When it comes to social media, the lines between public and private are blurred—especially in the workplace. There’s certainly nothing wrong with coworkers connecting via social. But what happens when an employee starts posting about their political views? Or their workplace? Or other employees? Listen in as we discuss what’s protected and expected under Oregon law, communication tactics for defusing tense situations and leadership approaches to help keep social media in its place.
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MP3 File | Run Time: 16:17
Brandon: Hello and welcome to the HR for Small Business podcast, this is your host Brandon Laws. We’re starting off today’s episode a little 
differently, we do have an interview for you with Suzi Alligood, Xenium’s Director of People Development & Culture. She and I talked about social media—how employees are using it at home in their personal lives, how it may be bleeding over into the workplace, and the effects of all that. Suzi has a lot of great stuff to say, this is a tough topic to wrap our arms around and I think there aren’t clear answers to a lot of this. We tackled the side that is not often talked about, which is how it affects relationships.
This was originally intended for video and we actually recorded it on video and that’s why it sounds a little different. But I think you’re really going to enjoy this, we felt it was better for audio. We really appreciate the support for all of you loyal listeners and readers out there; thank you for continuing to follow the podcast and for giving us feedback and support. For anybody new, welcome and thanks for giving us a chance! Without further ado, here’s the discussion.
So Suzi, social media has been coming up quite a bit in the workplace. Employees have woven it in between their personal and professional lives. They sometimes use it at work, use it at home. But between all the political postings, relationship-based stuff, it certainly can bleed into the workplace. So I wanted to ask you, are there examples of where you’ve seen social media use by employees really impact the workplace?
Suzi: Yes, on a regular basis. I’ve had a chance to talk to some of our HR Business Partners who work with various clients and I also talked to some other business owners and I have a couple of stories I can share.
One in particular had to do with politics. It was just before the election. A senior leader of a well-known brand organization had strong opinions about President Trump and posted some rather disparaging remarks on his Facebook page, not thinking much about the fact that he was connected on Facebook as a friend with some clients.
One particular influential client was offended and called the corporation and complained. The comment that the senior leader had made had a threatening tone to it and so he was subsequently terminated from his position. That was an unfortunate situation.
We’ve also had other challenges whether it be with managers or even HR folks who are friends on Facebook with employees. A couple of scenarios come up in that case where, one, the manager sees or learns something about that individual. So for example, one employee posted that they liked something related to medical marijuana or pictures of the employee partying. And that affected that manager’s judgment and opinion of that employee to the point where the manager started scrutinizing the employee a little bit more.
Brandon: Well, that’s definitely a perception is reality situation.
Suzi: And then a recent situation where an HR manager was responding to an employee complaint about a manager with whom she was friends on Facebook. This manager was accused of discrimination. It’s a pretty sticky situation that may result in some litigation and the conversation came up about here we have an HR manager who is investigating this complaint and supporting the employer in coming up with a recommendation for remedial action, yet she is friends with this manager on Facebook. So is she truly objective? And if this does go to litigation and she’s deposed, could that potentially come up in regards to her credibility or the employer’s credibility?
So there are all these blurred lines and questions about how connected do we, as employers or representatives of employers, get with our employees? What can we require and what shall we communicate to our employees about what’s ok or what’s not ok?
Brandon: That’s a good segue, what is actually possible? It sounds like for employees, it’s more of a self-awareness issue. Like, maybe I should be cognizant of who I’m connected with and what I’m posting. With Facebook you can actually control who’s seeing some of the things. Maybe it’s just a matter of turning things off for who can actually see your post. But I don’t think employees would go that far.
What can employers do to speak with the employee and say hey, maybe you should not be doing this – what can they do under the law?
Suzi: There are a lot of things to consider. So, for one, employers need to know what rights employees have with regard to workplace communication. And workplace communication extends on to social media.
For example, if an employee is engaging in a conversation on social media, even saying negative remarks about the employer like, My manger is a jerk. This company sucks. We get paid terribly. The benefits are unfair.
A lot of times, when managers see that or become aware of it, they have an emotional reaction. And some employers who aren’t aware of employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act—employees have rights to participate in a concerted activity where they’re discussing working conditions, positively or negatively. Managers who weren’t trained may take some punitive action against that employee which would be a violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
Brandon: Let’s chat about that. What’s protected and what’s not for social media?
Suzi: A couple of things. In Oregon, employers, number one, can’t ask an employee to provide their password for social media. They can’t directly request to view what’s on their page.
Number two, Oregon employers can’t require employees to have a social media page and especially to post stuff about the company or advertise for the company. That’s the employee’s right to do that on their own.
Employees, like I said, have the right to comment, whether it be in the workplace or on social media, about working conditions and if one or more other employees are involved in that conversation, whether you’re a union employer or not, it’s considered protected.
Anything that an employee posts that is directed towards an employee that is hostile, threatening, or violates the workplace policies on anti-discrimination and harassment can definitely be investigated and enforced by the employer.
So the employer doesn’t have carte blanche to say, Hey, we don’t like what you posted on Facebook. That negatively impacts the company or we’re upset about it, so we’re going to discipline or terminate you. What they need to do is evaluate on a case by case basis to make sure that they’re not infringing upon the employee’s rights under the National Labor Relations Act. And if there is a comment that, again, is a violation of discrimination or harassment or workplace violence policies, they can, based on facts, hold the employee accountable to that policy.
Brandon: So I guess that’s really how to react to each situation—take it on a case by case basis. But there has got to be something preventative that we could do, as employers. What can employers even do?
Suzi: The first thing—and I learned how complex this is just from doing research—the first thing is to understand what are the laws within your state or even city pertaining to workplace communication and employee protection.
Interestingly, in Oregon, we don’t have political ideology or affiliation as a protected class. So if an employee was disciplined or terminated because they were treating someone negatively based on their political affiliation or they were causing problems in the workplace and even after coaching were not stopped and it was based on purely political opinion, there’s not a technical regulation or protection under the law.
However, in California and in a lot of other states, political affiliation and ideology is protected. Seattle, not necessarily Washington, but, Seattle has an ordinance that protects an employee’s political ideology. So, number one, you need to understand or leverage HR or resources to understand what are the rights of employees within my location.
Proactively, aside from having social media policies that are reviewed by legal and don’t overstep the employee’s rights, it’s leading with your values and clearly communicating how we want to treat each other in this company and how respect for others and integrity and inclusion, if that’s something that’s important to your organization. How are we supporting and holding each other accountable to those things every day? And if there is a situation where an employee says something that’s on the edge or offensive to someone, coaching and helping people to gain some tools and knowledge to coach their peers or certainly for managers to coach their employees on hey, you may be having this political discussion or debate with this employee and while it doesn’t cross the line in terms of being a violation of policy, it’s creating some dissension or concern for that person and it’s not conducive to the team environment and our values. So this may be an opportunity for you to be more self-aware.
Brandon: You said earlier that the lines are blurred between personal and professional and the overlap of social media. I think it’s only getting blurrier. It just seems like managers and leaders of companies really need to start communicating with their employees about what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate. Then just do the best you can.
Suzi: When home alone or outside of work and on social media, people sometimes lose that feeling of connection to work. They don’t realize the impact of their behavior. We talked about that one instance where a senior leader at a company posted one thing that lost him his job. It could even be repeating something offensive that a political candidate says and all of a sudden you’ve violated workplace policy.
Managers have the authority, usually within the scope of their job, to make decisions on hiring, pay, termination, promotion, so you want to be seen as fair and as objective as possible. Getting too involved with employees, whether it’s going out for drinks after work on a regular basis, being close personal friends with your subordinate employees, or being friends on Facebook or Instagram, that makes those boundaries a little looser. It can not only influence your decision making—we’re all human and we have biases—but from a third party perspective it can also make you look less credible and objective in your role.
So a lot of employers are really discouraging managers from being friends with people on social media. Just like you would say in a leadership training, you want to have professional boundaries with your employees and it’s ok to be friendly but not necessarily close friends, because that makes your role more challenging and difficult.
Brandon: Absolutely. This is an interesting discussion and I’m glad we got a chance to talk about it. I think as time goes on it’s only going to become more complicated. There’s so much gray area, it’s hard to control every behavior of an employee. People just need to pay attention to it and seek counsel or seek someone like Xenium to help out.
Suzi: I think things are particularly volatile right now because of all the media and stuff going on with politics. Unfortunately we’re in a time where there are very strong positions that people have and people are openly expressing how they feel. And so, while at face value a comment or post may not be a violation of policy or may not be unlawful in any way, it could end up alienating people, whether it’s clients or other employees. It’s just about being responsible and knowing that, ok, if I’m connected to clients or other employees, maybe I should pause and think, Ok, if I post this, what perception might that create for other people and how might it affect me in my job? Or maybe I choose just to have really good boundaries and not have friend connections with my clients and employees.
Brandon: Yeah, because there are times where you do these one-off posts or you “like” something or comment, but something I’ve learned in marketing is that repetition becomes the reality that you created. If you’re worrying about your personal brand, if you do something enough times, people will start to perceive you as being on this side or that side or just that you’re always doing this. You have to be very careful and think about what you’re posting and also who you’re connected to.
Suzi: Right. We’re a business consulting firm, so one of our value propositions to our clients is that we provide third party objective HR. If we have behavior that causes them to question our ability to be objective or credible, then that devalues what we’re offering. So I think it’s definitely something for professionals, especially as you’re talking about understanding your brand and how you come across, to be mindful of.
Brandon: Great. This was a good discussion. Thanks Suzi, I appreciate it.
Suzi: Sure!