Layoffs and pay freezes are big news these days. And in some cases, employees are doing more than just talking about it, they’re blogging about it. Some of these sites fly under the radar as convenient methods of venting while others have attracted more than a little bit of attention. One of the most talked about in recent months is Heller Highwater, which describes itself as “in essence, a support site for the professional support staff of a global law firm in turmoil: Heller Erhman, LLP.” (Heller Erhman, LLP is now defunct.)
Welcome to Office Water Cooler 2.0.
While sites like Heller Highwater are quick to point out that “in no way, shape or form is Heller Highwater sanctioned, supported or even recognized, (but it is very likely monitored) by the management…”, it does raise interesting questions about the lines between free speech and the limits we place on employees.
In a world where image matters, more and more companies are looking to professional reputation managers to monitor what’s being said about them. Interestingly, many are putting an emphasis not on what the competition has to say, nor what ex-clients and disgruntled customers have to say, but what current (and former) employees are chatting about. And maybe that’s a good idea. In addition to blogs, fan pages and groups are popping up on social networking sites like Facebook where employees (and sometimes, ex-employees) can chime in with their likes, dislikes and everything in between about a certain company. It kind of has that creepy feel of ex-girlfriends sitting around talking about you. You worry about - well - everything.
But is it worth worrying about? How much damage can it do? And is the cost to repair or prevent the damage worth the expense of monitoring the internet and attempting to shutter sites that appear malicious?
Many companies have decided to take up the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mantra by reversing prior stances on social networking sites. Rather than banning employee participation in such sites, the companies have taken control of their reputation by capitalizing on their brand. In other words, they’ve jumped on the Facebook, MySpace, twitter, etc. bandwagon as a means of reputation control. But is what appears to be the easy way out really the best way out? In other words, is giving employees an opportunity to talk about the company really a good thing?
The verdict on that is kind of mixed. On the one hand, seizing control of your reputation is clearly a good thing. But monitoring the usage can be tricky. Offering some sort of venue for employees to express their frustrations may cut off the sort of mob mentality that has lead to the “I hate…” glut of sites of late. A light-handed approach could result in a mixed bag of commentary about your company while a heavy-handed approach could make employees angry and put you right back where you started.
And what about what gets said about your company on (gasp) company time? Do you have rules in place about whether you will monitor your employees’ usage of the internet? There are very few laws on the books regarding monitoring employees’ usage of the internet. A lack of laws, however, does not mean that you cannot be fired from violating company policy. As the employer, it’s a good practice to have any policy about non-work related internet usage in writing so that there’s no confusion about what constitutes improper use of the internet during work hours. And it’s becoming more popular. In fact, according to the 2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute:
- 76% of employers monitor employees’ Web site connections;
- 65% of employers use technology to block connections to banned Web sites; and
- 55% of employers monitor e-mail
What about what gets said about your company on the employee’s personal time? Say, from home? At the end of the day, most employment is “at will” which means that you can fire an employee without notice (barring discrimination and other prohibited terminations), so if you’re really unhappy with an employee, you have the right to let him or her go. But is that the route that you want to take? Besides the obvious threat of a wrongful termination law suit, there is the bigger question of how far you’re willing to go to keep your employees from talking about you. You have to decide what costs you more: keeping the employee or letting him or her go.
This area of the law is far from settled - and in the current economic climate, I don’t expect it to get less complicated by any means. In fact, as the opportunities for social networking among employees increase from blogging to tweeting, I suspect it will become something that employers struggle with more and more. It’s no longer the case that employees spend hours in a bar blowing off steam about their employers - it’s more likely the case that they’re spending hours on a laptop or cell phone.
A good company will have a proactive strategy in place to deal protecting their online reputation in a new social media world. Do you?
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