At one of my first jobs, back in the
early days of social media, the company I worked for had a pretty strict
Facebook policy. When my boss explained it to my team, she recommended that we never mention work in our posts. She
said that even something as seemingly harmless as “Looking forward to this
glass of wine after a long day at the office!” could have professional consequences.
I was afraid to post on
Facebook for years. But, a new report on workplace social media
policies by the National Labor Relations Board reveals that legally, employers
can’t fire anyone for posting about work on social media — and specific
kinds of complaints are actually protected by law, no matter your employer’s
policy.
“When an employee or group of
employees are speaking on social media collectively about work and conditions
at work, they have a right to engage in that activity according to the NLRB,”
says Michael Schmidt, vice chair of the Labor & Employment
Department at Cozen O’Connor and editor of the Social
Media Employment Law Blog. The NLRB considers that kind of action — connecting with your fellow employees on social media to discuss working
conditions — a “protected, concerted activity.”
However, that doesn’t mean you can
say whatever you want online without consequences. “Generally, if someone is
posting a gripe about their own work situation with no intent to get other
workers involved, that’s not protected, and an employer can take action against
it,” Schmidt says.
So, yes, legally you can take some
work complaints to Facebook or Twitter and not get fired. But, should
you? “It is not a good idea to discuss your work or your boss unless what you
say is flattering and cannot be misconstrued as a critique,” says Miriam
Salpeter, the author of Social
Networking for Career Success. Salpeter says a good rule of thumb is to
think about your future employers reading whatever you write before you post.
Would it give them pause before hiring you? And, think twice even if you want
to write something you think is ambiguously negative, she says. “Tone is hard
to gauge in social media. It's more important what people think you said or posted than what you actually said or posted.”
Salpeter recommends
getting the grumble out of your system privately. “Talk to your dog or cat! You
know he or she will never gossip,” she says. “Another strategy is to write a
note or email to get out your frustrations, but never send it.”
What's a healthier way of posting
on social media? Use it to your professional advantage. “Just as you can lose...an opportunity by
writing something inappropriate online, you can just as easily use social media
to expand your network, demonstrate your expertise, learn new things, and
attract jobs or other opportunities,” says Salpeter. So, do something
productive like updating your LinkedIn profile instead of
tweeting about how ridiculous that meeting was — even if it was super ridiculous.