5 Reasons to Never Talk about Work on Social Media

If you spend a fair amount of time online, you probably consider yourself an expert in social media. For all practical purposes, you probably are an expert. However, if we’re all so great at using social media, why do so many people get into so much trouble over it?

The problem is that we tend to use social media for its most obvious purpose–interacting with our friends–without considering that everything we put out there also affects other parts of our lives, such as our interactions with employers. The following five reasons illuminate an important rule we should all embrace: never talk about work on social media.

1. You can usually be legally fired for social media posts. Most employees have at-will contracts and can be terminated for almost any reason–including social media activities. There are a few exceptions. For example, you can’t be legally terminated for social media posts that engage in concerted activity.

The case of Shea Allen, an investigative reporter WAAY TV, is an example of a case where an employee is not protected and can legally be fired for social media posts.

Shea posted a list of “confessions” on her personal blog called “Shea Allen Says…”. She wrote harmless posts like “Happy, fluffy, rainbow stories about good things make me depressed”, to posts that discredited Allen as a reporter. Such as, “If you ramble and I deem you unnecessary for my story, I’ll stop recording but let you think otherwise.” Posts of this nature got fired.

Moral of the story: Don’t post about your work on social media.

2. What you post online is there forever. What you consider to be a harmless post could be cause for termination by your employer’s standards. Even if you think you deleted an embarrassing picture or a questionable Tweet, someone could save it and share it on the Internet.

Ashley Payne, a former high school teacher of Apalachee High School in Georgia, was fired over a Facebook photo of her holding a glass of wine in one hand, and a mug of beer in the other.

Good cause for termination or not, this is an example of an innocent post resulting in the loss of a job.

3. Potential employers are watching. Employers check applicant’s social media accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to help determine if they should be hired. If a potential employer sees a post from you about your current or old job, whether the post is good or bad, it could affect the employer’s decision to hire you.

For example, there is the recent story where a frustrated Lacoste employee posted a picture of his paycheck to Instagram to express his frustration with the amount he was earning.  He was in turn fired, because he was not engaging in a concerted activity. If he posted the paycheck with the goal of raising all employee wages, this is protected. But since the post was just a complaint, he was in turn terminated.

If future employers got wind of this story, likely they would take this into consideration during the hiring process.

4. Evidence of questionable employee contact. It’s always nice to add a bit of humor and lightheartedness to the workplace, but posting or showing a picture of it online could be consequential.

Facebook created a page for the “Lying Down Game,” which features employees taking pictures of themselves lying down on the job. Innocent, right? Well not for some employees…

At Swindon’s Great Western Hospital, seven nurses and doctors were at risk for firing after posting pictures of themselves playing the lying down game. The photos showed them lying down on resuscitation trollies, ward floors, and the hospital helicopter pad. The Hospital commented saying they violated the health code, and the NHS code of conduct. What seemed like a fun game, turned into the potential loss of high paying jobs.

It does not matter whether you work at Starbucks or are a doctor, the same rules apply to everyone: if you post something about your work, you could get fired.

5. You could put your company at risk. Depending on what company you work for, sharing information–like a new product or plans to merge with another company–could put the employer or company at risk. Competing companies could gain an upper hand, and the company could suffer losses.

In the case Sasqua Group v. Courtney, the Sasqua Group sued its former employee, “Courtney”, for allegedly stealing confidential lists of clients and customers. Courtney took this list and proceeded to build her own consulting business based off of the client list. Courtney defended her actions, pointing out these lists were available to the public on LinkedIn through Sasqua’s account. The court ruled in Courtney’s favor; since the lists were available online through Sasqua’s LinkedIn account, it was not considered a trade secret and was legal.

Sasqua lost clients to a competing company because they were available online.

It is vital to protect your job by screening what you post on social media. If there’s any hesitation, it is better to keep it off the Internet. The Golden Rule to stick to: don’t ever post about work online.