b'Social MediaWho, What, Why . . . Who does it apply to: Every employer, regardless of whetherCommon Situations: employees access the internet at work. PersonalBlogging:Anemployeewhoactsasapilotfora company expresses their personal observations about safety Whatisit:UseofsiteslikeFacebook,Twitter,Instagram,issues with their employers airline, or that of another airline (who Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, and the like.Virtuallyemployer is in negotiations to purchase) based on information every person in the workforce has some access to a computerlearned at work.In the first instance, the employer has just andlikelyusesoneofthemorethan3billionFacebookbecome open to investigation by the FAA.In the second, a accounts or the more than 300 million Twitter accounts.Theseprospecting journalist might find the information and use it to accounts are used to share personal information and sometimeswrite an article about concerns by an employee over the safety information about work or co-workers which employers wouldof the airline it is trying to purchase.prefer to keep private.If you dont think your employees are using it, think again.PersonalFacebookUse:Infightingamongtwofeuding employees that the employer is not aware of has lead to racially How does it affect me: Employers have always been concernedor sexually charged comments being posted.The information is about how their employees act at work and on their personalcollected and used by the victim to file a discrimination lawsuit time.Most employers have maintained at least oral policiesagainst the employer.abouthowemployeesshouldactanddresswhileatwork.SomehavemaintainedpoliciesabouthowemployeesactUnsupervisedCompanyBlogging:Anemployeewhoisan when on personal time.But what used to be shared amongarchitect expresses safety concerns on the use of a particular friends over a beer on Friday night has become an entry on thetype of material in specific building applications.The employee employees Facebook page or a quick tweet.These thoughtsfeels he is doing a service to the company by increasing its are now expressed in writing and open for virtually the wholevisibility to the public as a safe operator.Unfortunately, the world to see. employeeisunawarethatthecompanyformerlyadvocated the use of the material, and its customers now have a potential How can I tell my employees what to do in their off time:This islawsuit based on the companys change in viewpoint.America and we do protect the freedom of speech, but working for your business is a privilege.If an employee is unwilling to bePersonal Twitter Use:A supervisor about to board a plane to careful about how they act outside of the workplace, they can dotravel to Phoenix where she must terminate several employees, so, but not if they want to work for you.You can fire employeesbides her time by tweeting that she is sad because she is about who do not agree to adhere to your conduct standards in, or out,to fly Phoenix and let several employees go.Unfortunately, of the workplace. some of her followers on Twitter are the employees in Phoenix who will be let go.With the cat out of the bag early, one of the employees deletes hundreds of files from the employers servers before even meeting with the supervisor.67'