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This isn't the first case of firing due to the "misuse" of social media, by the way. A quick search on Google yields many cases. We've seen hospital workers fired for talking about patients and policemen fired for talking disparagingly about people they arrest. In these cases, the privacy rights of people involved were definitely violated. What makes this one different are two basic facts: the comments were made on the employee's free time from a personal computer away from work, and other fellow employees joined the conversation and added to the fuel.
Initial thoughts around the horn are that this particular employee was within her rights and the company's social media policy violated her right to free speech. Are there any positive takeaways from this initially? Let's consider a couple.
1. Companies have to take a new attitude towards in-house criticism via any public channel.
Good leaders know what to do with negative feedback...and it isn't lash out. Legitimate feedback needs to be heeded and acted upon. Meet the new workplace suggestion box: social media. Smart bosses will use constructive negative feedback online to start a dialogue with employees. The old-fashioned suggestion box was anonymous. The new social media suggestion box is not, for the most part. It takes some courage (and a bit of anger) to put your name on a negative comment you know might lose you your job. Good leaders will recognize the value of taking heated comments and turning them into impetus for change. We need to create a culture in our organizations where everyone can have a voice without being punished.
2. Companies need to write better social media policy.
You cannot write social media policy that protects the company (or its people) from hurt feelings. Social media policy should be designed to do two things: define how employees can use social media more effectively and protect the company's proprietary information. Social media policy devised correctly will teach employees to help protect the company's reputation online, but that has to start with in-house culture. In this day and age, there is no protection for jerks or bad practices. It's all out there. Personally, I think it's a good thing. Maybe the openness of social media will help organizations develop better working environments.
Whatever you think about the use of social media and policies in the workplace, one thing is certain: the dialogue has just begun. What's your take?
image from Google Images
2 comments:
The NLRB case was an instance of a social media policy being too restrictive. My experience with colleagues in higher education has been an opposite fear -- that our policies (or, more often, "guidelines," since academics shudder at trying to create additional policies) are not tight enough. My preference is to keep the guidelines broad and to provide guidance, as you suggest, for employees to best represent their employer in the social media sphere.
I agree--well said. I think there is some accountability we need to instill--you can't violate people's rights on social media without consequences--just like the real world, but I'd like to see us develop a culture in higher ed of how we can use it to get better at what we do. The whole open communications concept behind social media could teach many of us in higher ed a lesson. Don't you think?
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