Nicole Lobo MGMT 441 Paper #3

Articles: http://www.youtube.com/watch !"#$%m&4'(mt$ http://www.youtube.com/watch !"hM)'*LN+y3% ,- the A.e o/ Lea0e+ Memos1 Tra-spare-cy a Must /or 2irms Get A-tisocial 3ocial Networ0i-. 4-li-e Protectio- Act 5omi-o6s 3ocial Me+ia (risis

In the video Teacher Fired Over Facebook, I can understand why the school chose to fire her. The brand image of a school has to be one that cares for students. Her Facebook posts obviously did not align with this schools image. So it makes sense that the school choose to distance themselves from the situation and fire her. I would have probably done the same thing if I were in the school s place but I have to wonder if firing the teacher violates employee s right to discuss work conditions. If you look at it from that perspective the teacher has !ust talked about her workplace. Has she done something wrong" However, I still think the school made the right decision since it minimi#ed unavoidable harm and it also have to keep in mind another important stakeholder ie. the parents. I think the bigger ethical $uestion here is how can Facebook change her privacy settings. I wonder how did Facebook respond to this situation. The fact that Facebook changed her privacy settings without her consent is more than a little creepy. In the second video, Teacher Fired Over %hotos %osted on Facebook seems berserk to me. The school policy states that employers who post on Facebook any inappropriate information will be investigated and they will be disciplined if necessary. However what it includes as &inappropriate behavior' is very ambiguous. (ccording to the news video the school policy defines in appropriate behavior as anything students are prohibited for doing. This statement is so vague. (ccording to this school policy, one could argue a teacher shouldn t post pictures of him)herself driving a car as students*a least those who are unde +,- are prohibited from doing so. If the photo was of her doing something illegal, the school would have a leg to stand on. There is no law that adults can t drink or adults can t drink in front of a minor. (nother $uestion that worries me is that how did the complainer see the teacher s photos. In the news video she says that her Facebook page was private and students and parents would not be able to see it. It raises the $uestion is anything posted online private" .an private Facebook accounts get easily hacked" These incidents and others have made me weary of whom I add and what I post on Facebook. /hen I

first started working I used to add people with whom I work with on Facebook, especially since it was the only social network I used at the time. However, now I add all my professional contacts on 0inkedIn. The only colleagues I add on Facebook are the ones with whom I have a relationship apart from work. The same goes with what I post. (ll my personal posts I limited to only Facebook where my profile is private. %osts regarding news events or industry trends I post on Twitter where my profile is public. For photos that are e1tremely private I share on 2oogle3 because it the easiest way to select only few people with whom I wish to share the post. The article In the (ge of 0eaked 4emos, Transparency a 4ust for Firms shows how important employees as a stake holder are. It is important to reali#e that !ust as how consumers can take to twitter when they are unhappy with the brand, so can employees. However, I can t help but wonder if an employee who bad mouths his)her employer, is he)she hurting his)her future !ob prospects. One of the cardinal rules during a !ob interview is do not bad mouth your boss. This will lead potential employers to think that you will be difficult to manage and and the employer will worry about what you may say to someone about him or her down the road. If an employer checks a candidates online presence *which a lot of employers do according to the other articles posted for this week-, and sees that the candidate has tweeted something negative about his)her previous company, it can hurt the candidates chances for future employment. I wonder if the employee of H45, who began tweeting from the company s handle, get a lot of !ob offers after that or did his)her actions send a red flag every time he or she went for a !ob interview. The 6ilbert comic strip in the article 2et (ntisocial actually happened to me. I used to work for a 6igital 4arketing firm and access to social networking sites were banned. Of course it was more focused around Search 7ngine 4arketing and %aid Search which do not utili#e social networking sites but a big part of it was understanding online visitor trends and using Twitter trends would have been a valuable tool. That s probably why I am opposed to restrictions on social media. The social networking policies is an e1tremely controversial topic. I do oppose social media polices

that unfairly restrict employees from e1pressing themselves online but at the same time I believe that every employee is an ambassador for the company and their views should align with the companies attitude or belief. I agree with the 809( when they deemed some companies social networking policies as unlawful. It does violate an employee s right to discuss work conditions. Instead of developing policies that restrict employees I believe that employers should make employees feel like they are an integral part of the company. In that way they hopefully become advocates for the company. :y overly restricting employees you are giving them a reason not to trust the company and not to believe in the company. I feel that being transparent with employees and not blindsiding them will help you even if you have to deliver bad news. (lso, by creating avenues where an employee can share his)her concerns an employee may not choose to vent their frustrations online. I actually was completely opposed to creating social networking policies to prohibit employees from posting about the company; but after reading the article, & 6omino s Social 4edia .risis' I wonder if 6omino s had a social networking policy would that have helped prevent the incident from occurring. I think if we can understand why the employee s made the video, were they disgruntled with 6omino s, were they !ust bored,etc., we can figure out what makes employees choose to tarnish the brand name of the company for which they work. The article on Social 8etworking Online %rotection (ct was eye opening. It is the first time I have ever heard of something like this happening. I actually find the fact that they have to create a law that prevents employers from in$uiring for a username and password ridiculous. 7mployers should know that asking for a username and password is a massive breach of privacy. .ompanies who did this probably lost a lot of talented candidates who would gave been valuable assets to their company. I know I would prefer taking a !ob which had offered less money and did not violate my privacy then take a !ob that had a higher salary but needed my Facebook username and password.