Instagram photo leads to sacking

Company social media policies are once again in the spotlight after an employee in the USA was sacked over a photo he posted on the popular social media website, Instagram.

Mr Groom, an employee of upmarket clothing retailer Lacoste, posted a photo of his paycheck whilst lamenting his relatively low rate of pay. He captioned the photo:

 “Ever since I was a kid I’ve thought it was completely insane that we have to work all our lives. Especially when it’s only enough to live in a third world apartment with shitty everything.”

The Gothamist reports Lacoste’s HR department informed Mr Groom his post infringed on the company’s confidentiality agreements.

Issues with social media accounts are an emerging issue for companies, which over the past few years have had their accounts hacked, or have encountered embarrassing posts from their employees. Another problem has been employees combining their social media accounts to post both private and work- related content.

According to James Griffin, an online reputation management consultant, social media goes beyond just a quick reminder every once in a while. Businesses should implement social media polices that are signed off by every employee – and then acted upon.

 “Companies introduced email usage policies and general web usage policies, so there’s nothing much different about having a social media policy,” he says.

Read more here.

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