When Cracker Barrel fires your wife, think twice before posting about it on social media

When Cracker Barrel fires your wife, think twice before posting about it on social mediaWhen Cracker Barrel fires your wife, think twice before posting about it on social mediaBradley Reid had a six-word question for Cracker Barrel that he still hasnt found answers for yet why did you fire my wife?That little phrase has upturned the Internet over the past week. Brads question has created an army of internet detectives and even some official law enforcement fans who all want toknow why did Brads wife get fired?On February 27, Reid wrote a personal Facebook post in which he discussed how his wife Nanette lost her retail manager job at Cracker Barrel - a demanding white-collar job.The reason he welches given, he says, is that her job was bedrngnis working out. He was dissatisfied with that.After 11 YEARS? Come on, he wrote. This old boy is STORMING You cant even get people to work 40 hours these days and her AVERAGE week was 50 to 60.In the post, Reid even named Nanettes boss, the woma n behind the firing, calling her a low life.(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)0 if (d.getElementById(id)) return js = d.createElement(s) js.id = id js.src = https//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.jsxfbml=1version=v3.1 fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs)(document, script, facebook-jssdk))Ladders reached out to the Reids and to Cracker Barrel and will update when they respond.How a firing became an internet-wide sensationReid encouraged people to ask about his wifes firingon Cracker Barrels Facebook page, and on Tuesday, he did the same, plainly asking a corporate social media page, why did you fire my wife? Comedian Amiri Kingnoticed Reids plea and shared the exchange with his millions of followers on Facebook. From there, the internet did what it does best, and turned this couples story into a meme as justiceforbradswife, bradswifematters and notmycountrystore flooded Twitter and Cracker Barrels social media pages.No post the company made was safe.Crac ker Barrels mundane post about a stainless steel Seahorse Bottle received a fiery poem from one readerin response Roses are red / This seahorse is blue / So is brads wife / Thanks to you.The memes soon took over.One person editedthe Wikipedia page to note that Cracker Barrel had 70,000 employees minus Brads wife.https//twitter.com/MeagansRight/status/844522745975181312A Chick-fil-A in Texaseven offered Reids wife a job through their social media account.Nanette Reid has not shared her side of the story, so in her silence, one user created a fake Twitter account in her name.A Change.org petition seeking answersfor Nanette Reid has over 24,000 signatures, but its unclear if the couples viral fame has led to any action. As of Tuesday, Reid said he has not received a response from Cracker Barrel management even though he sends them an email EVERY day.I know that people are amused by this situation and hope you can understand that for us this a serious situation, he wrote, using the hash tagstillwaiting.Dont do this. It wont help you. Reids story offers a cautionary lesson in using social media to get your story out there yes, your story will reach mora people, but once the memes take over, it will no longer be yours. Due to her husbands public involvement, this story will follow Nanette Reid as she seeks future employment. Future employers may see infamy and damage to their reputations waiting for them.Knowing how to tell your story is criticalin job interviews, and that becomes harder when you let an internet jury weigh in on your life and tell it for you. Many, for example, mistakenly believed that Nanette Reid was fired on her husbands birthday.If your firing was contentious, you may feel tempted to put the company on blast in your job interviews, but youreadvised not todo that. As one advice column put it, badmouthing your previous employer leads interviewers to wonder Are they going to be badmouthing me someday too?Nanette Reid may have been a wonderful retail manager with 11 years of accomplishments that deserve to be recognized, but all she will be remembered for now is being Brads wife - and a social media footprint that may scare off other companies.