RPJ Partner Jill Kahn Marshall Featured in WorkLife Article on Social Media in the Workplace

By Jill Kahn Marshall

In a recent interview for WorkLife, RPJ Partner Jill Kahn Marshall discusses the evolving landscape of employee social media use and how as more workers express dissatisfaction with their jobs online, companies are increasingly adopting social media policies to manage this behavior.

“[O]ne of the objectives of these policies,” which often aim to prevent employees from disparaging the employer or sharing false information, “is to make clear to employees that in today’s day, employer policies do not stop at the physical office,” according to Ms. Marshall.  This shift in company policies surrounding employee activity online emphasizes the emerging complexity of regulating employee social media accounts and postings outside of work, especially as laws in states like New York prohibit employers from accessing employees’ private accounts.

Recent discussions around the Isreal/Palestine conflict serve as an example of the difficulties that come with navigating this plane, where Ms. Marshall posits that if “someone who posts on one side of that conflict gets terminated” they could go on to argue that “people who posted the opposite views did not get terminated.  So then they might say they’re being discriminated against because they were treated differently than people in different protected categories.”  Ms. Marshall therefore warns that companies and employers “need to be really up to date on the recent laws and to weigh these decisions carefully” in order avoid wrongful termination lawsuits arising from employee dismissals attributed to their online content.

Read the full article on WorkLife’s website here.

This article is intended as a general discussion of these issues only and is not to be considered legal advice or relied upon. For more information, please contact RPJ Partner Jill Kahn Marshall, who counsels individuals and corporations in the areas of employment law, litigation and dispute resolution, and healthcare. Ms. Marshall is admitted to practice law in New York and Massachusetts, as well as the District Courts for Massachusetts and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.