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Articles Posted in Social Media and the Workplace
A worker complained on Twitter about a $6 holiday gift from his employer. It didn’t end well.
A Toronto man who worked for the same company for six years no longer works there. All because of a tweet and a bottle of barbecue sauce. Continue reading
“How can the same s**t happen to the same guy twice?”
John McClain’s classic line from another classic Christmas movie, Die Hard 2, was the first thing that came to my mind after a story I read last week. Continue reading
This former employee who was fired for social media posts will get his job back. But, your employees probably won’t.

Raymond Wambsgans from Akron Ohio, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
She responded with words to the effect of, “When are employees going to learn that there is no such thing as free speech?”
Amen. Continue reading
“Surprise! There’s a Skeleton in Your Candidate’s Closet!”

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay
A few weeks ago, the great folks at ERE Media invited me to speak at the ERE Recruiting Conference in Washington, DC about what happens when you learn that one of your recruits has done something on social media that doesn’t mesh well with the culture of the company.
No, diversity and inclusion do not mean rounding out the team by hiring someone who posts her Halloween blackface photos on Instagram. Continue reading
An employer trolled a job candidate’s bikini photo on Instagram and it backfired HORRIBLY

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Many of you have Googled or otherwise searched for a job candidate online before extending an official offer. I imagine that there were times that you found something objectionable that caused you to reconsider the offer.
But, how many of you have actually gone so far as to publicize your selection process on social media and shame the candidate? Continue reading
Ok, let’s see how you guys did on yesterday’s social media policy quiz
Yesterday, in this blog post, I asked you to take this quiz. That’s the one where you were shown 11 common social media policies and had to decide which ones the National Labor Relations Board’s Office of General Counsel would conclude were lawful.
So, how did you do? You did aight. Continue reading
Common social media polices. Guess which ones are actually unlawful.

Image Credit: Photofunia.com (https://photofunia.com/results/5d62b23b089f7a97908b45c1)
All right, Einstein.
Let’s test your social media policy savvy. Continue reading


Firefighter fired for hostile social media posts may have been discriminated against


U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Seaman Barry Riley [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The fire department began receiving complaints about these posts. Plus, the posts violated various provisions of the employee handbook. So, the next day, the firefighter was, err, fired. (For more on the initial lawsuit, you can read this story from CBS News.)
Fast forward three years and the firefighter is this close to a federal jury hearing his race discrimination claims. Continue reading
72 police officers in trouble over offensive Facebook posts is your wake-up call to reeducate employees about responsible social media.

By Zuzu – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
I’m typing this post in Las Vegas at the 2019 SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition. Several years ago, the intersection employee use of social media and HR compliance spawned several sessions on the topic. I should know; I delivered many of them.
In 2019 however, that topic seems played out.
But, make no mistake about it, employee abuse of social media is still a big problem for many workplaces in the United States. Continue reading