Social Media Monitoring by Employers - It's Not Just on Applicants Anymore

The high percentage of employers who use social networking sites to screen potential employees is not alarming in today's online culture.  In fact, it is very commonplace across a variety of professions and industries for employers to do this type of screening.  A 2023 Career Builder survey showed that 70% of employers use this technique and that from that pool of employers, 57% decided not to consider the applicant for a position solely based on their social media profiles.

What is alarming to me is the growing number of employers who are using it to continue to monitor applicants they have hired.  Sometimes this monitoring seems to go beyond the employer enforcing adherence to company policies and ventures into the realm of employees' personal opinions and interests. I do understand if the employer is concerned with some "red flag" behavior at work, such as inappropriate language or hints of underlying violence, that the employer may want to use social media for an insight into the employee's character.  I just worry about what happens when an employer decides that they don't agree with the viewpoint or personal activity of an employee and terminates them without just cause?

According to a blog posting on the topic of employee social media conduct which I found on the McNees website - an Employment Law Firm - employees working for a privately held company cannot seek protection under the First Amendment for social media posts. "If an employee works for a private company, the employer can discipline or fire the employee for social media posts - even if made off-duty - without violating the First Amendment (unless the post is protected by the other laws such as Title VII, the ADA, the PHRA, etc.)    

I have two burning questions after reading that quote:  1.  What if a person works for a non-private entity, such as a public library? and 2. How would the person being fired know which post(s) caused their termination (for the purposes of seeing if the firing was protected under laws such as Title VII, the ADA, or PHRA)?  

Actually, I have a third question - What if a friend tags you in a photo at an event your employer does not approve of on a personal level?  Has your employment status been put at risk?

         

 

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