With the rise of the smart phone, social media is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with many feeling like they have lost a limb if they are without their precious phone or tablet. The need to be constantly connected has consumed us all and so too has the undeniable urge to share everything. From what you had for breakfast, to where you’re jetting off to on holiday; the fashionable trend is to share, share, and share. I can’t deny posting photographs and commentaries on successes and cheery days out with friends and family but what about the failures and the bad days? How many times have you become upset or angered by something in the office, and turned to a colleague to have a ‘rant’ about it?

We have all been guilty of speaking ill of those around us at some point (You can try to deny, but let’s be honest, shall we?) but how many of us now turn to our trusty electronic devices rather than our trusted friends to vent that anger? Perhaps your office space doesn’t allow for quiet exchanges, or perhaps you don’t want to open the door to a disapproving comment in response.

Whatever the reason, it is all too common to see staff in all manner of businesses picking up their phone or logging in to a social media account to air their views about John’s annoyingly loud typing, Sally’s overly cheery disposition, or a client who is simply frustrating. For the Manager or HR professional, social media has created a vast desert of uncertainty to navigate as to ‘if and when’ comments made on any public forum give rise to misconduct issues.

The Courts have considered a whole range of cases surrounding harassment and bullying in the workplace via social media and this can stem from something as simple as clicking ‘like’ on someone else’s comment. In Young v Argos Ltd the tribunal gave an unfair finding when Argos dismissed the claimant for ‘liking’ a former employee’s comment about her manager, saying that she was ‘as much use as a chocolate tea pot’. Interestingly though, the Tribunal’s reasoning was that the comments concerned were not sufficiently serious for the employer to argue that it had lost trust and confidence in Young, entitling it to dismiss her. The inference here then has to be that had the comment been more serious, a dismissal simply for clicking ‘like’ could be potentially fair.

In Teggart v TeleTech UK Ltd, the more brutal side of harassment in social media is revealed. With the rise in public awareness of bullying, I would be surprised if any of you can honestly say you have not witnessed or at least heard of something similar to this in your own lives.

Teggart, who was a Customer Service Representative, posted the following on his Facebook page: ‘Quick question, who at Teletech has A (a colleague) not tried to f---? She does get around!’ The post unsurprisingly provoked numerous comments and when A came to hear of it, she requested that the post be deleted, this provoked further posts and it was Teggart’s apparent intention to create ‘a vulgar distaste’ for A within the workplace, that then re-enforced the Tribunal’s view that Teggart’s dismissal was fair.

The list of cases goes on, with some that you likely wouldn’t believe, but stay tuned for my next post in this series. We will look at circumstances where the Courts will hold you, the employer, liable for the ramblings and remarks of your staff made in the social media realm.