Social Media in the Workplace 2013/03/06 Melanie Veness: PCB CEO One of our members phoned the other day, looking for some advice. She is a very down to earth person, generous, full of life and passionate about her business. She explained that because her business is a small enterprise, her staff are more like family than employees, and consequently they are all “friends” with her on Facebook. She was feeling most put out, however, because her front line lady had been posting status updates on Facebook during the day like “would so rather be at home right now”, “not in the mood for work today” and “bored out of my mind”. She was horrified, because, as she explained, a number of her regular customers are also her “friends” on Facebook and would be receiving the status updates. Apart from this being embarrassing, she was wondering what conclusions they were drawing about her business. She was also feeling hurt and let down, because she trusted this employee to greet her customers warmly and to promote her products and services enthusiastically. This individual is a sales person, this is what she is paying her to do. In small businesses, cash flow can be tight, and there are months when owners are called on to make sacrifices in order to pay their staff. Our member was quite happy to make these sacrifices, until she became aware of this particular employee’s lack of commitment. She wanted to know what legal recourse she had. This is the kind of question that is likely to be raised more and more. Most businesses don’t have a clear social media policy and it’s important to develop one, so that misunderstandings are avoided and that rules and expectations are clear. In the absence of policy, there is legal precedence to refer to. There have been employees that have had their contracts terminated for bringing their organizations into disrepute, using the incorrect platform to air their grievances and/or irretrievably damaging the relationship of trust with the employer. Business owners are not expected to overlook social media rantings. There have been some employees that have been charged with bringing their organizations into disrepute that have argued that their right to freedom of speech was violated, however this is unlikely to hold much water when weighed against the infringement of the relevant company’s rights. My advice to employees is to avoid using public platforms to discuss company matters. We are all aware that employees are bound by a duty of good faith and are expected not to say or do anything that can bring our employer’s company into disrepute. Smart phones give us immediate access to social media platforms, and it can be tempting to post or tweet something without thinking about the effect that it will have, particularly when you are upset, but the consequences can be dire, so rather don’t do it.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 07:58:51 +0000
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