CEO mass emails employees, telling them which candidates to vote for: 'My coworkers and I are outraged.'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Nov 3, 2026 3:15 PM EST

Your CEO can tell you to do a lot of things. They can tell you when to show up to work in the morning and when you can leave. They can dictate what you wear to the office. Some of them even control whether or not you have a lunch break. While it's pretty normal for a CEO to dictate what you do at work, it's more unusual to tell your employees what to do outside of the office.

And yet, thousands of employers from sea to shining sea tell their employees they aren't allowed to post certain things on social media or express certain views publicly if they want to keep working for the company. And whether you like it or not, a company is entitled to do that! 49 out of the 50 states in the United States have at-will employment, which means an employer can fire an employee at any time, for any reason (or no reason at all), and without prior notice, as long as the reason for termination is not illegal. It would be illegal to fire somebody for being from a different country, because National Origin is one of the protected classes in the United States. A Swiftie CEO can fire an employee for posting a tirade on social media about how much they hated Taylor Swift, because being a Swiftie is not a protected class. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true! 

Many Americans don't understand that the 1st Amendment doesn't protect you from getting fired for what you say. It protects you from going to jail for what you say. For example, your boss could fire you if you openly insult his character during a meeting, but he can't send you to jail for that. While he might try to sue you for slander, the case would probably get thrown out due to lack of evidence of harm

We all know that employees are limited by what they can say, lest they lose their jobs, but what about CEOs? Company shareholders are often the only people who can control what CEOs do, as they're the only people who can really force them to step down. They might be the only people who can tell a CEO that it's not a great idea to tell their employees who to vote for, but clearly the shareholders of the company in this story don't care that their CEO told employees to do that, or agree with him doing it. 

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  • 01
    A man and a woman standing inside of boxes
    via Ahmed (Unsplash+)

    A woman and a man are voting. 

    Not actual story subjects.

  • 02
    The CEO of the company that I work for just sent out a mass company email telling us who to vote for today on Day... my coworkers and I are outraged because we are pretty sure this is illegal
    via u/lunalonely_99
  • 03
    When do these CEO and billionaires realize that they are not special and cannot control us?!
    via u/lunalonely_99
  • 04
    jacobkosh Report it to your state attorney general. Report it to the campaigns of the people the CEO didn't endorse. Make sure people know that he pulled this st.
    via u/jacobkosh
  • 05
    ButteAmerican Report it to their opponents? Why would that matter? Report to the state attorney general? Why?
    via u/ButteAmerica
  • 06
    FoxedforLife Why report it to the campaigns the CEO didn't endorse? Because they're the people most likely to give a st and do something about it. Would have thought that was obvious.
    via u/FoxedforLife
  • 07
    jacobkosh ....because it's ucked-up and very possibly illegal, depending on jurisdiction? You...you understand why people report crimes, right?
    via u/jacobkosh
  • 08
    ButteAmerican Please tell me the crime being committed. This is speech allowed under the 1st amendment, which is why this happens every single cycle.
    via u/ButteAmerican
  • 09
    jacobkosh Are you an employment lawyer? No? Okay then.
    via u/jacobkosh
  • 10
    ButteAmerican I was for almost a decade, yes. Now I do criminal defense. Are you?
    via u/ButteAmerican
  • 11
    jacobkosh Nope! But I have a sense that an actual lawyer might be able to muster up something less corny than "the First Amendment."
    via u/jacobkosh
  • 12
    Pavlock Since he didn't make your vote a condition of employment, I'm pretty sure he has leeway to send that kind of email. It's still in poor taste and would almost certainly make me vote the opposite way if I hadn't already.
    via u/Pavlock

    There would be no way to enforce this, since your vote is private and nobody can check online to see who you voted for. He could check which party you are registered to since that is public data, and he could technically fire you for your political party, since it is not a protected class. But doing so would be a pretty good way to work your case up to the Supreme Court and make political party a protected class. Only non-policymaking public employees have the benefit of not being able to be fired for their party. 

  • 13
    lunalonely_99 OP That's a good point, it was just me so outrageous to
    via u/lunalonely_99
  • 14
    Wessssss21 I'll say my union sends out a list of the "Union Friendly candidates" and encourages us to vote. It doesn't directly say who to vote for, but the message is clear. And as far as I'm aware there's no repercussions, as members "voting against their own interests" is a hot topic time.
    via u/Wessssss21
  • 15
    Chemical-Material-69 But the UNION is doing that, not the head of the company. And you have to opt in to the union (unless my information is incorrect, and as I live in a union activley hostile state, that is quite possible).
    via u/Chemical-Material-69
  • 16
    ToughPlankton Make sure to archive it and print a copy you can keep even if you lose access to your work email. It might be very useful to have in the future.
    via u/ToughPlankton
  • 17
    Evening Rock5850 It's wrong in a lot of ways, but almost certainly not illegal. Businesses, labor unions, and even individual managers endorse candidates all the time. If your employer makes you voting (or not) a condition of your employment, or if you were to experience any sort of reprimand or even the hint that voting, not voting, voting for their preferred candidate, or voting for another candidate would impact your job or your future at the organization, that would be illegal. But ultimatel
    via u/Evening Rock5850
  • 18
    LayneLowe That would pretty much ensure that I would vote the other way.
    via u/LayneLowe
  • 19
    Lt_Shin_E_Sides That is just immature. Why not take the time to understand the candidates and issues for yourself and vote based on that information?
    via u/Lt_Shin_E_Sides

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