The push for employees to post on social media without consequence on 6PR 882AM Radio Perth with Gary Adshead

By Sue Ellson

Topic: The push for employees to post on social media without consequence

Date: 4 September 2024

Media Outlet: 6PR 882AM Perth https://www.6pr.com.au

Broadcaster / Interviewer: Gary Adshead

Producer: Sean Lindsay

Duration: 00:10:18

Time of show: 09:20am (Perth time)

Audio Recording:

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8vkH9ULQ5c

The push for employees to post on social media without consequence on 6PR 882AM Radio Perth with Gary Adshead and Sue Ellson

Transcript

I reckon this is an interesting discussion. It’s going to require a bit of honesty from listeners as to whether or not you fall into this category. But let’s say that you’ve not been happy at work or something. Something’s got your back up and you’re upset and you’ve kind of on your social media account, you’ve flicked out something about your employer. Do you think that’s acceptable? If it’s, you know, obviously having a crack at them, do you think that that’s acceptable that your social media account, which might be a way that you communicate with lots of people?

Often, and you suddenly put something up there about your workplace that you should be punished, possibly reprimanded and sacked, whatever the case may be. If I told you that there was a push on from the union movement in Australia to stop employers being able to take any action against someone that uses their social media to say something detrimental about the employer, would you be surprised? Well, don’t be because it’s actually happening.

There is a push on. To do that, exactly stop employers being able to use what they’ve seen on a someone’s social media account to take action against them. Now, I don’t know how this is going to play out, to be honest, because I’ve got my views. But anyway, let’s get your reaction. In the meantime, Sue Ellson is a career development practitioner and joins us on the line. Hi, Sue.

Hi Gary.

This is interesting, isn’t it? Because. I’m not saying, I’m not saying every day someone would, you know, finish a bad day at work and put something out on social media, but I know it happens and you certainly would know it happens. Do you think that it’s reasonable to allow the unions to say leave workers alone when they put something out there?

Well, every organisation is supposed to have a social media policy and a lot of organisations I’ve been to, they know there is one, they don’t know what it says and they haven’t had any training on it. So there’s been probably a bit of a breakdown in communication up until now, but I think what the unions are also trying to do is they’re trying to stop the monitoring of that social media as well. So, you know, I personally would never bag an employer, I’m grateful for the payment that I receive from every employer

Well said

I would also like to say that if I’ve got an issue with them, I should bring it up with them.

Yep.

Not not share it publicly, but also legally. If it is something that they have published and you know they’ve had a gripe, then the employer can take a copy of that and then go back to the person and say, you know, please explain. And obviously if it was in a criminal nature, then obviously the police would investigate. But yeah, I I think the reasonable person in the street would say, look, it’s not OK to bag your employer publicly on on social media.

You said there that, you know, employers might just monitor.

Mmm.

A workers social media account. Do you mean after they’ve employed them?

Yes.

Because I think there’s what I would have thought. There’s an accepted view now that, you know, employers might go and have a look before they take you on in a job just to see what your profile looks like out there in the social media world. But you’re saying like during someone’s employment.

Yes, absolutely.

So I heard a statistic some years ago that 75% of people will check you out online before a job interview and 95% before they offer it to you. But I’ve heard from a number of people that if somebody doesn’t like them at work, then they’ll start, you know, scrolling past their social media profile and trying to look for something that could be, you know, cause to suggest that perhaps they’re not a good fit for the organisation anymore.

Some people have obviously been targeted for that. But also when you think about the move, the union movement being the sort of people trying to instigate this, obviously they would have a particular agenda to make sure employers are accountable and obviously some people would use their social media following to try and make sure that. You know, employers stay on the straight and narrow, I suppose. So, yeah, trying to protect those people who are advocating for others, I presume. I mean, I I can’t say exactly, but but that’s what I’m guessing is the case.

And obviously Victoria seems to be the hub for this starting. Is that is that your sense of it, that it’s starting with some sort of inquiry that’s going on in the Parliament of Victoria and submissions have been made?

Yes, my understanding it is based here. I don’t know how it’s going to get up. Obviously there’s been a lot of changes to workplace law recently, it’s the right to disconnect and a lot of governance requirements for organizations and and small businesses only get an extra 12 months to sort of implement it as well. So I think you know technically a lot of people are going to be up in arms about it because it does seem like another impost and another thing that they have to monitor. And sometimes it’s not even the employer. It could be a fellow employee who you know is bullying you that could be going down this path. So in that sense, yes, they need protection.

And then the other component of what they’re talking about is surveillance. So I don’t know about you, but. I’ve always been very loyal to my employer and turned up on time and not taken sickies, but there are other people who are not like that. And so there’s obviously a lot of technology around now. So a lot of employees know that they’re being surveyed, but they don’t necessarily know how that’s happening. So this sort of discussion that is being prompted by this inquiry could open the door on that and make it important for an employer to be more transparent about how they’re monitoring your behaviour. And let’s not forget that some employees will use technology to show that they are online and moving their mouse automatically for them. So you know, there should be trust on both sides. Don’t necessarily agree regulation is automatically the answer to some of these things.

Because I mean if you talk about that kind of surveillance level I mean, is it fair for an employer who, let’s say an employer does have an issue with an employee and and they haven’t got the sort of grounds to sack them, but they they do look at their social media account and they see that they’re involved in, you know, in in something that’s unsavoury or they’re they’re not setting a great standard for the company, if anyone can link them to the company. Is that grounds enough? Like you might be doing something out of hours that you would, you know, that your employer would be aghast at. But have they got any right over that?

Well, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t sort of argue the case for that. But I do understand that if the employer saw that and felt uncomfortable about it and had already explained to the employee, you know here’s our guidelines, here’s our code of conduct, here’s our values, you know this is all outside of this. I mean imagine if it was a government employee, you know that could be very serious. So technically what they should do is bring it to the employee first to say please explain and then if there’s not you know, a reasonable explanation, then obviously it can go further.

I guess the challenge is we’ve got to remember, I’ve been online since 2001, we’ve got to remember every single thing we do online is potentially public. Now the employer does have no right to go in and log into your accounts or ask to be friends with you on social media or whatever, but you know, I would say it’s reasonable to expect that they wouldn’t be going around bagging you and, but you know, what are we not allowed to talk about? Sex, politics and religion. You know, if they just had a different political view, would that be grounds to sack them?

Yeah.

Again, you’d have to talk to a lawyer about that. That’s that’s beyond my scope.

And the other, the other one I reckon might be interesting is I’m certain, well, I know like a group of employees working for a company might have a a WhatsApp chat group.

Yes.

And they might, you know, air all of their concerns and their issues with a company through their WhatsApp. If if that was to sort of break free, like one of those people was to pass it on to a employer, a boss, and this is all the sort of talk that’s going on within that chat group, where do you reckon that would sit?

Again, really tricky. I, you know, Gary, I am risk averse. I’m an ex banker, so I would not put anything in writing that I didn’t want on the front page of a newspaper or on talkback radio. I mean, there’s just no way I would ever put anything in writing because anything that’s put in writing can be used in court. So even though you might think it’s private, I I remember another person, they were in a WhatsApp group and the conversation got really aggro and they had to leave it because they didn’t want to be seen to be participating in a takedown of another staff member. So I mean at the end of the day, we probably all have to take a little bit of personal responsibility here and we know that it’s wrong to bitch about your boss, you know and and particularly in writing.

That’s the problem That’s the new norm now isn’t it, you know at the end of the mobile phone keyboard. That is the way it’s done. You know, the days of just sort of like having a beer at the end of the week and talking about stuff. There’s just this kind of disconnect where people don’t realise what they’re doing when they’re just tapping away at their keyboard and sending a message to 25 other people and the consequences that could follow. I don’t think people have really worked it out yet.

No. And the scary part is, Gary, that over 50% of the Australian population has access to an employee assistance program. So they have got somebody they could call that’s confidential. And then they could air their grievances and try and, you know, resolve it. But less than 4% actually use it. So, ’cause they fear that, you know, still gonna get back to the employer. And there’s a lot of training materials around about having difficult conversations, you know, from the Fair Work Ombudsman website and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency has a whole bunch of stuff.

There’s resources around to help educate people, deal with these issues. Rather than just bitch about it and and I’ve always adopted a solution focused approach. So let’s not just whinge, let’s try and work out a solution. So yeah, and obviously people haven’t been able to work out a solution, so ohh let’s legislate again. And yeah, I I don’t necessarily agree with that.

Well, let’s see whether anything comes from this particular inquiry that’s being looked at in Victoria and see whether it spreads if it’s successful. Thanks very much for joining us Sue.

Thanks Gary.

Social Share

SOCIAL MEDIA WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE // Are you aware that a coalition of unions in Australia are pushing for employees to be allowed to post whatever they like on social media without fear of reprisal? They would also like to see more transparency around workplace surveillance.

Gary Adshead interviewed me on 6PR 882AM Radio Perth 📻 and we discussed:

✅ social media policy awareness and training
✅ discussing issues directly
✅ asking an employee about their online content
✅ social media checking before a job offer
✅ governance requirements of business
✅ surveillance in the workplace
✅ public nature of all online content
✅ written content being used in court

Enjoy the show online at https://www.6pr.com.au/the-push-for-employees-to-post-on-social-media-without-consequence

Thanks to Producer Sean Lindsay for reaching out!

➡️ Are you aware of your work’s social media policy? Are you aware of any workplace surveillance tools being used at your workplace?

#6prperth #employees #socialmedia #garyadshead #sueellson