Firing Employees for Their Social Media Posts: Ethical and Legal Issues: A Business Case

Firing Employees for Their Social Media Posts: Ethical and Legal Issues 

Forthcoming/Accepted for publication in SAGE Business Cases

Abstract - Case & Teaching Notes

This business case provides a hypothetical set of facts, in which an employee uses social media to complain about an employer.  The employee made the complaints on their own time and using personal equipment.  The student is placed in the role of a restaurant manager, who must navigate the ethical and legal boundaries of workplace speech and company Social Media Policies, by interacting with social media and human resources professionals, and the very employee posting questionable content on social media.  This case also has students explore perspectives on workplace privacy issues, and whether employees are responsible for their actions, while off company time and on personal equipment.

Presenting Law Essentials for Entrepreneurs, May & July 2018

Looking forward to this session, which includes a practical discussion of Intellectual Property and...

Entrepreneurs: Common Law Mistakes

    - Incorporating before a trademark search

    - Entity selection

    - Attorney-Client Privilege

◦      Joint Representation agreement – ill-advised

    - Shareholders Agreement

◦      Protecting self-interest (Group Exercise)

    - Work for Hire Agreements

◦      Transfer of IP

Using #SocialMedia to Teach Students to Become Ethical Digital Citizens in (and Out) of the Workplace

Published in The Saporta Report:

Warren Buffett said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” People worldwide affirm that statement daily with ill-advised social media posts in their professional and personal lives.

In 2007, the infancy of social media, I opened a Facebook account. With a bit of trepidation, I asked my students to add me as a “friend,” find inappropriate online content written by griping employees, post it to my wall and discuss it in class. Since then, I created several projects to educate students on appropriate uses of social media. Recently, I published these activities in a journal article, titled “Creating Social Media Law Projects to Sensitize Business Students to Appropriate Digital Conduct.”

The article describes how social media promotes “instantaneous dissemination of thought, oftentimes without filter or reflection,” in “a participatory forum of real time information clutter.” My interactive projects are designed for students to recognize good from bad digital behavior and become 24/7 brand ambassadors for wherever they work, as well as for themselves.

Continue reading in The Saporta Report

Panelist: IP Issues with Creative Assets on the Blockchain

Had a great time this week, speaking about "Smart Contracts" and IP issues in using cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin), for artists to sell their work in a secure manner - and without a middleman controlling royalties (e.g., not using Spotify, and selling songs directly to consumers).  So instead of a Business-to-Business model, it is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) model.

Thank you to GSU Creative Media Industries Institute and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute for putting this panel together.

Fun and informative for me, and hopefully for all.

Click here for Video Recap of Panel (2:59) and 
Links to my Technology Law for Entrepreneurs class.

SENSITIZING EMPLOYEES TO APPROPRIATE DIGITAL CONDUCT

I've been writing about and training HR professionals and employees on this topic for years.  New journal article coming out soon.

Excerpt from Southern Law Journal... 
Social media has complicated personal and professional lives. What was once bullying in school or the workplace has turned into a 24/7 harassment tool, with cyberbullying on the rise. What was once hidden youthful indiscretions in a pre-social media world has turned into the need for employees to scrub their internet presence in the hopes of securing or keeping a job. Posting fun work-related pictures online in a work uniform cannot only be misconstrued, they can get you fired.

While social media has both a positive and negative impact on society, this article judges neither.  Rather, its purpose is to sensitize business students on appropriate and ethical use of the Internet in private and work lives.  To do so, the author developed numerous projects over several years, dating from social media’s early days to present day. 

Read article by clicking here (go to Fall 2017 edition)

10 Motivators for Professional Success

With the new year in full swing, it's time to work on growing professionally...

1- Don't let anyone crush your professional dreams. However, the riskier your dream, the better your backup plan must be. 
2- Live life with no regrets. Sometimes doing the “wrong" career thing may be the right thing for you. Just be prepared to deal with the consequences.

Continue reading 10 Motivators for Professional Success

Big Data Privacy in the Workplace Critical Thinking Exercises for HR Professionals & Law Firm Paralegals

New sessions (60 minutes)

Big Data Privacy in the Workplace

Critical Thinking Exercises for 

HR Professionals

As the veracity of big data improves to make information even more valuable in the commercial marketplace, the law does not always keep pace with ever-changing technology in the business world, and specifically in the workplace.  This interactive session sensitizes HR Professionals to cutting-edge legal issues faced by their companies, on the implications of employer use of employee data. 

Big Data Privacy in the Workplace

Critical Thinking Exercises for Law Firm Paralegals

As the veracity of big data improves to make client information even more valuable in the commercial marketplace, the law does not always keep pace with ever-changing technology in the business world, and specifically in the workplace.  This interactive session sensitizes Paralegals to cutting-edge legal issues faced by their attorneys and clients, on the implications of employer use of employee data. 

This presentation is relevant to many Paralegal Practice Groups: Litigation (Labor & Employment/Data Privacy & Security); Government & Regulatory (Healthcare); Transactional (Writing policies); all Paralegals working with global clients (EU Privacy Directives); etc.  The session gets Paralegals out of their Practice Group comfort zones by introducing issues they’ve likely never worked on.  Ultimately, such critical thinking exercises can lead to “outside the box” higher order thinking for Paralegals, as they stay current on fluid changes in the law.