Social media is where it is at today and if you are a baby-boomer like I am you need to really be on your toes to keep up with the rapid changes with Facebook, twitter, YouTube, and such. I went to a social medial workshop recently and was almost overwhelmed with all that there is available out there in the internet world. These avenues of communication and marketing are almost unbelievable, it is so amazing to realize that one tweet can reach a million people. It is amazing, but also scary, especially when this powerful tool “social media” is used to bad-mouth or slander someone or someone’s business. More and more cases are coming up where people are seeking to sue those who slander them on the internet. This is a pretty tough thing to carry out as you need to be able to prove that you have been harmed or taken a loss because of the negative posting(s). I was reading an interesting article today in the California Employer Advisor monthly newsletter about an employee that had posted negative comments about a supervisor at her place of employment on her Facebook page. Others who were her co-workers and Facebook friends commented back and praised her for her comments. Of course, this lead to further comments regarding this supervisor (who apparently was not like much), and eventually the supervisor and employer found out about the posted comments and the employee, who posted them, was suspended and then terminated from her job. She filed a suit against the employer and won because the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that the postings were protected under an act which protects the right of employees with or without a union to engage in certain activities of communication with other employees which constitute “discussion” and felt that the Facebook postings equated to “talking at the water cooler.” It needs to be noted that this employee did the postings from her own home, on her own computer and after work hours. After reading this I talked about it with our office staff and we all agreed that it is our individual right of “freedom of speech” to say what we want on our own time, but how sad that this employee and others who worked with her had such bad things to say about their supervisor. If the company had spent a little more time looking at the quality of their management staff and how they related and worked with their employees maybe this never would have happened. No matter how big or small our place of business is we need to remember that we are working with people just like us and we should want to cultivate and create a work environment where we all can thrive and enjoy our workday. I am not saying that it will be easy, but it will be worth the effort you put in to making it a great place to be each day for yourself and those you work with. Hopefully you and your co-workers will post the fun things you do at work on Facebook so those you are friends with can see how fortunate you are for working in a great environment.
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