Business Communication

When Social Media Poses a Threat to Your Business.

Two employees decide to go on to Facebook to make remarks about the way they are being treated by their employer of multiple years. The company offers them full benefits, insurance and all the bells and whistles any employee can imagine. They usually just laugh off their angry supervisor’s behavior but this particular day they were fed up and ready to vent to the world of social media. Since Facebook has an app for mobile devises once the comments are made the buzz spreads like a wildfire. It began just in their building and later to the next building over and soon all five offices of the corporate sector had begun talking. With only 2 hours to go until the close of the day the employees had been called into the office released, stripped of their badges and immediately escorted of sight by security.

Why does this happen why do people feel the need to vent their valid however more than not temporary feelings? What could the employees have done to avoid getting fired? How could the supervisor have handled the situation to prevent the employees from making those remarks on Facebook? Is this a matter of freedom of speech or common sense? The bottom line is social has become a double edged sword for businesses because of issues like this very fictional scenario.

According to the Article “Employee Use & Abuse of Social Media’ until 2011 the National Labor Relations Board would too terminate the two employees from the scenario above until closer consideration was taken and the NLRB began actively pursuing and litigating instances where employees were terminated for making postings critical of their employers in social media in violation of the NLRA (Polid). In fact they found that an employee’s rights were terminated for blogging about their supervisor and settled. The NLRB basically decided that remarks made online are not grounds for firing unless the threat of verbal or physical violence is present.

Another concern is the time employees’ are spending online during business hours. Employees are spending a lot of time online as I myself see so many postings during business hours in fact the bulk of my news feed occurs from Nine to five. Should it be a crime to be stealing time from your employer? Where does Integrity and common sense come in? I believe these are just a few of social media’s threats to business’s.

APA

http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2900/employee-use-abuse-of-social-media