ACAS recently published a research paper on the use of social media in the workplace, called “Workplaces and Social Networking: The implications for Employment Relations“, as well as some very useful guidelines on how to draft a social media policy. It’s also about time that ACAS provided some guidance in what is becoming an increasingly difficult area.
Cyberslacking is the term given to people who spend their worktime surfing the
net, doing their shopping, checking football scores or booking a holiday. In fact, doing anything on the net that isn’t related to their jobs. Like you reading this now, probably.
Civil servants in Northern Ireland have allegedly been busy shopping, reading football stories and even planning holidays in the sun while they were supposed to be working.
In the Middle East this year we have seen country after country rocked by revolution. The popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt succeeded, Libya remains in the balance and Bahrain and Syria may yet succumb. What does this have to do with social media for lawyers? Social media networks are credited with having fanned the flames lit by Mohamed Bouazizi, the fruit and vegetable seller in Tunisia who set fire to himself triggering everything that followed. The immense power of these networks as tools of communication is still not fully understood by most people and how they are used in the workplace is an issue that needs to be given careful consideration.
Employers often wonder what steps they can take to discipline an employee who misuses social media, especially where the employee claims that the employer was not identified. Liverpool ET dismissed a claim by a Bar Manager recently where her status updates on Facebook were used to dismiss her for gross misconduct.
In Preece v J D Wetherspoons PLC , the Claimant had had to eject two customers (“Brian” and “Sandra”) who were both, as it seems, elderly. They had been disruptive. A while later the Claimant received three abusive telephone calls from Brian and Sandra’s daughter in short succession.
If your employment has just ended, not just for redundancy but for any reason, did you sign a compromise agreement? Perhaps you entered into a COT3 via ACAS to settle the dispute?
If you did there’s a good chance you will have signed up to a clause that says;
“You shall not at any time after the termination of your employment represent yourself as being interested in or employed by or in any way connected with [name of ex-employer]”
Recently I was interviewed on Legal Network TV (part of the College of Law’s Multimedia Unit), for their guide on social media in the workplace. The programme is aimed at law firms and is split into two parts. For more details please click here.
The first part of the programme is covered by Christopher Sherliker of Silverman Sherliker solicitors (and of @London_Law_Firm fame) where he discusses why solicitors should use social media and the second part is on the issues that employers face from social media usage in and around the workplace. That’s my bit.
If you’re a blogger, should what you write about online be any concern of your employer? A case before the East London ET is dealing with the vexed issue of reputational damage to an employer caused by an employee in their spare time.
Allen & Overy, the Magic Circle City law firm would say yes, having dismissed Deirdre Clarke, formerly a Senior Associate in their Moscow office and author of the Philosophy Can be Sexy blog.
The Metro newspaper reported on Wednesday how a student won £10,000 in damages from a former friend. Raymond Bryce, a law student, failed to see the funny side of chef Jeremiah Barber’s post of a paedophiliac picture on his Facebook page with the words “ Ray, you like kids and you are gay so bet you love this picture, Ha Ha”. Bryce sued Barber in the High Court for libel and won damages. Barber ended up with a large money Judgment against him, a conviction for circulating indecent images of children and 150 hours’ community service. This is yet another illustration of how some people seem to take leave of their senses when using social media. What a thing to “joke” about!
According to a survey by the recruitment agency MyJobGroup.co.uk, compiled in conjunction with law firm Irwin Mitchell, 40% of UK employees admit to criticising their employers on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore most staff had little or no idea of the legal implications of what they wrote online. Click here for the press release.
The report contains some surprisingly large numbers, for instance;
Last Friday I gave a presentation to users of the City Business Library at the Guildhall in London. The topic was the use of social media in the workplace and the issues it raises for employers. You can view the presentation by clicking here.
There was a useful discussion afterwards and most people had stories to tell of how people at work had misused email, inadvertently or otherwise. Social media, of course, goes beyond just email and surfing the internet. Indeed, controlling use of these two is probably the easiest of the challenges facing employers. IT departments can deny access to dodgy websites and it is easy to tell employees what should and should not be said from the corporate email account (although having said that it is still amazing how many people ignore this).