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What I've Been Reading This Week: Social Media Edition


It was a busy week for me so I did not have as much time as I would have liked to read through my normal amount of articles and cases.  With that being said, I did find a few articles dealing with social media in the workplace that I wanted to highlight.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.



This is a rather well written piece by Michael Haberman that deals with who (and how) an employer can fire for social media activity.  The article breaks down who is covered by the protections of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") and what kind of discipline an employer can levy.  I would suggest employers give this one a read through...there are several important things to keep in mind when an employer wants to fire an employee for their social media activity and this article does a good job addressing that.



Hunter Johnson has a few thoughts on steps employers should take to avoid liability when they search an employee's device.  The best part of the article and one that I would steer readers towards is the section in which Johnson gives advice on what an employer can do to avoid being accused of illegally looking at employee's private information.


On the Job & Wanting to Post Something on Social Media? Think it Through First

The Huffington Post has a short article on a school bus driver in Ohio who took a selfie of what appeared to be her drinking a bottle of beer on the bus, posted it on Facebook, and subsequently got fired.  An investigation later revealed the driver was off duty, no children were on the bus, and the bottle of beer was not actually open.  It goes without saying that whatever an employee posts on social media (especially while on the job), should be done very carefully and with an eye towards what people may interpret the post as meaning.  Even though the driver in this case was not actually drinking and was not on duty, this was an avoidable situation that the employee should have thought twice about before posting a picture on social media. 

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