Articles Posted in Social Media and the Workplace

A few weeks, ago I was speaking about social media and the workplace to a fabulous audience at the 2014 SHRM Annual Conference and Expo. (Email me if you want a copy of my slidedeck).

One of my session themes was that there is no such thing as employees using social media “off the clock.” That is, even if an individual tweets or updates her Facebook status outside of the four walls of the workplace, that communication can still impact the workplace.

Dan Davis at IBM Social Business recently blogged about this, and another Twitter user described it as the “24/7 social media conundrum” Two recent incidents described below bear this out.

I remember a high school classmate of mine who had his mom send in a permission slip to excuse him from missing school for the Philadelphia Phillies’ home opener. Mom’s note indicated that her son was suffering from “Vernal Flu.” 

Get it? Vernal Flu = Spring Fever.

Pretty creative, huh?

shrm.jpgAnd by coffee, I mean turkey legs and frozen blueberry-mango rum lemonade.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down…

You see that badge over there? You know what I had to do to get that badge?
Buy the full version of Photoshop
Spike the Kool-Aid of everyone on the SHRM Annual Conference Speaker Selection Committee
I beat out thousands (trillions?) of other speaker submissions to be selected as a SHRM 2014 Annual Conference & Exposition speaker.

Meet Delaware lawyer, Brian Zulberti.

According to his website, back in 2013, after getting his DE bar license, Mr. Zulberti emailed every Delaware lawyer asking for information about job openings. In each email, he included this photo of himself in a sleeveless t-shirt.

Mr. Zulberti claims that this mass email, coupled with a subsequent story written in Above The Law, made him a “global internet sensation.”

Why, just last week, I was saying that the Facebook stupidity scale had shifted away from teachers in favor of bar/tavern staff.

I stand corrected.

For future reference, you can never go wrong with Vining the one-year-old slugger.

I used to say that teachers were the most irresponsible Facebook user group. Now, I’m leaning towards the bar and nightclub industry.

Last month, a worker at a downtown Philadelphia bar displayed a Heineken chalkboard with the message “I like my beer like I like my violence… domestic.” to attract customers.

But, instead of achieving its desired effect, a passerby tweeted the photo to a local news station and a major cluster of a poopstorm ensued, which culminated in the worker losing his job.

Within the past week, two states have passed laws, which will provide employees with more workplace protections.

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure that the internet had yet arrived in either Oklahoma or Louisiana, the latter of which is still controlled by a French monarch, I’m fairly certain.

(But since Louisiana also has beignets and Mardi Gras, all is forgiven).

Thumbnail image for weknownext.pngYesterday, my buddy Jonathan Segal and I joined forces on Twitter to answer eight questions from SHRM’s We Know Next about the state of the law governing social media and the workplace.

A big thank you to SHRM and to those who were able to join us and participate. 

ICYMI, here is a full recap.

“Doing What’s Right – Not Just What’s Legal”
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