A man in Pennsylvania was recently dismissed from his role
at an American company for posting several derogatory tweets about
his colleagues on Twitter. The individual didn't hold back and,
according to the court
documents posted by
The Employer Handbook his insults included that his workplace
was toxic and that his colleagues were morons, dysfunctional,
psychotic and schizophrenic!
Similar cases are not uncommon in the UK and this serves as a
useful reminder to employers of the pitfalls and problems caused by
their employees' social media usage. For example, the Metropolitan
police officer in 2011 who was dismissed after posting comments
on Facebook that his colleague was a liar and a grass.
But employers should refrain from having a knee-jerk reaction to
such incidents. You still need to ensure that your disciplinary
process is followed and, if you considering dismissing your
employee, you think carefully about your legal reason for doing so.
If you're relying on a breach of your bullying and harassment
policy or your code of conduct, you should treat online acts in the
same way as if it had occurred in the workplace. Having a general
code of conduct in place which sets out fundamental standards of
behaviour is helpful as its principles can apply to conduct both
inside and outside the workplace.
It is also essential that employers have in place an effective
social media policy which clearly sets out the sort of online
behaviours that will not be tolerated. In an age where almost
everyone uses social media in one or more forms, employers need to
be more vigilant than ever.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
