One great thing about practicing in employment law and human relations is that things are never dull. Remember the television show "Kids Say the Darndest Things"? Well, employees (and contractors in this case) do the craziest things. Advances in technology allow co-workers, customers and vendors to capture these lapses in judgment and post for public consumption.
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Texas has a reputation for being business friendly. More often than not, the Texas Legislature refrains from passing legislation providing solutions for nonexistent problems. However, a recent bill, passed by the Texas House and submitted to the Texas Senate would prohibit Texas employers from requesting social media user names and passwords from applicants and employees, addresses a problem
There has been significant coverage of the unfair labor practice charges that have been filed by employees who were terminated over their postings made on Facebook, Twitter and other social media applications. (Examples here, here and here). The NLRB actions in some of these cases have lead to the belief by some union agents and employee representatives
In another example of social media exposing an employee’s lack of judgment, the Washington Post reports that an Indiana assistant attorney general was discharged for tweeting that police should "use live ammunition" when clearing protesters outside the Wisconsin state capital.
Social media doesn’t cause employee lapses in judgment; it merely exposes them. Perhaps the best Social