Working in Silence - Speech Rights in the Workplace

The development of technology over the last several decades has proven to be very beneficial as communication tools for people across the world. The internet, specifically, has been used as an outlet to express ourselves and opinions on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Unfortunately, with in the last few years, organizations have become privy that the utilization of social media can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to their reputation. Because of this many companies have began to enforce guidelines that employees must abide by when posting on both company and personal social media outlets. There have been several cases with in the past five years of employees being terminated from organizations because they did not abide by these guidelines or the company did not agree with what they posted. This poses the question as to what speech rights employees should and should not be granted and how much control should organizations really be able to have over employees' personal social media?

While organizations should have guidelines to ensure that employees aren't discussing private and important information on their social media, employees should not have to alter or limit their views just to appease their employers. United States citizens are granted the freedom of speech, therefore they should be able to express their political, religious, and other controversial views on their personal social media outlets. Many organizations try to protect their reputation by get rid of employees who they feel shed a negative light on the company or have views that may reflect negatively on them. Companies should protect their brands and reputations but not at the cost of their employees, unless the acts of the employee put the company or it's customers in harm's way. For example, in 2009 Domino's Pizza faced a major crisis after two employees thought it would be comical to record them completing grotesque and unsanitary acts with ingredients of a local franchise in North Carolina. The employees then posted a series of five videos to their personal YouTube account, receiving over one million views in just two days. In a situation such as this, Domino's was put in a dilemma where the acts of their employees on social media could affect their entire brand. Rightfully so, the employees were fired and Dominos used strategic communication of social media to combat the situation,

Ultimately, organizations should have specified guidelines about employees utilization of social media and clearly define what could possible result in termination if posted. At the same time, organizations should be mindful not to infringe on the rights of their employees, and consider that they are human and don't need to micromanaged and monitored to the point they feel like they can't express themselves in an accurate way.