I read an article today about how a 16 year old office worker from Essex was fired after she described her office job as ‘boring’ on her Facebook page.
Details were passed to her employers after she allowed colleagues access to her page, Miss Swann said, adding that she was not given the chance to explain.
Her mother, Janette, 41, said: “I think she’s been treated totally unfairly. She didn’t mention the company’s name.
“This is a 16-year-old child we’re talking about. She says Clacton is boring but we’re not going to throw her out of the house for it.”
Mr Ivell said: “Ivell Marketing is a small, close-knit family company and it is very important that all the staff work together in harmony.
“Had Miss Swann put up a poster on the staff notice board making the same comments and invited other staff to read it there would have been the same result.”
This got me thinking and it folded in nicely with a chat I had with @KristinNeher about employee access to Social Media tools. I’m wondering if employers have any right to influence or police what you say off premises, and off hours using social media networks. Personal networks. I get the argument that your facebook status is shared with a lot of people. But, its not completely public unless you have it set up that way. Additionally, why should your boss have anything to do with what you can say on your own time and who you can say it to?
I get the argument that its akin to putting up a sign somewhere. Trust me I get it. I wouldn’t want my staff talking negatively about me or my business online either. But is there a difference between frowning upon it, and taking away someone livelihood because they didn’t drink the Kool-Aid?
I’m honestly on the fence with this. On the one hand, I don’t think anyone has the right to tell me what I can and cannot say or do in my off time. But putting the shoe on the other foot – if I was a small business owner I think I would take issue if my employees were constantly talking negatively about what they do for a living. I just don’t know if its my obligation to find new employees, or to try and make the work experience better for our existing staff.
Is the answer to have ask people to keep their profiles semi-private or to talk about work problems first with a supervisor before taking it to the net? Is it something that can be solved with a ‘policy’ Tough stuff.
Krista said that she knows a person who is not allowed to even post where he works online and is obligated to delete comments that reference it. That seems a bit extreme to me. One of the greatest things about being involved in social media is being able to share ideas and opinions, and in general be yourself.
So where is the line? Is there a line? And how should companies address the fact that employees as well as customers are plugged in to the social web, and that they will share their feelings as well as ideas. More importantly, how can companies turn employees activities on social media networks from liabilities into assets?
An honest discussion about this topic cannot take place unless we’re going to be really blunt about things. So let’s do that, because seriously, the whole social media debate is getting way too mixed into other more important historical arguments about what is and is not discrimination, and what is and is not hurtful to the company.
If you do not properly manage your privacy controls, and something stupid or mean or negative about the company is said and you are caught, well then you are a stupid person and may get in trouble regardless of when you wrote it…just as, in my opinion, it would be fine if you smiled and nodded and played nice all day, but then you’re in a bar and you don’t see your boss behind you as you call him an arrogant prick who can’t manage but it doesn’t matter anyway because youre company sucks and you don’t really believe in it.
What we’re really talking about here is the fact that we already accept that an enormous part of getting jobs, succeeding there, networking, moving up the ladder, etc., is perception management…and social media is now making it harder for us to properly do that. Whereas we used to just bitch to our husbands and wives and friends, we stupidly cannot risk the urge to do it in electronic public forums which we too often improperly control, even though we know what the consequences are if we were to say stupid things in person, or if the pictures of our idiotic, illegal, or unprofessional actions were simply uncovered at work in hard copy rather than viewed online.
Anyway, it bothers me that people want the benefits and the fun of social media without recognizing the very predictable dangers both personally and professionally of its improper or poorly managed use. Instead, we choose to whine about it and mix this debate up too much with much more important debates on whether employees are being punished for expressing views about harassment, misconduct, health and safety, unionization, and unfair pay. IMO
ahhh, sorry, I meant to say we cannot RESIST the urge to complain in public forums
As usual with your comments Ian, they’re better than the post itself. Many thanks!
This story reminds me of KGB times in the former USSR, but it is understandable from the business side. I wouldn’t want my customers to find stuff on the internet about my company from the mouth of the person who work for me. How many potential clients I could loose because someone is bored working in my company and leaving foot prints on the net about it? Personally, I would work things out with the existing stuff by giving them a lesson about this issue and what to say or not to say.