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The “Twitter” Bug

By Sarah Townsend, Senior Solicitor

Every now and then a website comes along which grabs everyone’s imagination and attention. This time it’s Twitter and everyone is using it - from Hollywood celebrities to the All Blacks and John Key.

ANZ's outgoing Australian boss is a key proponent of Twitter, posting several ‘tweets’ to update staff. He even used his Twitter internet site to tell staff of his resignation from the bank. In other tweets, he outlined the demands of executive life with informal entries such as: "Juggling day today. Email, family/kids, GFC! Wish the weather were better'!"

For a CEO that’s all very well, but do employers need to be worried about Twitter in the everyday workplace?  

There are a number of potential areas for concern for employers if employees access and use Twitter and other social networking sites: 

• Employees can join and make derogatory comments about their employer. These “tweets” can be quickly and widely read and have the potential to quickly bring the employer into disrepute. In 2007 a Warehouse employee was sacked for posting on her Bebo page that “work sux” and that working until midnight was “gay like the management”.
• Employees can create fake Twitter profiles and post comments posing as someone else.  In Australia, a Telstraclear employee set up a fake Twitter profile criticising the Broadband and Telecommunications Minister, Steven Conroy.  In New Zealand, the issue sparked Parliament’s attention recently when a right-wing blogger impersonated Labour MP David Cunliffe on Twitter.   Mr Cunliffe denied he had ever used the programme.
• Twitter is increasingly being used by businesses as a marketing tool – John Key, for example, uses it to make announcements and comments on government policy.   If you are using it as a work tool in your workplace, it is important to ensure that what is being posted by staff members is consistent with company policy and that employees are not posting their own opinions and views and representing them as being those of your company. 

While your employees are pouring over details of what Britney Spears had for breakfast, client emails or telephone calls may be left unreturned and productivity can be seriously affected. 

So what could and should employers do to minimise the risk of damage to the business? 

In many ways, Twitter does not present a particularly new challenge to employers who have been used over recent years to dealing with employee use of email and the internet at work.   Most workplaces will have some sort of internet policy in place already.

Where social networking websites do present a new challenge, is in the management of issues and risks that can arise as a result of employees accessing websites outside the workplace.  The key is to have a clear and robust internet policy stating what is and what is not acceptable, backed up with the threat of disciplinary action if the policy is breached. 

Telstraclear in Australia has been one of the first companies to issue a policy to its employees on how it expects them to behave on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.  As a communications company, Telstraclear has been reluctant to ban the use by employees of social networking sites altogether, but has put guidelines in place telling employees what is expected of them – both when using the websites at work, and – more controversially – outside of work. 

Although many workplaces will already have an IT policy in place dealing with the use of internet at work, as technology advances employers should regularly review their policies and -  equally importantly – effectively enforce them, to ensure that they still meet the needs of the business.

Disclaimer: the content of this article is general in nature and not intended as a substitute for specific professional advice on any matter and should not be relied upon for that purpose.