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Canadian
Registered
Safety
Professionals
that’s okay. But maybe if he’s drinking
Budweiser and he works for O’Keefe, that’s
a problem; it all depends on context.”
Taylor is seeing “a lot of cases” involving
employees venting feelings about an employer
or their coworkers on Facebook.
“That kind of posting has an impact on
the workplace and can constitute cause for
termination,” she said. “Using Facebook
to complain about your manager isn’t going
to protect you any more than if you
were in the lunchroom, and it’s not good
enough to take it down when the damage
has been done.”
Also damaging, she says, are cases
“where employees have said they’re off
due to injury and then post themselves
drinking in Mexico.” Taylor’s best advice
for employees is never to post anything
on social media “that I wouldn’t want my
mother to read – or my manager.”
But issues are not always clear-cut.
“Ideally, you would be able to draw a
very bright line between your personal
life and your private life,” said HR consulting
expert Susan Hodkinson, chief
operating officer at Crowe Soberman
LLP. “However, in the age of social media,
there’s really no bright line anymore.”
For instance, when it comes to expressing
political opinions, “If you are
a management person and you make it
clear that you have very strong political
positions, does someone who’s reporting
to you feel compelled to support the
same parties or to hide their own political
beliefs? These aren’t black-and-white
issues; they’re very tricky for management,”
said Hodkinson.
Hodkinson also says that one of the
frequent uses of social media is to either
praise great service or, more often, criticize
poor service. She recalls a situation in
which a staff person at a law firm “blasted
the poor service they received,” unaware
that the company they were complaining
about was an important client of the firm.
policies & procedures
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32 ❚ MARCH/APRIL 2015 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL
