Social media is a double-edged sword for most businesses

Historic City News finds that relaxed social media policies are trending among American companies; in fact, more companies want their workers to be active on social media.  Frequently it may even be part of their job description. 

Available data collected over the past five-years indicates that employees who use social media come up with more innovative ideas.  A report compiled by Hartford Insurance Company goes so far as to say that “social-media active” employees outperform those who aren’t.

Whether using their home or work computer, what happens when employee social media usage gets out of hand?  Such situations can put companies in a prickly position as they are forced to decide whether the social media blunder is severe enough to warrant termination.

Here’s a look at five common reasons people get fired for their social media usage along with real-life examples:

1. Badmouthing customers

A common reason employees’ social media usage gets them fired is they made a disparaging remark about a customer.  According to a 2018 article published in The Daily Meal, an Outback Steakhouse employee in Florida was complaining using her personal Facebook account about a church group who had not left a tip on a large food order that consumed nearly her entire shift.  Tamlynn Yoder got herself canned after she wrote that she only made $18 in tips that day.

A friend of Yoder’s reached out to the church group, who contacted the restaurant.  Because of Outback’s policy prohibiting employees from commenting about their customers on social media, instead of finding help forwarding the overlooked tip, Yoder found herself fired.

2. Making distasteful or derogatory comments

It’s not just employees that get in trouble; sometimes executives get in trouble, too. Mary Bono, the interim CEO of USA Gymnastics, faced backlash after an old tweet was discovered that was critical of Nike’s endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick. The tweet showed Bono blacking out the Nike logo on her shoes.

As the backlash grew, Bono tweeted: “I regret my comment and respect everyone’s views along with their fundamental right to express them.  This doesn’t reflect how I will approach my position (at USA Gymnastics). I will do everything I can to help build, with the community, an open, safe and positive environment.”  USA Gymnastics accepted Bono’s resignation after only five days on the job.  They issued a public statement, saying “We believe this is in the best interest of the organization.”

3. Disparaging the employer or coworkers

Employees may use their personal social media accounts to complain about their work or even outright disparage their manager or coworkers. But if they get caught, it can come back to bite them.

In 2017, James Damore was fired by Google after writing an internal memo saying women weren’t fit to be an engineer. Damore wrote that there are “personality differences” between men and women and that was the reason why they are under-represented. His memo circulated around the company and eventually leaked to reporters.

4. Disclosing sensitive, inappropriate information

Since nearly everyone carries around a camera on their smartphones these days, photographs are getting employees into more and more trouble.

An employee of an assisted living home in Alpena, Michigan, was fired in 2017 after taking a photo of an 81-year-old resident with Alzheimer’s disease. The photo was posted on Snapchat, according to a ProPublica investigation.  The photo was taken without the resident’s permission and violated the facility’s policies and procedures.

The facility’s handbook prohibited any photography of home residents. But the employee clearly took it a step further by posting a distasteful photo of a resident on her social media accounts without permission to do so.

5. Inciting or celebrating violence

How someone reacts to current events or news, especially if those reactions appear insensitive or celebrate violence and illegal activity, can lead to trouble. A Utah Transit Authority employee was fired in July 2018 after he was caught on video berating a group of women on a train, according to a local Fox affiliate.  “These are not the kind of encounters we ever want to see happen on our trains, or our buses, or any of our vehicles,” a spokeswoman told the Fox affiliate.

All these situations might be good reasons for companies to think about creating a social media policy if they don’t have one already. Employees should be responsible for reading, understanding and signing the policy to ensure that they know the rules, and to give the company more legal protection in case an employee abuses them.