For years our online lives have been encroaching on our jobs. Increasingly, the workplace is pushing back, intruding on the lives we live on the Web.
The country’s biggest corporations have for years had guidelines about how staff should act online, said Joseph Vance, attorney at Miller Nash in Vancouver. Now small and mid-sized Clark County employers are getting in on the act.
At Legacy Salmon Creek, doctors and nurses can soon expect a formal policy reminding them not to use e-mail or Facebook to talk to patients about medical issues — the technology isn’t secure enough to meet federal privacy requirements.
Fort Vancouver Regional Library employees, already accustomed to gentle reminders that work time should be spent on work activities, will also get an official social media policy within the next few months.
Here at The Columbian, some of us use websites like Twitter and LinkedIn to do our jobs. If we use the same tools to stay in touch with friends and family, it can be tough to balance our professional images with the wish to share silly pictures or crazy stories. So we’re drafting a social media policy here, too.
At a minimum, these policies should include two basic facts, Vance said: Your boss has a right to see what you’re doing on a work-owned computer or smart phone, and your boss can punish you if your off-the-clock online activities reflect poorly on the company.
Badmouth your boss to your Facebook friends? It could cost you your job. Post lewd photos, or inappropriate pictures of the company logo or uniform? Ditto.
Columbian Editor Lou Brancaccio said he wishes we could simplify these policies into a single directive: “Don’t do stupid stuff.”
Some folks take things even further, using online tools to look smart and competent. Vancouver photographer Kate Singh said small business owners and job hunters are increasingly seeking professional-looking Facebook or LinkedIn portraits. Consultants now specialize in helping cautious social networkers present themselves well online.
But it’s clear that some people need things spelled out for them. Take the flight attendant fired after she posed in an unbuttoned airline uniform and posted the pictures online. Or the techie whose job offer was rescinded after “tweeting” that he expected to hate the work, but love the “fatty paycheck.”
Meanwhile, a growing body of case law is also spurring employers to create social media policies.
For example, government agencies can’t always prohibit employees from complaining about work online — there can be First Amendment consequences. And the rules surrounding how unions can use company computer networks to organize are still in flux.
Although Vance believes that just about every company should define its social media standards, he cautions against copying and pasting what other companies are doing.
“Often, having a bad policy, one that doesn’t fit your company, is worse than having no policy at all, because you can get in trouble,” he said.
Courtney Sherwood is The Columbian’s business and features editor. Reach her at 360-735-4561 or courtney.sherwood@columbian.com.
