Your people may be professional at work. But what are they saying on Facebook about you and your customers?
If you find out they’re slamming you, your company or customers on social media sites, can you do anything about it?
According to Devora Lindeman, an HR attorney, you can look if you have access to their Facebook pages, Twitter tweets and LinkedIn communications. You might even be able to take some action if they’re saying less-than-favorable things about your company or customers. You can probably stop them if they share confidential information.
Lindeman says employees love to post their every thought – including the not-so-nice stuff – on sites such as Facebook because they think they’re protected under the First Amendment. But that’s wrong thinking. The First Amendment protects people against adverse actions by the government. It doesn’t protect them from actions (reprimand and firing, perhaps) by their employers.
