In the workplace, as in society, employees and employers have both rights and responsibilities. Federal, state and local laws afford employees a number of rights, including the right to control their financial (credit) information, the right to access their personnel information, a right to engage in \u201cconcerted\u201d and political activity and to engage in lawful behavior outside the workplace. Legislation and business requirements also impose responsibilities, including the responsibility to conduct oneself in a professional manner\u2014for example, abiding by business policy, standards of professional conduct and safety and health requirements\u2014and to meet performance expectations.<\/p>\n
One of the areas that is a danger zone for both employees and employers is social media. The National Labor Relations Act (discussed further in Module 13: Union\u2013Management Relations<\/a>) protects the rights of employees to \u201cact with co-workers to address work-related issues,\u201d including discussing pay, benefits or other working conditions with one or more co-workers on social media.[1]<\/sup><\/a> However, there\u2019s a limit to that protection. Public social media comments that are offensive, maliciously false or that are unrelated to working conditions (for example, disparaging an employer\u2019s products or services) do not constitute protected activity. Also a single employee\u2019s social media rant that is not part of a broader discussion of labor issues is not protected activity.<\/p>\n As discussed in Avoiding Bias in Selection<\/a> and this module, employers use of social media for identifying or evaluating candidates or employees behavior can pose a risk of discrimination based on a protected category such as age, gender, and race. As the legal information website Justia.com notes: \u201cThe EEOC has taken the position that personal information from these sites may not be used to make employment decisions on prohibited bases.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Conversations on these sites is also likely to reveal protected information such as a criminal record or health information. That said, employers do have a responsibility to police social media\u2014especially if employers are accessing social media on work computers. For example, Justia notes that \u201cif your coworker posts sexually harassing or derogatory information about you away from the workplace, your mutual employer can be liable for a hostile work environment if it knew of the posts or if the harassing party used work equipment, such as a work laptop, to do the harassing.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a> Justia also cites litigation that used an employee\u2019s Facebook postings as evidence to substantiate a co-worker\u2019s claim of workplace racial harassment.<\/p>\n Enforcement\u2014in this case, discipline\u2014is essential to maintaining a high-functioning organization. What\u2019s at stake is not only company culture, it\u2019s employee productivity and well-being, the business\u2019 brand and, ultimately, business sustainability. Discipline protects not only your employees and clients, but your business assets and interests. For example, a \u201ctoxic\u201d employee\u2014defined as \u201ca worker [who] engages in behavior that is harmful to an organization, including either its property or people\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a>\u2014increases turnover and associated costs and decreases productivity. Researchers also concluded based on client customer surveys that toxic workers \u201cabsolutely\u201d damage a company\u2019s customer service reputation.[5]<\/sup><\/a> Perhaps more disturbing, researchers have found that toxic behavior is contagious; specifically, \u201cthat when a toxic person joins a team, others are more likely to behave in a toxic fashion.\u201d As Inc. magazine\u2019s Leadership Mindset columnist Marissa Levin notes \u201cLeaders who wait to contain toxic damage risk losing everything.\u201d[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t