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Showing 27 posts in Internet & Media Law.

Social Media: The New Harassment Landscape Continued

October 12, 2012
Posted In Employee Misconduct, Employee Personnel Files, Employment Discrimination Laws, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, Internet Defamation, Social Media, Social Media Policies, Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation

A recent government study uncovered that 23% of harassment victims were targeted through text messaging, email or other digital forms. Not so long ago, the only evidence human resources had to investigate in harassment claims were the face-to-face comments of the parties involved, making the truth sometimes difficult to determine.  With a digital trail of comments to follow, the investigation of harassment claims no longer relies on hearsay, recollection and “he said, she said” testimony, because nothing can refute written proof. More >

Social Media: The New Harassment Landscape

October 10, 2012
Posted In Communications Decency Act, Crisis Management, Employee Misconduct, Employee Performance Reviews, Employee Personnel Files, Employment Law, Internet & Media Law, Internet Defamation, Social Media, Social Media Policies, Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOP), Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation

Social media is changing the landscape of the internal workplace, providing a new way for employees to socialize and interact with one another.  The online workplace is rooted in conversation which is casual, revealing and often deeply personal.  The direct connection of social media is akin to an invitation into your home. It allows co-workers to share in your personal life with an instant sense of closeness and propels the relationship forward quicker than a traditional office friendship. The boundaries of conduct can become easily blurred and potentially dangerous when this complicated overlapping of private and professional relationships intersect online. Whenever the parameters get ambiguous, the probability of inappropriate behavior occurring increases, creating a growing employer concern for protecting employees from the potential of social media harassment. More >

Efforts to Restrict Employer Access to Social Media Passwords Pick Up Steam

September 28, 2012
Posted In Employee Misconduct, Employment Discrimination Laws, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, Social Media, Social Media Policies, social privacy laws, Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation, Workplace Politics

Legislative efforts to prohibit employers and educational institutions from demanding social media passwords from applicants and employees picked up steam as California became the third state to pass such a law on Thursday, September 27, 2012.  California joins Maryland and Illinois as states making this prohibition law, though none of the statutes have yet to go into effect. More >

Are Personal Emails Private in the Workplace?

September 19, 2012
Posted In Employee Misconduct, Employment Discrimination Laws, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Social Media, Social Media Policies, Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation

Can companies monitor and read personal emails?  While this is no longer a novel question, companies continue to struggle with finding ways to protect their ability to access and monitor employees’ email activity.  A review of recent cases reminds us that while the answer is usually situational, the result almost always hinges on the strength and specificity of the company’s computer and email use policy. More >

Using Social Media to Assist With Crisis Management

September 14, 2012
Posted In Crisis Management, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, Social Media, Social Media Policies

It is hard to imagine a business or organization that has not had to deal with some sort of crisis that impacts, or has the potential to impact, its reputation.  Social media, and the speed by which it can be used to spread information, has enormous potential to accelerate a reputational crisis.  Conversely, social media can be one of your most valuable tools when it comes to crisis management.  Your ability to manage a crisis may, however, be directly impacted by how prepared you are to utilize social media in a focused and comprehensive way when a crisis occurs. More >

Who owns your Twitter account?

September 13, 2012
Posted In Employment Law, Internet & Media Law, Internet Defamation, PhoneDog v. Kravitz, Social Media, Social Media Policies

As more and more employees are tasked with -- or even hired for the express purpose of -- tweeting on behalf of their employer, it is important to think about ownership of the twitter account from which they tweet.  A twitter account can be an important asset to a business or organization because the account (and the owner thereof) amasses followers who can become customers, fans and/or contributors.  Those followers can also share the marketing and informative content your company or organization chooses to share with others by re-tweeting, liking or quoting your tweets, or by old-fashioned word-of-mouth.  If they suddenly disappear, it may take significant time and effort to amass those followers again, and some you may never get back. More >

Employee Manuals – Updating is the Best Defense continued…..

By Jaron P. Blandford on September 7, 2012
Posted In Employee Contracts, Employee Personnel Files, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, Social Media, Social Media Policies

Rolling out policy changes appropriately is a necessary part of updating policies. A company can write and update its manual and have the most effective policies ever, but if they are not presented to the workforce in the proper way, policies are ineffective and just another stack of papers on everyone’s desk. Whatever your detailed course of roll-out, from individual meetings to a company-wide email, you have to go beyond announcing policy changes. Get written acknowledgements from every employee on every change. It is often common practice to issue updates and send out each policy change-by-change, like an addendum to the manual every few months. This is necessary to keep your employees aware of the changes occurring in the workplace policies. However, all those loose papers might get lost in the minutia of daily business and never actually make it into an employee’s manual. So the reality is employees may not be operating with an updated version of the manual. Re-issuing the employee manual in its entirety is the best policy to ensure that employees have the most up-to-date version; once a year should be sufficient, unless significant changes occur. This can be a mitigating factor in unemployment hearings – if an employee was terminated because of a policy violation and the employee had notice and acknowledged changes to the policies and procedures, the company generally has a better chance of justifying the termination for misconduct. More >

Passwords, Privacy and Protection – The Social Networking Online Protection Act

August 17, 2012
Posted In Employee Personnel Files, Employment Discrimination Laws, Employment Law, Hiring and Firing, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, Social Media, Social Media Policies, Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOP), Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation

The Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOPA) prohibits employers from requesting or requiring a potential candidate or employee to provide passwords for personal email, private accounts or social networking sites, while protecting said candidates and employees from repercussions of refusal to provide passwords.  Introduced in April 2012 by Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), after the pressure was turned up on the intersection of privacy and technology by an Associated Press report of a 2011 incident where an employer required access to an applicant’s Facebook account, the SNOPA attempts to draw a line in the sand on social media access. More >

The Slippery Slope of Social Media in Hiring

August 15, 2012
Posted In Employment Discrimination Laws, Employment Law, Hiring and Firing, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, Social Media, Social Media Policies, Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation

In the age of the electronic workplace, technologies like email, cell phones, text messaging, instant messaging and the internet all make for a much more mobile and accessible workforce. The advantages of nearly unlimited access can be profound for companies, increasing efficiency and productivity. Working smarter includes hiring smarter. Human Resource Departments are usually on the forefront of the technology curve, understanding, using and regulating how a company interacts with the fast moving world of the web. One of the fastest growing concerns around the HR water cooler is social media.  How do we, as a company, use social media to our advantage? Beyond marketing, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become one of the best ways to recruit new employees – a primary concern for HR. Sounds logical to research the candidates applying for new openings, using every means you have to insure the potential employee will fit into the company culture and become a productive member of the team.  It’s no different than checking references or running a background check, right?  Well, it is different.  With social media personal and professional lines are blurred. While information willingly submitted to the public domain is just that “public,” a general search through social media may reveal both factual and inaccurate information about a candidate. More >

Essentials for Social Media Policies: Surviving the NLRA

August 10, 2012
Posted In Employee Contracts, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Internet & Media Law, National Labor Relations Act, National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Social Media, Social Media Policies

Developing a social media policy that will survive the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 151, et. seq. while still protecting the company is a primary focus of every employer. The key is providing specific definitions or guidance as to what an employer considers inappropriate social media activity which will be regulated and that the policy does not limit protected activity.  Policies cited by National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon issued in three reports aimed at providing employers guidance on what are and are not permissible social media policies under the NLRA include the following: More >

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