Reference no: EM132205420

New Hire Loses Offer

Connor Riley had just gotten a job offer from CISCO Systems, which is based in San Jose, California. Riley was pursuing a master’s degree in information systems and management at the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving her offer, Riley tweeted, “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” It was not too long before Riley received a reply tweet from someone who claimed to be a Cisco employee. It read, “Who is the hiring manager? I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.” Riley is not working at Cisco, after all.

Although the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) protects the use of Facebook and Twitter as equivalent to the modern-day water cooler, there are limits on what speech is protected in social media. Employees can use social media to communicate with each other about work conditions, for example. However, there are clear limits on social media posts that are abusive, target individuals, give away company secrets and so forth. The boundaries between protected speech and posts that might leave employees subject to disciplinary action remain a gray area of employment law. Employees should be careful when they tweet, and employers should have clear policies that fall within the emerging guidelines established by the courts and the NLRB.

Question: What policies would you put in place as a business owner about employee comments on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter? Explain your policies based on the cases discussed here.