You can never be too careful about what you post on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks.
A recent survey by California-based data security company Proofpoint found that 20% of the companies surveyed had investigated whether confidential company information had been exposed on a social networking site (including Facebook, MySpace and Linkedin) during the past twelve months (up from 12% over the last two years). In addition, 20% of the companies
surveyed haddisciplined an employee for violations of company social network use policies (up from 10% in 2009) and 7% reported that they had terminated an employee for violating such policies.
It’s no secret that companies are also monitoring employees’ social network accounts and tweets more frequently than in the past to determine everything from whether employees’ online conduct might be harming the company’s public image to whether employees are lying about being out sick.
Here’s a roundup of some recent cautionary tales that have hit the news:
- A Connecticut school superintendent was fired after posting inappropriate status updates to his Facebook page during his first few days on the job. The postings, which cost him his $150,000-a-year job, included: a comment that he slept in until 10:00 a.m. on his first day of work and that it would be “the best job ever” if that happened every day; and “counseling an administrator to retire or face termination. : )”. (Reported by several Connecticut news outlets, including: www.necn.com and www.ctnow.com)
- Five nurses were fired from a hospital in Oceanside, California after they were caught discussing patient information on Facebook (causing concerns about HIPPA violations). They were fired despite that fact they did not post any patient names, pictures, or other identifying information. (Reported by several San Diego news outlets, including: www.nbcsandiego.com and www.signonsandiego.com)
- An employee at a European insurance company was fired after her employer discovered she was actively using Facebook after she had requested leave, saying that she felt ill and needed to rest away from her computer. (Reported by the Economic Times)
Maybe the above examples sound like something you would never do, but people have been fired for things far less obvious. The new Facebook group “Fired Because of Facebook” has created a forum for employees to share their woes. These incidents may not have made the news, but they are definitely anecdotes that people should read.
Meredith Davis Williams is an employment law attorney at Miller | Williams LLP in Los Angeles and can be reached at (213) 426-2144, mwilliams@millerwilliamslaw.com, or @MerEsqLA.
