Labor / Employment

Social Media Can Get You Fired So Plan Accordingly

What may seem like a moment of honesty between you and your 600 Facebook friends can get you fired.

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We’ve all been there, those of us with friends who feel comfortable enough to speak their minds. You think to yourself: I had no idea that person feels this way. You tuck it into your mind, and it forms a part of how you perceive that person. Everyone harbors at least one opinion that is unpopular enough to raise some eyebrows (or more). Maybe you don’t believe in global warming. Maybe you believe you have been abducted by aliens. Maybe you don’t support our troops. Maybe you think that humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time. Maybe you have lots of conspiracy theories about things, like a second shooter on the grassy knoll.

Unless you are teaching my child history, I don’t care if you harbor all of these beliefs at the same time. Maybe it’s because I’m a lawyer (I’ve learned a lot of us feel the same way, though it isn’t just lawyers, as many professionals join us in our apathy at controlling the belief systems of others, which is another reason I think lawyers make awesome friends).

Which brings me to a recent situation that has interesting implications for an employment lawyer: CBS’s decision to fire a lawyer who said she has “no sympathy” for the victims of the latest mass shooting in Vegas because they likely opposed any form of gun control.

Employers And Facebook

There are laws in several jurisdictions that say that an employer cannot request social media passwords from candidates or employees. As long as you keep your Facebook private, it stays private from your employer. If your co-workers aren’t your Facebook friends, that is.

My advice to employers in general is avoid employees online. Don’t encourage them to like the company pages on various websites. Don’t encourage them to friend their bosses. In general, unless you are friends outside of work, and you have been to each others homes at non-work functions, you should not be seeking a social media relationship. Don’t friend your subordinates. Don’t friend your supervisor.

There are many reasons for this, one of which is that workplace rules extend past working hours. Employee’s conduct outside of work may be subject to the same standards as at work, when that conduct comes to an employer’s attention. For example, if someone likes to post racially charged images on instagram, and their co-worker reports it, they now have a problem at work. If your internet use becomes a problem at work, it can get you fired.

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Are there any laws or rules to protect an employee from termination in a situation like this? Outside of the union context, no. I’ve said before that employers should (1) avoid their employee’s social media, and (2) be prepared to act if a violation of their policies is brought to their attention. This is the best advice I can give. I’ve seen employers struggle with this issue, but often (thankfully) these employees are problematic anyway and the social media post is rarely an isolated event. No one is firing their star performer because they like to send hate messages to feminists on twitter, because star employees don’t do things like that.

Best Practices For Employees

However, if you are wondering what you can do to avoid being in a headline, here is some advice I would give, as employment lawyers get asked about these issues more often than we would like:

  1. Know how to use the internet.  The best thing and employee can do to be sure that their personal life doesn’t become a problem in their professional life is to understand their communication online. Do you understand the medium you are using? Is your comment truly anonymous? Is your profile open to the public?  Every time an employee is confronted with problematic information they put online, they are always surprised that the employer has it.  This stems from a lack of understanding about the way they are communicating online.
  2. Know your audience. Do you know everyone on your friend’s list?  Your co-workers are not your friends. If you are competing with them for opportunity, an indiscreet moment on snapchat may be the time for them to get a leg up. Your Facebook posts may not be a private as you think, because “friends” can take them and share them beyond the confines of your privacy settings. Every time this year an employer has asked me what they should do about an employee’s indiscretion, it was not because the profile was public; a “friend” had turned them in.
  3. Think like a business of one. Your brand is who you are, and you are your brand. If you want to be a famous, then by all means be incredibly incendiary online. File law suits, make up a whole new persona. But I really hope it pays off, or you will likely be unemployable. If you are ok with having charged rants that are offensive to large groups of the population and would cause an employee to question your fitness as a supervisor attached to your name, by all means proceed. We should have one space where we are comfortable being who we really are. Maybe for you that place is Twitter. But also recognize the potential cost. And act accordingly.

The only area in my life where I am controversial online is sports, because well, I’m a Buckeye and I’m a Bengals fan. But at the end of the day, while I have strongly held beliefs about many topics, I recognize that there is a time and a place for sharing those beliefs. Keep context and timing in mind when you share your opinions with the world. What may seem like a moment of honesty between you and your 600 Facebook friends can get you fired.

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beth-robinsonBeth Robinson lives in Denver and is a business law attorney and employment law guru. She practices at Fortis Law Partners. You can reach her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @HLSinDenver.

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