Posted on June 8, 2010 by Angelo Tartaro

Watch What You Say (and Write)

We’ve been asserting for a while that social network access is becoming a significant area of employment law. Take, for example, a recent California case involving a waitress who was fired for making disparaging remarks on her Facebook page about a customer. According to the California Employment Law Report, the court ruled that, under the circumstances of that case, postings to social networking sites are not private.

It seems we’re developing a legal theory that employers can view, and possibly even act upon, information their employees put on the Internet. To paraphrase an earlier California court ruling, no reasonable person can have an expectation of privacy regarding material published on the internet.

But it can go even further. One employer in Montana asked job applicants to provide the login information to their social networking sites, so the employer could view those sites, thereby learning more about the potential employee.

At some point, perhaps state legislators or the courts will specifically define what employees can and cannot expect regarding online privacy. Until that time, however, employers need to extend their policymaking to cover social networks.

Facebook isn’t going away anytime soon. According to Newsweek, there are now over 500 million members. A final suggestion to disgruntled employees, or anyone who may have had a bad day at the office: keep it off your Facebook. There are clearly a lot of people watching.
 

 image, courtesy news.com.au

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Posted on February 16, 2010 by Beverley Rogers

Social Media Policies at Work

The other night I was watching an episode of “The Office.” The company of the title, Dundler Mifflin, had recently been acquired by a large corporation. Much to the horror of the DM employees, the new company sent an IT manager in to remove access to any questionable websites and social networking arenas, including Twitter and Facebook.

Apparently this is not just material for television. According to the National Law Journal, more than half of surveyed companies said they prohibit employees from visiting sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. In fact, the article says, 76 percent of companies are actually blocking employees' use of social networking.

It stands to reason that employers can prohibit activities not related to their work. Legally, employers have the right to institute such policies. However, company policy about such things should be done in a way that doesn’t humiliate employees or create resentment. After all, social media is here to stay, and can actually benefit companies. As Daniel Schwartz of the Connecticut Employment Law Blog says, developing a social media policy and practice should be part of many companies' overall strategy.

A Canadian woman might have fared better with these regulations in place. A recent Law.com post reported that the woman is fighting an insurance company's decision to cut her benefits after an insurance agent found photos of her vacationing, at a bar and at a party.

She posted them on Facebook.

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