When posting comments about your workplace on social media, you should avoid saying anything you would not be willing to shout out in the middle of the office.
That is the advice from Peter Holland from Monash University business school and Macquarie University academics Alison Barnes and Nikola Balnave who will on Friday present a paper to a University of NSW workplace relations conference in Canberra.
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The academic paper says organisations including IBM and HP have embraced social media including Facebook and Twitter as part of their internal communications.
But some organisations are more wary about the use of social media in providing an outlet for potentially negative commentary about the workplace.
A series of legal cases that have appeared before the Fair Work Commission have highlighted the consequences of voicing opinions about the workplace in social media.
A worker with private settings on Facebook announced to friends: "Xmas bonus alongside a job warning, followed by no holiday pay!!! Whoooooo! The Hairdressing industry rocks man!!! AWESOME!!!".
The salon was not named, but the worker who posted the comments to Facebook "friends" was sacked for the comments.
The Fair Work Commission said it would be "foolish of employees to think that they may say as they wish on their Facebook page with total immunity from the consequences".
The academic paper said the statement meant employees were on notice about what they discussed inside and outside the workplace on social media.
In another case heard by the Fair Work Commission, a public servant working for the Department of Human Services was sacked after making critical comments under an anonymous social media identity about the department and its lack of resources. In that case it was suggested the sacking was disproportionate to the misconduct and the employee was reinstated. That decision was being appealed.
The academics said it was clear from both cases it was generally unacceptable for an employee to post derogatory comments about their workplace or clients on social media forums.
Associate professor Holland said this suggested employers should not post anything on social media "if you are not prepared to stand in the middle of the office and say it".
"It's there forever, it's in the cloud and companies can find this," he said.
"It is a bit of a wild west because ... there is also an encroachment on your privacy and your employer's right to see your private emails and social media."
This suggested there was no such thing as privacy and that freedom of speech was effectively curbed on social media forums.
Associate professor Holland said workplaces had an obligation clearly communicate policies on what was expected of employees on social media forums. Posting an electronic copy of a policy on a website was not enough. Education was also necessary.
"The need to strike a balance between the employer's legal obligation and employees' rights is a complex issue in the development of social media policies in the workplace," the academics said.
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