A UX Design “Influencer” Tried To Get Me Fired From Teaching

It is illegal to try to get someone fired using false claims

“Fred, I have a call from Human Resources on the line, they wish to speak with you, however, the matter is unrelated to your teaching here,” said the substitute teacher coordinator in a worrisome tone at the high school where I was employed as a permanent substitute special education teacher’s assistant for the 2022–2023 academic year.

As a worry wort/catastrophizer, my heart was racing as I could feel the adrenaline flood my system. My panic mode kicked in. What could it be if it had nothing to do with my teaching? Was it an interaction I had with a student? Was it an angry parent? Educators today have to watch every word they say to students due to the all-out assault on teachers on issues like race, gender, and sexuality.

I kept on telling myself “I haven’t done anything wrong. I HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING WRONG!”

The head of HR was patched through and told me they had got a complaint from a woman in Germany who said I had an “inappropriate online interaction with her” on her Medium blog post concerning User Experience Design titled:

“Still can’t get a UX job? Give up”
Because let’s face it, you probably can’t get one because you suck”

When they said that, I knew EXACTLY who they were talking about.

HR looked into my “interaction” and I was told they found nothing inappropriate about my interaction but “as a public educator, your 1st amendment rights are somewhat diminished so watch what you say online. (I later found out this only applies to criticizing the school, administration, or staff you work at on social media and yes, teachers are allowed to have private lives on social media outside of school)

How did this all start?

THE Infamous Essay

(calling it an article gives it too much journalistic credit)

As part of my daily morning routine, I check my email, and if I receive any responses to my essays here on Medium, I like to respond to them since people took the time to read them, as well as looking to see if there are any new interesting articles or essays.