accounts.

A Toronto Fire spokesperson told the National Post that the posts breached the department’s policy on social media.

But as with many types of policy, social media policies can never be specific enough. They are guidelines for public performance of a professional personality. But where does the professional personality intersect with the individual’s online persona?

How much room is there for “free speech” online?

The union representing the dismissed firefighters must be relying on that philosophical question to appeal their dismissals, which it’s vowed to do.

It’s pretty hard to argue that “I’d never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried something I’d be like hey! You get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!” is not a sex-driven insult, and therefore, by definition, sexist.

Apparently, it’s a quote from a TV show. But without any context whatsoever, it’s hard to argue that it comes off comically, as I’m sure it was intended.

Questionable sense of humour aside, the situation made me wonder about what’s said online coming back to haunt you at work.

When you’re lying on the couch in your sweatpants and you tweet a few lines from a TV show you found funny, are you representing your workplace?

Better still: are you representing your work in a positive way?

I find one of the firefighter’s tweets more disturbing than the other, partly because the one highlighted by the National Post story refers to “a slap on the head” as a “reset to the brain.”

It’s the calling for violence toward the “girl” in question from the preceding tweet whose crime, evidently, was using the word “like” more than the user could tolerate that seems like a slight overreaction to me. Cue eye roll.

Some could argue that public sector employees have it differently than those in the private sector and I would agree. In this case, firefighters are in a position of public trust. Tweeting sexist remarks reflects poorly on the user’s ability to treat people equitably, and in this case, that’s women — who are most likely about half of the people they’re supposed to serve.

As a woman, I don’t like to think the people who are meant to help me escape a burning building with my life could hold the attitude that my existence is something of a punchline by virtue of my biological sex.

Obviously, these tweets are a symptom of the pervasive sexist attitudes behind them, but this isn’t a simple case of “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

The game sucks, but these people could be game-changers. That’s the crux. They’re supposed to value all people equally, regardless of circumstances because they certainly interact with people in all kinds of circumstances.

I recently acquired access to the Merritt Herald’s Twitter account, and I have a personal account as well, from which I tweet totally different things. The tweets on my personal page are not intended to reflect anything about the Merritt Herald.

But do they? Inherently, by the very nature of their being created by the same person who works at the paper, regardless of intention?

Does the line “Opinions are my own” really cover someone? What makes it more or less valid as a backside-covering strategy than a company’s social media policy?

I have always thought there are problems with the theory of “free speech,” but negotiating that idea to a fair compromise cannot mean employees are gagged from ever expressing their personal opinions — even if their opinions are stupid, insensitive, and in this case, sadly, sexist.

These guys obviously didn’t think about the ramifications of their online personalities down the road before they hit “send.”

Yeah, they made a big blunder, but do they deserve to pay for it with their livelihoods?

There’s nothing earth-shattering about a pair of young men using bad judgement. Old men do it too. So do young and old women.

It’s a lesson everybody who uses this new technology is being forced to learn, and the learning curve is steep. When you send a tweet, you’re sending a message. And since you never know who’s on the receiving end of that message once it’s online, you can’t possibly make sure it doesn’t offend them. And if it offends them enough, your livelihood could be on the line.

There are two messages I’m taking away from this mess.

Firstly, to be careful about what I put up online and who has access to my personal and professional accounts.

Secondly, to try not to offend people who fit into a category with, oh, I don’t know, about half the world’s population.

It’s pretty pathetic if that second one needs to be written down in a social media policy for people to consider it. Sheesh.