SmallBizResource Blog -- Internet

SBR Readers Show No Mercy To Employee Caught In Facebook Lie

Posted by Gayle Kesten Friday, May 1, 2009, 09:02 AM ET

Social networks: They giveth, and they taketh away.

Earlier this week I blogged about a woman in Switzerland who called in sick to work -- her reason being she needed to stay in a dark room without the glare of a computer -- only to be snagged using Facebook during the day. I asked for your thoughts, whether a line of privacy had, perhaps, been crossed.

The response? A resounding "No!" Such is the yin-yang nature of social networking. Despite the many benefits of putting yourself out there, you could also be hanging yourself out to dry.

For more on the topic, I recommend you read "How Facebook mucks up office life."

Here's what you said:

I READ WITH SOME INTEREST your post on the Swiss woman who ran afoul of her employer for staying home under the guise of needing time away from her computer, only to be found prowling about online. Did the company engage in a bit of snooping? Yup! Did they do anything illegal, immoral or not nice? No way!

They have every right to monitor social networks, in the same fashion as private investigators who "dumpster dive." Once you do something (like posting on a social network) that is in the public domain or in the case of our hypothetical P. I. , put stuff out for trash pickup, you automatically give up the right to presume any privacy exists. The real reason she didn't sue? No grounds!

In today's litigious society it has become imperative that a watchful eye be open at all times to safeguard the best interests of all parties. In my opinion, it is a shame that we have gotten to this point. In today's world people expect to be protected from their own stupidity and own lack of judgment. It is shameful that we seem to suffer from a lack of personal responsibility. That is the reason behind the "Not my fault, I'm a victim" mentality. In the past year or two, as our economy seems to be in an unstoppable downward spiral has even one leader, political, business, or otherwise, stepped forward and said ,"I screwed up"? Not that I recall. Perhaps that is the real "change" our country needs.
-- Mark P. Weisberg, Boston

WOULD IT HAVE BEEN ANY more of a privacy issue if she'd been caught at an early afternoon sporting event on TV? I think not. Facebook isn't a private club. It's a public community. Many employers in my area have halted sick days, and just lumped sick and other types of off-days into a whole from which employees can draw for whatever reason. In such a case, take the day and don't provide a reason because the employer is, basically, not asking for one. But I don't know if that applies to this worker. She represented herself one way, and was caught in a lie. In a public community. Not anything private. She got what she had coming.
-- Rob Vargas, IT specialist, NSSC

SUCH IS THE SCYLLA AND CHARYBIDS nature of Facebook. Many get lured into thinking they are only communicating with "friends." (Pardon the mythology reference, but it seemed appropriate.)
--Andrea Jones, managing editor, Long Island Business News

LONG STORY SHORT...SHE LIED, she got caught, good riddance. I am sure that the company in question got wind of this through the employee gripe-vine as someone saw a chance to move into a better position. Hope she learned a lesson, and moves on with her life.
-- Robert Belon, Principal, Enterprise Architect, RG Belon Consulting

IS LYING TO YOUR EMPLOYER a sacred right? The woman called in sick. The employer determined that was untrue using her own PUBLIC actions. It is not as if she was at home on an unconnected laptop doing her taxes, or even that they hacked her computer. They found her making public postings on a public server after she said she was too sick to sit in front of a computer.

Don't get me wrong. What an employee does on his own time is his own business. But the core issue here is not that the employee was at home on Facebook. It is that she lied in order to avoid her commitment to work, and then got publicly caught.

If you do not want to do the work, quit. If you lie to your employer about something material to your job -- like the reason you are not doing it -- you should expect to be fired. I suspect as you do there is more to the story. Few employers would bother to check an employee's online activity on a sick day. The real reason employers terminate employees is rarely something like this. It is virtually certain to be a pretext. We do not know whether the real problem is some personality conflict with a manager, or an employee that is really not carrying her weight.

Regardless, while this employee may have been surprised that somebody bothered to check her story, it is highly likely they already knew there was a conflict. Lying to an employer is always dangerous -- lying to one you suspect wants you out is stupid.
-- Dave Lynch, DLA Systems

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