SO Hillary probably though she was home and hosed. A substantial lead in the polls, Donald getting castigated left, right and centre for his views on women, the presidential debates safely navigated and a host of notable celebrities endorsing her campaign. She was probably daydreaming about being back in the oval office only this time she would be the Clinton in charge, the commander in chief.
And then? Then it went off the rails a bit. Quite a bit, to the extent that within a matter of days some polls had placed Donald back in the lead, from a seemingly unrecoverable position.
The FBI announced that there were now more of Hillary’s emails that potentially required investigation, opening up the issue of her honesty once again. Trump seized advantage and once again raised the spectre of her trustworthiness. Her digital footprint hadn’t washed away and, whether she has a case to answer or not, came back to haunt her.
But this is high stakes politics, with the biggest political prize on earth on offer (apologies to Stormont). How does this relate to the common employee in a 9 to 5 job?
Well consider the case of Justine Sacco. She worked in communications (ironically enough) and while waiting for a plane in London tweeted the following: ‘Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!’.
Now whether you take this to be misguided humour, political satire or just plain wrong the upshot was that when she landed 11 hours later in Cape Town she was the hottest trending item on Twitter, to the extent that the hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet was criss-crossing the globe in anticipation of the shock she would get once she reconnected with the internet.
Now whether you believe this is just desserts or whether you believe this is another example of public shaming, the result was that Justine lost her job and tarnished her reputation, over her careless use of a few words.
Closer to home there was a case where an employee was been sacked for posting pictures of herself working at London fashion show while on fully paid sick leave from her job. In another case a pub shift manager was dismissed for posting offensive online comments relating to customers who she had been in an altercation with.
She argued that the comments were on her ‘private’ Facebook page however the court found that the comments were clearly about work and in fact could be read by a wide audience, potentially including the customers themselves, thereby risking damage to the reputation of her employer.
So what’s the lesson? First up, be very, very careful about what you put out there on social media in relation to your employer (and also the people who you work with), especially if you are going to be critical.
Claiming ‘breach of privacy’ in a tribunal can often result in very little sympathy. If you need to let off steam, go have a coffee or a pint with a friend and chat the matter though, rather than reach for your tablet or phone and broadcast to an audience.
Hurtful comments you make about colleagues can potentially be viewed as evidence of bullying or discrimination, regardless if they are posted before, during or after working hours. Exercise a little bit of caution; think just a touch longer about the photo from the Christmas party that you find quite amusing and want to post online; ask yourself if it could it be highly embarrassing for any of the subjects and not just your pal who is front and centre?
Now no-one is saying that social media is banned or that you can’t have some craic with friends from work; you just need to take a quick pause for consideration before you reach for that wider audience and consider if an immediate cheap laugh is worth later heartache or headache.
:: Barry Shannon (bshannon@cayan.com) is HR director at Cayan in Belfast.
