Around the end of October, a photo of a government contractor employee flipping the bird to President Trump’s motorcade went viral after the woman made it her profile picture on Facebook. She was subsequently fired for a violation of her company’s social media policy. The company said that the image was “lewd” and “obscene.” The woman argued that she was not at work when the photo was taken and did not mention her employer in the post. No litigation or charges have been filed yet, but would they be successful?
Can an Employer Regulate Political Social Media Speech?
What comes to most people’s mind when reading this type of scenario is the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. However, the First Amendment protects against governmental censorship of speech. With some restrictions, a private employer can restrict speech in the workplace. This right to restrict also may be extended to social media speech, especially when the employer has a written social media policy and if the employee is using employer-provided equipment (cell phone or computer) to engage in the speech. Coupled with the fact that many states are “at-will” employment states, it may be perfectly acceptable for an employer to terminate an employee who engages in speech that the employer finds offensive or non-productive.
One complication outside of the First Amendment is the National Labor Relations Board’s recent decisions that employees cannot be restricted from commenting on social media about their conditions of employment. The NLRB considers such comments to be “concerted protected activity” for which an employer may not retaliate. However, as seen here, there may be social media posts that have nothing to do with the conditions of the workplace, but that the employer doesn’t like. For those posts, discipline or termination may be an option.
This story is a good prompt for employers to review their social media policies and to talk about them with their employees. Remind employees that, although they may not expressly identify each post with the place they work, they still may be considered the face of the organization. Political discussions are not per se taboo—but the tone and language used may sometimes stray into offensive territory. As always, an open dialogue about employment policies usually results in happier employees and less difficult situations.