Mountains and molehills

Today, the story that’s caught my attention is this one about the HR Executive “forced out of his job” over his LinkedIn CV and, judging by the number of times I’ve seen it mentioned on LinkedIn and on my Twitter stream, it’s a story that’s getting a lot of attention. 

In a nutshell, the company disciplined the employee for his use of LinkedIn, specifically for ticking the “interested in career opportunities” option and also for disclosing confidential information about the company.  The dispute led to the employee resigning and taking a claim for constructive dismissal. 

I’ll be following the case with interest because I think it has wider implications for employers and the usual attempts to “control” social media use by their employees.  I wonder if the Tribunal will consider the employer’s actions reasonable in this case? 

Personally, I can’t see how ticking the career opportunities option on LinkedIn is any different from registering with a recruitment agency or online job site or browsing job vacancies.  If an employee is actively looking for a new job, can or should an employer prevent them from doing so?  Would their efforts not be better spent establishing the reasons why the employee wants to leave and seeing if those can be addressed? 

Besides, ticking a box saying that you’re interested in career opportunities does not mean that you’re actively looking.  I should know – I have no intention of going back to being employed but I’ve still got the box ticked on my LinkedIn profile.  For me, it’s about “what if”.  What am I missing if I don’t have that box ticked?  You never know and I’d rather tick the box and see what happens (if anything) than not tick it and never know. 

Should an employer be able to control what employees say online if it’s detrimental to their business?  My own opinion is yes – the company should have control over their online reputation and where employees are damaging the brand with their comments or actions, I think the company should be able to act.  However, what we’re looking at here is an employee’s personal online presence which arguably has no negative effect on the business itself.  Does anyone think any less of a business because one or more of their employees is interested in career opportunities?  Mountains and molehills, anyone?