While platforms such as Facebook and Twitter present new opportunities for training and engaging with employees, they also bring new challenges and wrinkles to the age-old workplace policies and practices…(such as)… two of your most exemplary employees who work the front desk..(who)… one day via a Facebook update… entered into a relationship despite your hotel’s strict policy against it…”
“…A user who posts something on Facebook without the proper security filters does so with no expectation of privacy…”
The above scenario was one of many social-media quandaries presented during a table-top summit Tuesday at the 6th Annual HR in Hospitality Conference & Expo.
In this situation, you could fire Johnny, according to Gregg Gilman, an attorney with New York-based Davis & Gilbert LLP. A user who posts something on Facebook without the proper security filters does so with no expectation of privacy, he said. Thus, you treat the case as if you discovered the illicit relationship in one of the “old-fashioned†ways, such as hearing about it from another employee or observing certain tip-offs.Â
“You have this new medium, but the same old rules apply,†Gilman said. “… If you operate by those rules, you’re going to be OK.â€
Robert Mellwig, VP of HR for Englewood, Colorado-based Destination Hotels, agreed. “We don’t want to get distracted around the technologies,†he said. “… It could easily happen in any other form.â€
Where an employer might get into trouble is if they “friend†an employee on Facebook under false pretences for the sole purpose of uncovering activity that runs counter to workplace policy, Gilman said.
For more:Â http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/7665/Social-media-brings-new-legal-issues-to-hotels
