Most of the career advice out there cautions employees from saying anything negative about their managers or company out in cyber space. But there are times trashing your boss on Facebook or Twitter is OK.

For the past few years I’ve been writing about how the government was pushing back on employers who fire employees for saying bad things about them online. A story I wrote for TheAtlantic.com in 2010 looked at how the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent federal agency that defends employee-organizing rights, was beginning to step up and take complaints from workers who felt they were fired unjustly.

The NLRB felt companies were beginning to violate a long-existing provision of the National Labor Relations Act that provides protections to employees who get together and complain about a host of workplace issues - everything from conditions to benefits. Just because the discussions occur in cyber space doesn’t make a bit of difference, Jonathan Kreisberg, the NLRB’s Regional Director in Connecticut, told me then.

Well, it looks like the agency has solidified it’s standing on this topic. (more…)

There’s been a lot written lately on how employers and recruiters are doing all they can to dig up dirt on employees and job seekers, but in reality not every manager is putting on their Sherlock Holmes hat.

Yes, it’s disturbing to hear that some hiring managers are asking for Facebook passwords from job candidates; and there’s nothing worse than employers who dig into the credit histories of job applicants. Criminal background checks are also a thorn in the side of many workers, especially those who get nixed for a job even though they may have never been convicted of a crime.

But in reality, Big Brother has not taken over the workplace.

A recent study by EmployeeScreenIQ, a worker screening provider, found that many companies are not rushing to the web or any place else to look you up. (more…)

When it comes to social media and your career, you should curse at your own risk.

I recently got some interesting statistics on profanity and social networking sites. Turns out 47 percent of Facebook users have cursed on their walls, according to social media tracking company Reppler.

I wasn’t totally surprised having read a lot of cussing on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe having dropped an “F” bomb or two.

The Reppler data also found:

* 80% of our users who have profanity on their Facebook Wall have at least one post/comment with profanity from a friend.
* 56% of the posts/comments with profanity on a user’s Facebook Wall come from friends.
* Users are twice as likely to use profanity in a post on their Facebook Wall, versus a comment. Whereas friends are twice as likely to use profanity in a comment on a user’s Facebook Wall, versus a post.
* The most common profane word is derivations of the “f-word”. The second most common profane word is derivations of the word “sh*t”. ”B*tch” is a distant third.

And guess who curses the most? (more…)

Conventional wisdom has been that you err on the side of caution when it comes to putting anything out there in cyber space, especially if it relates in anyway to your employer. The thinking has been, “you never know when the boss is watching.”

That idea is slowly changing as the government continues to scrutinize employers who fire workers for exercising their free speech rights on social networking sites, especially when it comes to dogging your employer. The way officials at the National Labor Relations Board see it, Facebook and Twitter are no different than traditional water-cooler chatter.

Basically, if workers get together to discuss working conditions at their employer that’s considered protected speech under the nation’s labor laws. So, doing the same on the Internet is no different, the federal agency argues. (more…)

By Evelyn Hayman

I don’t particularly care if Bob is at the mall, or Stacy has visited Burger Heaven ten times in the past two weeks, or if Jane has been to three different grocery stores today.

Welcome to the new, annoying world of location-based social networking. Now you can know where your friends are every second of the day whether you want to or not. And if you connect with people at work, your coworkers and boss may also know that you’re sipping on a latte at Starbucks when you should be finishing that overdue report.

Am I square for hating Foursquare? (more…)

The nation has been given a crash course in collective bargaining thanks to the battle going on in Wisconsin between union workers and the governor, who says he wants to kill employee collective bargaining rights.

But it turns out Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker may not really know what it is. While he wants to take away state workers’ collective bargaining rights, he’s actually posting things on Twitter that say otherwise.

Yesterday he tweeted this:

With all the people for & against the budget repair bill at the Capitol today, I pray that everyone is respectful 2 those w/different views.

OK, Gov. Walker, that’s at the heart of what collective bargaining is all about. Two sides sit down and listen to each other, and should be respectful of each other.

And it’s also about negotiating, which is sort of what Walker is doing indirectly on Twitter. Ten hours ago he tweeted:

Union leaders SAY they r open 2 pension & health care payments but they can’t guarantee budget savings 4 schools & local gov’ts.

And then, he tweeted…

These r same union leaders who tried to ram through employee contracts in Dec (after election, but before I took office).

He’s engaged in a back and fourth that is just what you might hear during, dare I say, collective bargaining sessions. And tons of Wisconsin state workers have been tweeting responses to Walker’s words and tweets, so essentially, the parties are engaged in collective bargaining, no?

I know it’s not face-to-face at a bargaining table, but this cyber bargaining table shows that even if the state legislature is successful in stripping state workers’ rights away Walker may end up missing negotiating just as much as employees. In fact, thanks to social-media collective, the negotiations may never end.

Social media, including blogging, Twitter, Facebook and the rest, have given people everywhere a chance to make themselves heard and express themselves like never before. It’s a new age of freedom of speech but your employer wants you to shut your cyber mouth.

Things are happening so fast on the Web that companies are both embracing social networking when it comes to promoting their products and services, and simultaneously kicking it to the curb when it comes to average working stiff’s privacy rights. Two recent cases, which I discuss below, involve workers who were using social networking and got a pink slip for their efforts; and it’s just the beginning of a Internet privacy battle that will rage in our nation’s workplaces in the months and years ahead.

We’re literally watching the world change before our eyes and it’s unclear if worker privacy will triumph or die, said Scott Peterson, a labor attorney for Tully Rinckey, a law firm that represents employees. “Because things are changing so quickly it’s becoming difficult for employers and employees to manage expectations of what is and is not allowed,” he explained. “The bigger issue is to what extent do employees have the right to express opinions?” (more…)

We all get upset when we apply to a job posted on a job board and get crickets in return. It’s a frustrating reality of today’s job market. Hiring managers are inundated with applicants right now and, while I’m not letting them off the hook too much, it’s sometimes impossible to even read through all the resumes, let alone get a back to you.

That’s why recruiters at some of the top companies in the United States are scaling back on the number of jobs they post on job boards like CareerBuilder and Monster, and that means you all are going to have to step away from the job boards.

It’s long been known that most jobs are filled through networking not help wanted ads and job boards, but now more than ever hiring managers are rethinking job boards and reaching out for some sort of connection with a job seeker. The big focus now — LinkedIn. (more…)

I get trying to stop your employees from surfing the Web for hours each day, checking Facebook updates or tweeting. I even get when a manager gets perturbed that a worker keeps text messaging a spouse or child when they should be finishing a project.

But a chit-chat ban?

I just got an email yesterday from a long-time reader HikingStick that’s got me scratching my head. He wrote…

“A senior executive where I work sent the following message after most people went home yesterday:”

To all employees - This is to inform each one of you that the company is beginning to more closely monitor personal web and cell phone/text usage as well as unnecessary chit chat during work hours whether or not a supervisor is in the immediate area!

Effective immediately, please refrain from spending work time on personal activities during the work day.

Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

HikingStick was pretty upset with the email and for good reason. “Now, everyone is on edge and worried that any non-work talk will be considered ‘unnecessary chit chat’,” he wrote.

Alas, I emailed New York labor lawyer Hanan Kolko to ask if a chit-chat restriction was legal and he said, “as a general matter, yes.” But what is “unnecessary chit chat” anyway? Is it unnecessary chit chat if you ask you coworker where you should go for lunch, or if you want to find out if your cubicle mate’s sick kid is ok? (more…)

I’m all for using cyber social media to have fun and connect with friends, but Twitter is not Facebook.

The whole point of Twitter is you connect to the world at large and not just people you knew in college. Because of Twitter’s global paradigm, Twitter rants and Twitter stupidity can come back to haunt your career or your job search. Everyone from entertainers to average working stiffs have to watch what they say.

Did you know that the Library of Congress is actually archiving Twitter tweets? This is serious stuff folks so you need to be serious all the time, not just some of the time. Hiring managers don’t distinguish between your professional tweets and your not so professional tweets.

That’s why I advised a Twitter follower this morning not to tweet what you don’t want to be seen. She asked if she should only post her professional tweets on her LinkedIn page. (more…)