Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024

Should Tweets Cost You Your Job?
What happens on Twitter stays on Twitter … for all the world to see. The New York Fire Department learned that when one of its E.M.T.’s, the commissioner’s son, posted a string of offensive remarks. The technology industry got a reminder recently as well: After a woman posted a photo of two men whose jokes at a conference had bothered her, one of them was fired, and so was she. Should employers get tough with strict policies about social media activity, so that employees face consequences at work for what they say online?
* E.M.T. = Emergency Medical Technician = 응급 구조 대원/ commissioner = 위원; 장관/ a string of ~ = 여러 개의 ~/ consequence = 결과

 고용주들은 소셜미디어 정책에 더 엄해져 고용인들이 온라인에서 한 말에 대해 직장에서 생기는 결과를 직면해야 하나요?

1. You Have a Right to a Personal Life
Third party social media search firms can pinpoint relevant professional information without revealing irrelevant personal details that can lead to prejudice.
 
2. Careless Posting Has Consequences
You should consider everything you do on social media as if you are standing in front of the whole company on a soap box.
 
3. Hire Responsible People, and Trust Them
Tell employees what they need to know to stay out of trouble. Instead of chiding them not to post drunken photos, explain the basics of defamation law.
 
4. It’s a Good Policy to Have Rules in Writing
The best guidelines appeal to the self-interest of the employee and the online reputations that we all carry from job to job.
 
5. Confused? Try the Pub Test
In drawing an analogy to the social media of yesteryear, the local watering hole, one can see some realistic parallels of what you should and shouldn't say.


Sample Essay

Careless Posting Has Consequences

The ability to communicate information across the globe instantaneously has never been easier. With just a few taps on your cell phone you can send an updated picture of your vacation, a video of your child’s first steps or post your opinion on the day’s hottest topic. This same technology also allows an employee to shoot off a disparaging post about his boss, complain about customers or send out photos of the company’s newest product before its release date. The reach of social media, and its almost infinite life span on the Internet, increases the potential for harm or embarrassment to both the employee and employer.

For this reason, social media simply cannot grant employees immunity from careless posting.

Employees should never expect privacy when presenting their thoughts, opinions and lives for the whole world to see. Social media has given employers unprecedented access into the private lives and thoughts of their employees, and so workers really must understand their audience when using it. Think about it this way: Would you hang that photo you posted on your social page in your cubicle? Would you make that statement you blogged about to your boss in person?

There are always consequences to what you say and do online. Whether your employer finds out about it is dependent on how you choose to use social media. You should consider everything you do on social media as if you are standing in front of the whole company on a soap box.

What an employer does with what is found on social media is still subject to legal constraints. But employees are a reflection of the businesses that employ them, and that follows them both inside and outside of work. When deciding what to share on social media, employees should use a little common sense, respect the relationship with their employer and be careful of the image of themselves that is being shared with the world.