A Wisconsin snow park and events venue, Crystal Ridge Ski Area, LLC, operating as The Rock Snowpark, settled a religious discrimination lawsuit for $20,000.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the company in 2025 and alleged an employee was fired for making religious posts on his personal social media account.
The employee, a lift operations manager, who is Christian, claimed his supervisor instructed him to stop posting Bible verses and faith-based messages on his social media accounts despite the posts making no mention of the workplace, his coworkers, or the company in general. The EEOC also alleged the park did not receive any complaints from customers, vendors, or employees about the posts.
However, the supervisor objected to the posts, allegedly referring to them as discriminatory.
After the initial warning by the supervisor, the employee was terminated in June 2023, shortly after posting another Bible verse.
Source: https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/rock-snowpark-settles-eeoc-religious-discrimination-suit-over-social-media-posts; https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-sues-rock-snowpark-religious-discrimination
Commentary
A 2025 survey reveals that nearly 30 percent of employers reported an increase in workplace conflicts related to employee social media platforms in the previous six months. https://www.hrdive.com/news/christian-worker-allegedly-fired-religious-social-media-posts/831796/
The EEOC has long maintained that information gathered from social media posts may not be used to make unlawful employment decisions on the basis of protected class status, such as race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/social-media-part-todays-workplace-its-use-may-raise-employment-discrimination-concerns
Employers may object to social media posts which target the organization, coworkers, or the workplace with discriminatory, abusive, or inappropriate language, images, or videos. This is especially true if such posts become harassment, disrupt operations, or threaten violence.
However, organizations should not take negative employment actions against an employee because of religious beliefs revealed via social media posts made off-duty and that do not target the organization or coworkers.
The final takeaway is leadership must ensure that employment decisions based on social media posts do not violate equal employment rights.
