Articles Posted in Social Media and the Workplace

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A password key?About a year, I wondered whether employers should ever require job applicants to divulge Facebook passwords. Ultimately, I concluded then — and still believe now — that while employers may choose to use social media as part of a background-check process, you’re playing with fire if you start asking job applicants to divulge social-media passwords to make it easier to vet them.

Two states are now taking steps to make it illegal to force job candidates to reveal online user-names and passwords. One of those states is taking it one step further…

What two states and what they doing?!? (And what’s with that creepy image on the right). Aaaaah!!!! Click through to find out…

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I got this as a Google Alert on Monday. The case is Davids v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. Allow me to set the stage for you.

    • Plaintiff sues, claiming ongoing suffering from osteonecrosis of the jaw (if you click the link, don’t look at the picture on the right. Ewwwww)
    • Defendant corporation realizes that plaintiff has a Facebook account and serves a request for production of Facebook documents.
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tlnttransform.gifYesterday, I had the absolute privilege of moderating a panel on social media in the workplace at TLNT Transform in Austin, TX. Transform is for talent managers and HR leaders who are looking for cutting-edge insights and best practices from innovative and forward-thinking companies. 

Three HR Rockstars, Karren Fink, Laurie Ruettimann, and Rebecca Meissner, made my job as moderator on the social-media panel a breeze. If you can get past my initial crappy lawyer joke — and that, apparently, I don’t know my right from my left — it’s worth watching. Here is a link to the video.

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What were you doing yesterday between 3 and 4 PM EST?

Me? I was tweeting with the great people at SHRM’s We Know Next and several other Twitter stars, answering questions and otherwise making insightful snarky comments that sniffed insightful but were generally closer to snarky, on the topic of “Social Media and HR – Policies and Legal Pitfalls.”

If you were part of the dialogue, thank you for participating. (And muchas gracias to SHRM for inviting me to be a part of #NextChat). If you couldn’t make it, click through to see what you missed and to get a crash course in Social Media 101 for HR…

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juryRoomPoster.jpg

Like you could do better…

If When “Facebookutioner” catches on, you read it here first.

But seriously folks, let’s talk about what judges are doing about jury use of social media during trial…

According to this survey, in which 508 federal judges completed questionnaires, only 30 respondents (5.9%) are aware of instances in which jurors have used social media during trial or deliberation.

  • What is the social network of choice among jurors?

  • What are jurors doing online during trial?

  • And what are judges doing to stop it?

Find out after the jump…

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At least that’s what this survey from Millenial Branding says. (It’s also on this infographic if you’re lazy). According to the survey, which consisted of 4 million Gen-Y (ages 18-29) Facebook profiles from Identified.com’s database of 50 million, nearly two-thirds of Gen-Y fail to list their employer on their profiles. However, they average 16 co-worker friends.

More on this, along with some tips for employers, after the jump…

 

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The Associated Press reports here that the National Football League will suspend its social media policy for one day — Sunday — to allow players who are participating in the Pro Bowl to tweet during the game.

Under the current NFL policy, players, coaches and football operations personnel can use Twitter, Facebook and other social media up to 90 minutes before kickoff, and after the game following traditional media interviews.

During the Pro Bowl, however, the NFL will set up a computer on each sideline where players are encouraged to use Twitter (and the #ProBowl hashtag) to communicate with fans, teammates and even opponents during commercial breaks and when their offensive or defensive unit is not on the field. 49ers Pro Bowl tackle Joe Staley plans to #tweetlikeaboss.

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nlrb.jpgYesterday, the National Labor Relations Board announced in this press release that it had issued a second social-media report to help provide further guidance to practitioners and human resource professionals.

What does that report say? And how can you bulletproof your social-media policy?

Find out after the jump…

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Well, at least that’s what a federal court recently told a defendant-employer in this ruling.

In Tompkins v. Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the plaintiff suffered a slip-and-fall and later claimed back and other injuries. She sued her employer, who subsequently demanded that Tompkins provide full access to her Facebook account. Acknowledging that Facebook information that a user shares only with a few Facebook friends may still be discoverable, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, emphasized that there are limits to the Facebook discovery that a party may pursue:

[M]aterial posted on a “private” Facebook page, that is accessible to a selected group of recipients but not available for viewing by the general public, is generally not privileged, nor is it protected by common law or civil law notions of privacy. Nevertheless, the Defendant does not have a generalized right to rummage at will through information that Plaintiff has limited from public view. [T]here must be a threshold showing that the requested information is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

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