If you have ever been fired or laid-off, your natural tendency would be to tell off your previous boss. The words "SUCK IT" come to mind, but how costly is getting things off your chest when you have been paid severance or settled a case with your former employer? One Florida teenager, Dana Snay, recently learned this lesson the hard way. Her father, Patrick Snay, had served as headmaster for the Gulliver Preparatory School for years when they chose not to renew his contract. After he sued the school for age discrimination, he settled with the school but only on the condition that he and his wife keep the "terms and existence" of the settlement agreement private. Enter mistake number one. Mr. Snay shared details of his settlement agreement with his daughter. Lesson: If you sign an agreement that contains a confidentiality provision, you need to ensure what the exact parameters of that confidentiality provision are and the consequences for violations. If the confidentiality provision only allows sharing some information with your spouse, accountant, or lawyer, that is the universe of people in your inner circle. You cannot share information about your severance or settlement with family and friends, especially not on Facebook.

Enter mistake number two. Ms. Snay bragged about her father's $80,000 settlement to her 1200 plus Facebook friends (many of which were former or current Gulliver Prep school classmates) by posting: "Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT." As a result, the Third District Court of Appeals in Florida tossed out the $80,000 settlement because it was obvious that Mr. Snay violated the confidentiality provision of the agreement. With social media, the tendency is to overshare and embellish. Lesson: Don't. Secrets are secrets and Facebook is not your diary. If you are an employer, your severance or settlement agreements need to encompass sharing the information on social media and the consequences for doing so (typically the immediate return of the severance or settlement amount by the former employee). In this case, Ms. Snay's post cost her dad $3,478 per word. I love my kids, but probably not that much....

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