Articles Posted in Social Media and the Workplace

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What a whirlwind 12 months it’s been for Edith Employee! Or, should I say, Edith “former” Employee?

Last year, she was an employee for ABC Company. This year, she is suing ABC for sexual harassment. Among other things, Edith claims damages for physical and psychological injuries, including the inability to work, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the loss of enjoyment of life.

And, right now, we find the parties entrenched in some scorched-earth discovery. ABC Company has just requested “all of plaintiff’s Facebook records compiled after the incidents alleged in the complaint, including any records previously deleted or archived.”

Can ABC do that? Will Edith have to turn over all of these records? The answer follows after the jump..

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I read this on ZDnet yesterday:

Administrative Law Judge Ellen Bass has ruled Jennifer O’Brien, a first-grade teacher at School 21 in Paterson, New Jersey, should lose her tenured job, because of a Facebook comment she made about her students. O’Brien has been on administrative leave since March, which is when she posted her status update saying “I’m not a teacher — I’m a warden for future criminals!” She claimed she wrote it out of exasperation after several students disrupted her lessons, one pupil hit her, and another stole money from her.

Bass said O’Brien “demonstrated a complete lack of sensitivity to the world in which her students live” and called her conduct “inexcusable.”

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Do you have a unionized workforce? If you have a social-media policy, it should not expressly restrict employees’ rights to discuss terms and conditions of employment. Otherwise, you may be violating the National Labor Relations Act.

And to those non-union employers who have social-media policies, don’t think for a second that you have carte blanche to control what employees say and do online. The National Labor Relations Act covers you as well.

So how can you draft a social-media policy that won’t run afoul of the National Labor Relations Act? Find out after the jump…

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worksimple.jpgIn yesterday’s post, while highlighting the latest trends in social media and litigation, I noted that most companies in some way restrict employee access at work to social media content. However, the number of blockers is falling. In 2009, approximately 2 in 3 companies had some type of restrict. Last year, that number fell to 55%.

As some employers learn to embrace accept tolerate employee use of social media, some experts predict that others may embrace social media to the point where they begin to incorporate social media into performance evaluations. These evaluations will focus on social goals, feedback, and recognition. This infographic explains from where we have come with performance reviews and offers a potential online path to improving them.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

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Shaquille O'Neal, Pat Riley and Micky Arison at the White House.jpg
“Shaquille O’Neal, Pat Riley and Micky Arison at the White House” by Heatwhitehouse.jpg: Original uploader was Zorro37 at en.wikipedia

derivative work: Ladislav Faigl (talk) – Heatwhitehouse.jpg. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

We know that employees can be disciplined — and even lose their jobs — based on their use of social media. But even business owners can face backlash for what they say online.

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One of my favorite bloggers, Jon Hyman, was just saying recently that social media and privacy cannot coexist. Even on their own time — out of the office — what employees say and do online can have an impact on the workplace.

Teachers are prime examples. After the jump, yet another educator has found the headlines for being outspoken online…

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Maybe it’s that good feeling I still have after eating some hella-good spicy fried chicken at Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish in Nashville, TN last night.

Oh no, wait, that’s heartburn.

In any event, I’m feeling generous. I feel like giving back some of the love. Later today, I will be speaking at the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Nashville, TN, where I will be presenting Using Social Media To Make Hiring and Firing Decisions: What’s Legal? What’s Not?. If you have social-media hiring-related questions that you would for like for me to answer, fire away! You just need to do two things for me.

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The other day, I came across this great article on ESPN.com, which outlines all of the social-media policies currently in effect for several sports leagues worldwide. What struck me most is that several organizations, including the NCAA, have no social-media policies for their athletes. And at the other end of the spectrum, the Ultimate Fighting Championship actually rewards its athletes based on number of Twitter followers.

This further supports a point that I like to hammer (e.g., here and here): ultimately, for any business, a social-media policy is never a “one-size-fits-all.” Instead, the social-media policy — and all companies should have one — must be tailor-fit to the objectives and goals of the company.

For additional insight into drafting social media policies, I suggest Think Before You Click: Strategies for Managing Social Media in the Workplace.

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