New Idea for Work - Keep Your Job Off Social Media

Keep Your Job Off Social Media

It is wonderful to keep your job by remembering to use social media like a responsible adult.

It seems that almost every day there are new laws being passed all over the country concerning the activities of workers on social media both inside and outside the workplace. I am located in Pennsylvania where you can be fired for good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all if you have no employment contract and you are not being fired for a reason that is against public policy. For the most part, if you do not have an employment contract, as long as you are not fired for age, race, color, sex, or sexual orientation you have no right to sue for wrongful termination. I have seen people fired for liking the wrong football team or for making the boss sick.

This leads to back to social media. It is important to be careful what you do on social media because once it hits the internet it is very hard to take it back or explain away how other people interpret what you write. It should be abundantly clear that it is not appropriate to use the internet and social media during work hours to disparage the company which employs you.

However, every day there are people who sit at work, on work computers and spend hours on Facebook writing bad things about things about their bosses and co-workers. Just as bad are the people who go home and share photos and status updates about how horrid everyone they work with is to be around. Anyone who uses social media has seen those updates where a person spills all the work gossip all over the internet. While we will read those updates and laugh, none of us wants a person like that working at our organization.

photo credit: vincos via photopin cc

What you say on social media about your employer will affect your time at work. An employer is not going to trust an employee who spreads bad news about the company on social media. Keep in mind that even if your employer does not fire you for your social media actions may impact the decisions on whether to give you promotions, raises, and other opportunities. Additionally, it is not only your current employer who will make judgments about your social media behavior. Co-workers, friends and potential future employers will make judgments about what you share on social media. The things you share and the way you share them give an impression of you without you having said a word.

Like it or not, bad-mouthing your employer, supervisors, and co-workers on social media will affect your work life. You can cause damage in your professional life by being careless with social media. So, the question for you this wonderful day is, are you using social media like a responsible adult?

Janeane Davis