Social Media in the Workplace

Courts and legislatures have given employers extraordinary grasp over employee's minds and bodies in the workplace. And some grab for more; lawmakers in a few states have felt it necessary to draw a legal line to prevent employers from dictating to workers what they can do in their own homes -- smoking, for instance.

Courts, though, are firmly planted on the employer's side, rejecting, for example, any claim of employee privacy in the workplace. Bosses may read workers' e-mails, no matter how personal in nature (after all, they own the email system and every neuron the worker brings to the desk, the argument goes). They may also read worker's personal postings on social media networks -- which cease really being personal when in individual hits "Post" on a public website. Employers have even won court decisions allowing them to censor postings of their employees on their "private" social network pages, on various trade secrets or defamation grounds.

In addition to litigation options, bosses can hit the red "Fired" button any time they want, for any reason they want, almost without legal limitation. Only proof of a discriminatory motive in firing offers an employee any chance of relief ("relief" in an almost comic sense -- your back pay money, if any is left, after litigation expenses and taxes, plus the opportunity to go back to work for someone who doesn't want you).

All this sounds grim for the employee and paints the employer in sinister hues. But try to sit your mind across the desk. A simple example illustrates that an employer's motives for monitoring worker communication might not be so reptilian after all. If a worker is sexually harassing a co-worker, on his own time with his own social networking accounts, can the employer ignore a complaint by that co-worker? As most things in the law, "spying on employees" is a more complicated issue than it looks.

For a quick look at some of the legal issues employers face in dealing with electronic communications in the workplace, see:

From 8/13/09 Law.com: Protecting Employers From New Media
http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202432991714&Protecting_Employers_From_New_Media

--posted by Mike Brigner