Facebook Harassment: Employers Should Address Inappropriate Behavior on Social Sites

Richard Meneghello, a partner in the Portland, Oregon, office, was quoted in the February 18 Bloomberg Human Resources Report article “Facebook Harassment: Employers Should Address Inappropriate Behavior on Social Sites.” The article noted that, although social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, provide new venues for employees to harass their colleagues, the fundamental issues and strategies for employers to clamp down on harassment remain the same. Rich said: “The way I've seen the trends go over the past few years, it's quite apparent social media is the new water cooler. The same sort of stuff that was getting people in trouble 10 years ago is now getting them in trouble online.” He noted that, although some employers may think that they can do nothing about employee-on-employee harassment that takes place outside work, if it’s done on a company issued device there can be a strong argument for it occurring at work and the employer is not off the hook.