Should Bosses "Friend" their Employees? Social Media Statistics, Risks and Policy Suggestions

A while back, I conducted some very informal research on social media usage at work (see my previous post "Are You 'Friends' with the Boss?"). One of the things I was trying to get a read on is how common it is for employees to include their bosses in their personal and professional social networks. The results here are in no way "scientific" (total number of US responses was in the 40s), but they do show that friending the boss (or perhaps its the other way around) is perhaps more common than you think.

At least among respondents to my survey, a majority of US workers are “friends” with the boss… even on personal networking sites.

Almost 80% percent of US respondents said they’re a friend of the boss on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn (and 42% “follow” the boss on short message services like Twitter). And more than half (52%) said they were friends with their boss on a personal networking site (e.g., Facebook, Bebo, MySpace).

But is this a good idea?

As I’ve reported here and in other outlets like Mashable (see "Facebook Fired: 8% of US Companies Sacked Social Media Miscreants"), forgetting that the boss is your friend on such sites can put you on the fast track to firing. See the blog (and the link to the Mashable article I reference) for the classic example. (FYI, the original source of those social media firing statistics is Proofpoint's 2009 Outbound Email and Data Loss Prevention research.)

Think it couldn’t happen to you? More than 11% of respondents in my informal survey admitted that they’ve posted an update to a social media site where they made negative comments about their boss or employer.

Additionally, legal experts in the US have warned that bosses who friend their subordinates on social networking sites may be putting themselves at substantial legal risk. Last month, the National Law Journal published an extremely interesting article on this topic. See, "Lawyers Warn: Bosses Who ‘Friend’ are Begging to be Sued."

The rationale cited by several legal sources is that managers are likely to learn personal information about their employees that is best left out of the workplace. As National Law Journal notes, online relationships between bosses and employees can “trigger or exacerbate a host of legal claims, including harassment, discrimination or wrongful termination” in addition to potential accusations of favoritism.

One of the employment lawyers quoted says that employers should simply ban online manager-worker friendships.

Policy Considerations and Recommendations for Manager/Employee Social Networking

I don’t personally have an “official” policy recommendation on whether companies should allow or ban social media “friendships” between bosses and their employees, but bosses and employees are advised to “think twice” before establishing these sorts of connections. However, I'm not sure I'd go as far as the lawyers quoted in the law.com article.

To get some more commentary commentary on this subject, I turned to Jonathan Pyle, vice president of consulting services for ThinkHR Corporation (an outsourced human resources firm) and a board member of the Northern California HR Association. I shared the law.com article and my own research stats with him and he sent back some extremely thoughtful comments on this issue.

Pyle says, "I agree with the author [of the law.com article] on this one.  We haven’t witnessed any adverse actions against clients regarding the social networking phenomenon…yet. However, I do think we will start witnessing some cases that highlight these dangers (as pointed out in the article)."

"I don’t think organizations will prohibit these types of sharing via policy though…often or yet. I think leaders will simply be educated about the dangers and potential downside of this type of social media relationship through training."

Pyle points to the similarity between this kind of training and the now standard manager training around harassment and discrimination. He notes that ThinkHR now includes examples of the risk exposure created by social media exposure in its own training courses, "Just like we added language around the exposure potential of email twenty years ago and then the texting craze that followed."

Pyle stresses that leaders need to be aware of all the different types of actions and behavior that can create liability for an employer. "For example, is giving an employee a hug in the work place against the law or company policy? If it isn’t against policy or the law: Can I do it? Should I do it? This is the proverbial line in the sand that leaders must negotiate when leading."

He cites further examples that are common in everyday management situations such as:

- Can/should a leader compliment someone’s dress?
- Can/should a leader tell jokes?
- Can/should a leader join employees for dinner?
- Can/should a leader allow alcohol consumption at a company sponsored event?

In conclusion, he adds, "At the end of the day, leaders form teams with accepted norms that allow team members and leaders flourish. The casualness and, I believe, fun that I see when great teams perform is still one of my favorite privileges that I am allowed to witness as an HR professional. Creating sterile environments designed to eliminate exposure is just no fun and I believe contrary to building high performance cultures."

Excellent advice for the manager navigating the new world of social media in the workplace.

Comments

[Social Media Manager]

Well, If owned a big company. I would definitely restrict access to social media website. That's not just allocating your resources effectively by letting people update their twitter feed or whatever.