Employee Website
MNJane
11 Posts
We have an employee who has been posting his "opinions" about his coworkers on his website. While we don't believe he has posted any confidential information, his postings are causing quite a disruption at work and his coworkers are becoming increasingly upset. Can we force him to remove the information from his website or does he have the right to state his opinion? To the extent it is creating chaos at work, what action should we take?
Comments
His own personal website that has nothing to do with work? I don't think there's anything you can do, unless he's abusing company time to update his personal website. Your employees could consult an attorney regarding their rights against defamation of character I would think. Grey area though. As an employer, I wouldn't get involved unless he's abusing company time or posting confidential information...even then, has he signed an agreement stating he wouldn't??
Keep us posted.
This is a hot issue for me right now, you may remember that I recently posted a question regarding using the E-mail to make political statements. Just to update you, we are going to discuss this in staff meeting tomorrow. Just a side, when I took it to the President of our organization, he too had began to sense that it had gone to far. It is nice to have that support.
Our hopes is that discussion in the staff meeting will be enough and no further action will be needed.
Thanks for the feedback. We do have prohibitions on the use of computers and other electronic communication devices at work or using Company property. However, this involves an employee using his personal computer at home to post negative comments about his coworkers.
If not, then they can either continue with the attorney route, or get over it and get on with their lives.
- Paul
I suspect he's doing it just to get the employees' "goats."