QLD Social Media (Facebook) and Work

[LongHairedAussieGuy]

This is in regards to QLD and social media (Facebook).

If you do not have your work place and city you live in listed on your Facebook page (and privacy settings strict) can you still get into trouble by work by things posted?

I am not talking about posts which insult the company you work for but funny things/memes posted by yourself or posted to your facebook by friends just in general. There is alleged possible former employee who I have known for years (and thought we were friends up to now) who may have taken a screen shot of a meme on my facebook page and sent it to the company I work for. Nothing I have ever said or posted has been about work (I would not be silly enough to do that) but memes and pictures which are easily accessible from the web and from similar line of work I do from all over the world.

As I said, nothing bad has ever been said about the company I work for, nor is my work place or city I live is listed on my page. Nothing has occured of this yet, but I am curious to know some information as I know laws and social media can be a bit iffy sometimes.

 

[John R]

Hi @LongHairedAussieGuy
This is an interesting area and this legal forum contains a growing number of Facebook and employment law questions.
A recent question in the Employment Law Forum "Employment Terminated after Employer accessed my Facebook" and questions with the Facebook tag may be worth a look.

The first question I'd generally ask to someone in your situation is:

1. Does your employer have a social media policy?
2. If not, does your employment agreement cover appropriate use of technology, social media, etc.?

Hope this helps.

 

[Tracy B]

Hi LongHairdAussieGuy,

The first place you should look, as John said, is you company's social media policy (if they have one). Even if you do not have your city and workplace listed, publishing posts that are directly or indirectly interpreted as offensive or inappropriate to your employer, may be considered against company policy if others can infer from the posts that they are made by an employee of that company or somehow link the two together. When dealing with social media, it is best to exercise judgement and veer on the conservative/cautious side.

 

[LongHairedAussieGuy]

Hi @LongHairedAussieGuy
This is an interesting area and this legal forum contains a growing number of Facebook and employment law questions.
A recent question in the Employment Law Forum "Employment Terminated after Employer accessed my Facebook" and questions with the Facebook tag may be worth a look.

The first question I'd generally ask to someone in your situation is:

1. Does your employer have a social media policy?
2. If not, does your employment agreement cover appropriate use of technology, social media, etc.?

Hope this helps.

Thank you for replying. As far as everything I have perused there is nothing about social media policies in our contract. There is a code of conduct policy but does not include social media. Only relevant thing which computers in the workplace is the use of the Internet. Only managers and supervisors can access this and are allowed to use the work computers. Internet usage is said to be only used for workplace work. They do not mind if personal emails are looked at however but nothing vulgar is to be looked at. Pretty much common sense stuff when it comes to Internet behaviour at work. Nothing is said about a persons views or behaviours on social media in their own home. Stuff which was posted on my page was more shared to be by others. They do not reflect the company I work for or our client. They were memes making fun of the industry I work in. I have since deleted all the images to avoid any hassles. I was not going to as I feel it's my personal page and images did not reflect on my employer or client in any way. I am just angry more I guess at a longtime friend who used images on my page to get someone else in trouble. As far as I heard it is not about me but another person. One thing for sure is I will be indeed be more careful as slightest thing on social media can possibly get you in trouble lol

 

[Ian Macleod]

This is in regards to QLD and social media (Facebook).

If you do not have your work place and city you live in listed on your Facebook page (and privacy settings strict) can you still get into trouble by work by things posted?

I am not talking about posts which insult the company you work for but funny things/memes posted by yourself or posted to your facebook by friends just in general. There is alleged possible former employee who I have known for years (and thought we were friends up to now) who may have taken a screen shot of a meme on my facebook page and sent it to the company I work for. Nothing I have ever said or posted has been about work (I would not be silly enough to do that) but memes and pictures which are easily accessible from the web and from similar line of work I do from all over the world.

As I said, nothing bad has ever been said about the company I work for, nor is my work place or city I live is listed on my page. Nothing has occured of this yet, but I am curious to know some information as I know laws and social media can be a bit iffy sometimes.

All business are encouraged to have a social media policy. If your posts are in breach of that social media policy one could be in strife but I would think you would need to be saying derogatory, or offensive things about the company or its employees to breach the policy. There have been some recent cases where employees have been sacked because of their social media behaviour and other where it was found they had been dismissed unfairly.

Have a look at these to cases.
http://www.herbertsmithfreehills.co...l-bench-sets-a-framework-for-assessing-misuse
[2012] FWAFB 7097

[2013] FWC 9642