Social Networking Employers

Social networking has become a standard and a way of life for people to connect to their family, friends, and the outside world. This type of media allows people to post biographical information, daily life experiences, photos and other gateways into their lives. Examples of these sites are Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace to name a few. The benefit to these sites is that it allows people to connect to each other is new and exciting ways. The downside to this is that it can allow others, such as current or future employers, to see and find information about you. This issue brings up many questions as to what the limits are between employers insight into what their employees put on public access social networks. “The downside and dark side is its ability to blur the lines between work and personal lives.” (Lewis, 2012)

In the article The Dark Side of Social Networking the author discusses many questions such as “can an employee be terminated for malicious misconduct if he complains online that the food at a company event was lousy, which hurt customer sales?” or “If a relationship between two co-workers ends and one of them posts disparaging comments about the other, is that person-or the company-libel under sexual harassment laws?” or “Is it an unfair labor practice for an employer to use social media sites to monitor activities of current or prospective employees such as their religious or political affiliations, drinking habits or drug usage?” (Lewis, 2012) These are very valid questions because in these cases the employee is, in one form or another, interfering with their employer or otherwise causing their employer harm or stress.

The author raises these questions as a basis of argument for labor unions to include social networking rules in their labor contracts and also the question about how these issues can affect labor laws. The author further explains that this could be a first amendment issue, that an employer does not just