It was a great and long overdue vacation. You saw the sights, partied with your friends, and finally felt relaxed. Then, you head back to work recharged and ready to go only to find that you’ve been let go for the pictures you posted of your trip on your personal Facebook page. Say what?!?! Can your employer legally do that? The answer will absolutely surprise you.
Many people don’t realize that you can get in trouble or even fired from your job because of your social media activities. The reality is if you’re working for a private employer and post something that violates their social media compliance program, you’re putting yourself at risk. It really depends on what you post, however.
There’s a law called the National Labor Relations Act that says employees have some rights to engage in protected speech online. So, if you were talking about your supervisor around the water cooler with other employees, that’s protected speech and the same comments would be protected in a Facebook post. But, if on April 20th you posted, “Happy 4/20 man” with a picture of you holding some marijuana, your employer can absolutely fire you for what you put online. It all comes down to what you say.
If you want to limit your social media legal risks, a good rule to follow is if you wouldn’t want your mother seeing it, don’t post it online. For example, if you want to share something about your job or working conditions that could help other people, like if you are being harassed by your supervisor, or if the women in your company aren’t getting paid as much as that men, you should be able to post that without an issue. On the other hand, if you are posting things that are derogatory, defamatory, threatening, false, or untrue about one of your co-workers or your company, you could face some sort of repercussions.
How can you protect yourself from social media legal risks on your personal social media channel? When it doubt, leave it out. If you’re not sure if your post violates your company’s social media compliance guidelines, don’t post it until you have more information. And remember to use some common sense. In our digital age, assume that your employer sees everything you post. So, while you have the right to say whatever you like, your employer has the right to terminate you if you break their rules. And whatever you do, if you call in sick to go to the beach, don’t post about it!
