Recently, this blog reported on a key ruling by the NLRB
that ruled in favor of a waitress who called her boss an “asshole” on Facebook.
The cook liked the post. Both employees were fired. A federal appeals panel
voted 3-0 to uphold the NLRB. Their core reasoning: “Although customers
happened to see the Facebook discussion at issue in this case, the discussion
was not directed toward customers and did not reflect the employer’s brand. The
Board’s decision that the Facebook activity at issue here did not lose the
protection of the Act simply because it contained obscenities viewed by
customers accords with the reality of modernday social media use.” So where is
the line? An employee can be fired for a social media post that disparages the
employer’s product: “an employer has a legitimate interest in preventing the
disparagement of its products or services and, relatedly, in protecting its
reputation . . . from defamation.” Read the case is here.
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