Beware What You Write on Facebook: It Could Cost You Your Job

Posted by Melissa Fleischer, Esq. on Nov 10th 2011

The  National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against a Connecticut company that allegedly terminated an employee for disparaging remarks she made on Facebook about her boss.  The NLRB alleges that the termination violated the law that protects employees from discipline for discussing their working conditions and jobs with their co-workers. 

 The Company, American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. has a policy prohibiting employees from making disparaging remarks about the company on any social media sites.  The company claims that this employee was actually terminated as a result of complaints about her work rather than the comments she made on Facebook.  This will be an interesting case to follow for employers who have such social media policies. 

In some states, there are laws that prohibit an employer from terminating an employee for lawful off-duty conduct such as talking about your employer on social media sites.  Connecticut is not one of those states.  We will follow this case closely and analyze the results to advise employers the best way to handle such issues and what it means for how you should best draft your social media policy.