Kent Lawyer Issues Warning About Facebook Website

19 September 2007

A Kent lawyer is warning employers and employees to be cautious about Facebook – one of the most talked-about and fastest growing social networking websites in the world.

Facebook provides users with a profile page which can be shared with friends (as well as strangers) detailing personal information such as age, relationship status, religious and political views. Photographs of you can be posted by other users onto your site.

Amanda Okill, specialist employment lawyer at leading south east law firm Furley Page, comments: “Facebook has hit our shores like a tidal wave and we’re all at risk of being swept up. Now colleagues and former colleagues are linking up and forming networking groups.

“For some people it’s nothing more than harmless fun but recent events have thrown up concerns for both employers and employees who may need to rethink how the site is used – particularly in the context of the working environment.”

Key issues to worry employers are the misuse of working time by staff (Kent County Council has recently banned its workforce from using Facebook in order to reduce time-wasting); the potential for bullying among colleagues and the undermining and poor representation of the organisation they work for.

Amanda cites the example of the university students who set up a site on Facebook which was aimed at targeting and bullying a librarian on their campus. It was called ‘for those who hate the little fat library man’. Photographs of the man were posted on the site which had been running for months before the university found out.

“Irrespective of who you are you may want to think about the information that you publish on your profile page,” advises Amanda. “Unless you alter your privacy settings, anyone – including your boss – can look at your site and this could create difficulties if you criticise the organisation you work for.

“Last month an Argos employee was sacked for sending out an offensive information blog on Facebook that read: ‘I work at Argos and I want to leave because it is s**t’”.

Internet blogs are another area of concern for employers, says Amanda. Earlier this year an employee was dismissed after her Paris-based employer objected to her personal blog which contained comments on her professional life. The grounds for her dismissal were “bringing the company into disrepute” although she never actually mentioned its name.

She won her unfair dismissal claim but employers have since been advised to amend their policies covering internet blogging and to warn employees that misuse could result in disciplinary action.

For more information contact Amanda Okill

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