Social media blunders call for workplace policies

The tales of social media mishaps are many and range from the absurd and embarrassing to career-killers.

With the explosion of social media in the last few years – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, personal and corporate blogs – businesses and other organizations are having to take a hard look at retaining control of their messages and protecting business interests and client privacy without stepping on employees’ rights to freely express themselves.

Increasingly, social networking policies are being added to employee handbooks to help them be aware of employer expectations.

Cora Scott, media relations director for St. John’s Hospital, said Mercy Health’s policy aims to “balance support of their personal self-expression with that absolute need that our patients’ privacy be protected.” Still, the health system does ask its employees to do their part in achieving that balance.

“We encourage all co-workers to be cognizant of the impression they create about Mercy,” Scott said.

Springfield Public Schools has two policies that apply to social networking and a provision about it in the staff handbook, said Parker McKenna, human resources manager for the district.

The policies address use of the district’s technical resources and e-mail and an employee conduct policy, which applies to behavior not only in the classroom but also in public – and that includes social media.

“The intent of both of those policies is really to identify when employees are using resources, they maintain the same standards of professional conduct as in the classroom or any professional setting,” McKenna said.

The staff handbook, meanwhile, underscores the district’s responsibility under federal law to protect students’ privacy.

“It highlights the fact that inadvertent privacy issues can surface in social networking,” he said. “The second component, it does outline an expectation they bear in mind their responsibility to maintain a professional image.”

The district’s policies don’t, however, specifically ask employees not to discuss their employer.

“As a public entity, our employees are employees, but they’re also taxpayers, and they have a right to express an opinion about the agencies that receive their tax dollars. So we walk a fine line,” McKenna said.

Lessons from the spotlight
Neither St. John’s nor SPS pointed to specific cases where employee use resulted in reprimand or termination, but such cases have repeatedly made headlines nationwide.

Attorney Virginia Fry, managing partner at Husch Blackwell’s Springfield office, points to such a case as a cautionary tale for employers.

The National Labor Relations Board sued a Connecticut ambulance company last year after it fired an employee who criticized her boss on Facebook.

According to a February Associated Press article about the settlement, the NLRB argued the employee’s comments were protected speech under federal labor laws.

“Following a meeting with management discussing her subpar performance, the employee went home and complained on Facebook about her job and supervisor, including referring to her boss as a ‘scumbag,’” Fry said in an e-mail interview. “Co-workers joined in the discussion with
sympathy and support.”

The company later fired the employee, citing poor performance and behavior unrelated to the Facebook exchange.

“The NLRB ignored the employer’s performance-related reasons for the discharge and focused entirely on the employer’s Internet and computer usage policies when it issued the complaint,” Fry said.

The company has since reached a financial settlement with the employee, the terms of which weren’t disclosed.

“The filing of the complaint signals that the NLRB is putting employers on notice that it will seek out and object to employer policies or practices that might limit employees’ right to organize and engage in concerted activity through social networks,” Fry added.

A double-edged sword
Fry said it is important, however, for companies to have social media and internet use policies in place, because there are pitfalls to having a complete hands-off approach.

“The largest issue with respect to potential liabilities of unregulated social media use is having an employee’s own personal statements taken, without authority or context, as the company’s own statement,” Fry said.

As a result, businesses need to draft policies that will protect their image, message and internal business matters.

“Imagine if an Apple employee had tweeted last week, ‘Steve’s debuting the iPad 2 on Fri – dual cameras, but 75 percent thinner! You’re gonna love it.’ The pomp and circumstance of the Apple product announcement would have been completely lost. Now, take that a step further and imagine that someone had tweeted that a year ago, giving other companies an insight into the development of the iPad 2 and giving those businesses a strategic advantage they
otherwise would not have had. With a few simple keystrokes, an employee can easily reveal key data and information to the entire world,” Fry said.

Despite the possible pitfalls, Scott and McKenna see the value of social media tools in connecting with the public.

“We recognize developing relationships with our stakeholders is critical, and you really have to go where they are to connect with them,” McKenna said. “Certainly Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are critical.”

Scott said St. John’s encourages its employees to be active in social media when they’re off the clock, because they are the best storytellers for what the health system is accomplishing.[[In-content Ad]]