This document provides a guide to navigating social media in the workplace based on a 2012 NLRB report. It summarizes that the NLRB ensures employees' rights to discuss working conditions. An employee's social media posts about work could be protected under Section 7 rights if discussing working conditions. However, inappropriate language is still unwise. Company social media policies could restrict these rights and violate Section 8(a)(1), making disciplinary action unlawful. The document advises understanding both employee rights and company policies around social media use.

1. A Guide to Navigating Social
Media in the Workplace
Based on the 2012 National Labor Relations Board
Social Media Report
photo credit: kdonovan_gaddy via Flickr cc

2. DISCLAIMER!
The content in this
slideshow is not meant to
encourage employees to
push the boundaries of
their employers’ rules.
These guidelines will not
necessarily save you
from getting fired. But
they may aid you in a
possible wrongful
termination suit.
- Tyler McCarthy

3. Criticism amplified beyond the office
Under what circumstances could
an employee be fired for Facebook
comments that reference his or her
employer? When might an
employer's rules about Twitter
postings be unlawful and impede
upon free speech?
As social media use grows more
common in the modern business
world, it is important for those
engaged in private and public
discourse online to understand
their rights.

4. Navigating the NLRB Report
In January 2012, the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
issued its second social media
report, outlining recent conflicts
arising from employee use of sites
like Facebook and Twitter. The
report provides guidance to both
employers and employees.
The NLRB works to ensure that
workers have rights to combat
heavy-handed company policies. It
is an employee’s responsibility to
know what these rights are and
how to apply them.

5. Understanding Your Rights
The main element courts will look for in a wrongful
termination suit involving social media posts is the context
of the employee’s offending statements. Online posts
could fall under what the National Labor Relations Act
has established as an employee’s “Section 7 rights.”

6. Understanding Section 7 Rights
• An employee’s Section 7 rights extend to any
conversation about the workplace that can reasonably
be considered as sparking a discussion about conditions
in the workplace.
• Discussion about one’s work environment and conditions
counts as a “protected” employee activity, according to
the National Labor Relations Act .
• In recent years, the NLRB has determined that Section 7
protections are extending to the realm of social media.

7. How Section 7 Applies To You
You are allowed to
complain about the your
workplace online as long as
you can argue that what
you were saying had to do
with your “work conditions.”
You may also need to prove
that you had an “intended
audience” in mind when
you publish comments on
Facebook or Twitter. Being
friends with other
employees goes a long
way.

8. Choosing your words, wisely?
The language that you
choose to use on social
media does not really
matter, as long as you stay
within the parameters of
your Section 7
rights, although
inappropriate and offensive
language is never a good
idea for your professional
reputation.
photo credit: Spencer E Holtaway, Flickr cc

9. Understanding Your Rights
As social media goes mainstream, U.S. companies are
trying to stay ahead of the game by drafting social media
policies. By making standards known to employees, the
assumption is employers have a right to enforce the
company’s social media policies if a violation occurs.
However, the NLRB says “Section 8 (a)(1) rights” may
come into play.

10. Understanding Section 8 (a)(1)Rights
Under “Section 8 (a)(1),” an employee could argue
that a social media policy drafted by a company was
unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act.
Employers are prohibited from instituting rules that
quash discussion about working conditions.
If it can be reasonably believed that an employer’s
social media policy could, in any way, restrict an
employee’s established Section 7 rights, then the policy
is unlawful and an employee cannot be held to
disciplinary action for violating it.
photo credit: Joe Gratz, via Flickr cc

11. How Section 8 (a)(1) Applies To You
Section 8 (a)(1) exists so
that employees do not have
to fear the social media
policy boogeyman created
by their firm.
As long as an employee
understands and works
within their NLRA Section 7
rights, they will know which
parts of their employer’s
social media policy holds up
legally and which ones do
not.