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Take it outside ... or can you?; Should critical comments about work, boss be grounds for dismissal?

By Christopher Nelson, Source: Tribune Media Services

Dawnmarie Souza was fired from an ambulance company, American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc., because she called her supervisor a “jerk” on Facebook. Last year, with a little help from the National Labor Relations Board, the company agreed to settle with Souza and make clear-cut rules so that employees could feel comfortable discussing work outside of the office without fear of discipline or termination.

Private lives have steadily become a bigger part of the public sphere thanks to social media. And while common sense should keep employees from posting scathing comments about their boss on their friend’s wall, this situation keeps popping up. It’s that point that begs the question—is the employee or employer to blame?

In a world rapidly growing around the ideas of social media, some employers have unrealistic expectations of their employees and their involvement on the Internet. While it might not be prudent to post private thoughts in the public arena, social media has become a place of self-revelation where employees can get support from friends, family and coworkers after a long day. Employers can’t expect to be happy about every word printed online.

“Choose the carrot, not the stick,” says Douglass Karr, author of “Corporate Blogging for Dummies”. (For Dummies, $24.99) Instead of actively seeking to punish employees who aren’t all smiles, a boss should find the workers that have built great networks and reputations online and reward them for their actions. If employers start up the witch hunt against employees who speak out against them, people will lose faith in those they’re supposed to look up to. Karr says that social media is the opportunity for someone to show their human side and actually make mistakes. Blunders aren’t the problem. It's how a company reacts to those mistakes that lead them to failure.

It’s not that employers are incompetent. Far from it. It’s just that the convergence of personal relationships – fueled by the success of social media – and work is something that many companies don't have any experience or guidance on handling.

Lessons learned

That inexperience led Lindsay Durfee to the unemployment line. Last year, Durfee, now a social media account executive for PR/PR Public Relations in Orlando, Fla., was fired due partially to what she posted on her Facebook. Like Souza, Durfee wasn’t too fond of the new owner of the business she worked for and after a particularly bad run-in, he got into her Facebook page. Even though she thought the page was completely locked down, he found past conversations Durfee had with friends about how much she disliked him and her job. The next day, he called her in to his office to "suggest" she leave.

The big difference between Durfee’s past employer and her present company is that she knows exactly what’s expected of her in her current position. She follows very strict guidelines that don’t leave her wondering if a post was out of line or not. Employees need to be properly educated on what can and cannot be said online. Karr says that the United States Navy writes one of his favorite corporate social media handbooks.

“If ever there were an organization that had to be concerned with their members' behavior and actions online, it's the military,” says Karr.

The handbook gives commanding officers guiding principles and suggestions on what is thought to be too dangerous or racy for social media and what is considered safe. For example, discussing the fine points of one’s deployment details is out of bounds. Because the Navy’s stance on this issue is so clearly laid out, no one has a problem not posting about it.

Not all companies give their people this luxury. Without strict, immovable guidelines, workers have to worry every time they tweet or comment on a friend’s profile picture. Ben Agger, author of upcoming book, "Oversharing: The Presentation of Self in the Internet Age” (Routledge, $9.95), says that because of the growth of social media, the boundary between work and play is permeable and becomes more indistinguishable every day. While employees should use a little more common sense before tweeting their little hearts out, employers need to understand that, without guidance, they can’t expect every one of their workers to never slip up online.

© 2012, Tribune Media Services