By Tulsa Business Staff - 11/20/2009
Social media can be good or bad. It can also be ugly.
It's good when used in such a manner that benefits everyone.
It's bad when used to do harm. Then it becomes ugly.
Charlie Plumb, a partner with the McAfee & Taft Law Firm | Tulsa, said social media — text messaging, Twitter, publicly accessible blogs and Facebook — are great communication mechanisms.
These instruments can do a great deal of good when used constructively, he said. They can help a company promote products and itself.
People shouldn't be discouraged from using social media — if that were even possible.
Everyone is learning a little bit every day, Plumb said. Employers and employees are starting to "get it."
Employers might need to get it to keep an eye on conduct. Employees have used it after bad run-ins with co-workers or employers. There is a growing understanding to be considerate and professional when using social media, especially in a work environment.
Both sides must realize the social media responsibilities.
Employers shouldn't get hung up on the technical aspect of social media, Plumb said. An employer's responsibility is to deal with conduct by putting policies together, outlining standards and putting people on notice that harmful conduct is prohibited by the company when it is done through electronic communication and social media. It means having a policy in place clearly telling employees that their employer will be monitoring electronic communication.
"If employees are put on notice and they sign an acknowledgment, the employer has the right to monitor and police website access," he said. The policy needs to go far enough so everyone understands that outside circumstances may come to the employer’s attention when someone is acting unprofessionally and inappropriately off premises and after hours. If it is found the employee has been involved in something that violates policies, harassment, confidential information or unprofessional behavior that is detrimental to the company, then they are subject to disciplinary action that can mean termination.
Monitoring social media is not limited to business hours or a five-day work week, Plumb said. This is a 24/7 activity. Employers are wrestling with the way people do things on the social media that includes texting, blogs, twitter usage on their own and outside the workplace and hours. If an employee is acting inappropriately, inadvisably or unprofessionally, it doesn’t matter when they are doing it. It is a problem for the employer.
Social media, whether blogging, face book, my space, twitter, conventional email, all sorts of electronic communication have become an avenue for potential harassment issues, defamation of coworkers, supervisors or the company as a whole, he said. Harm through defamation extends to clients and competitors.
Social media also is a method to leak trade secrets, organization plans and other data the company didn’t want public at that time.
A company dealing with someone alleging harassment, the fact that it is occurring after hours and on a supervisor’s Blackberry texting to someone they supervise presents a problem for the employer. It doesn’t matter when it happened. The fact that it occurred after hours and outside the workplace does not insulate the employer. If an employee is acting inappropriately, inadvisably or unprofessionally, if they are doing it when it comes to coworkers, the public at large or other companies, it doesn't matter.
Plumb, citing statistics in a June survey that ‘‘blew him away,’’ said more than 200 employers — or 43 percent — investigated an email-based leak in the last 12 months; another 31 percent reported firing workers for misusing email, one out of almost three, and 8 percent had fired employees for inappropriate or harmful use of social media.
"That’s double in a year and those kinds of numbers are increasing as we become more sophisticated in our electronic communication," he said. "As we become more sophisticated in electronic and social communication, those numbers will continue to increase."
Plumb said he is recommending to clients that they develop tools that can be used regarding employee conduct that can be tailored to address the social media and electronic communication issue.
"We lose sight of the fact that sometimes people think there is something unique about conduct if it is electronic and there is something about actions if they arise by social media," he said. "The reality is the medium changes. It is more wide-spread. It makes it that much more dangerous because of the instantaneous nature. People tend to do things in text messages, e-mail or blogs, Web sites or Facebook they never would do face-to-face.
"Employers need to have no tolerance policies that provide for the prompt, but thorough investigations if employees believe they have been subjected to harassment."
Employers regularly need to update policy manuals.
Make certain that everyone in the company understands that:
• it is intended to include harassing conduct that occurs in the context of electronic communication or social media, and
• it addresses and prohibits harassing comments whenever and wherever it occurs. That means if the actions occur outside the workplace after hours, the actions still are covered and prohibited by the harassment policy.
The same thing is true of derogatory or defamatory comments about coworkers, competitors, clients and customers, he said.
Many employers have adopted professional standards and ethics policies. Every effort should be taken to be certain the policy establishes the kind of values the company stands for, the conduct that is prohibited and what is considered improper and inappropriate behavior.
A discipline policy needs to set standards and expectations and those need to be updated to include unprofessional conduct, he said. It needs to be clear enough so that a person understands that it applies after the work day during their off time. They need to understand they can be punished or terminated if circumstances warrant such action.
Make certain confidentiality and trade secret policies are clearly defined and included in social media activities, he said.
Employers are having difficulties and are going through a learning curve on these issues, Plumb said. In many cases, the rank and file work force is a lot more knowledgeable and sophisticated than the supervisor, management or employer. That may be a function of youth, workplace experience or perhaps school. That's why the employer needs to deal with conduct, not from the technical standpoint.
Plumb can be contacted at (918) 587-0000.
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