College staff rise up against principal

Some anonymous employees of Adam Smith College in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland have taken to the Internet to vent their apparent individual and collective lack of faith in their current Principal and Board of Directors.

See the following website/blog: It's our college not Craig's.

Not sure how long the campaign has been going on for but 164 responses so far from interested parties.

Well worth a look whichever angle you would see such a difficult situation.

What happens when the company Twitter user quits?

Hopefully what is typical is not to be defined by this article recently in the Guardian:

A Twitter user is being sued for £217,000 by his former employer for taking his online followers with him when he switched jobs.

Noah Kravitz, a writer from Oakland, California, amassed 17,000 followers on the social networking site when he worked for PhoneDog, a website providing news and reviews about mobile phones.

He posted Twitter messages under the name @Phonedog_Noah, but in October 2010 he left the company, renamed his account @noahkravitz and took his following with him.

PhoneDog has launched legal proceedings seeking damages of $2.50 a month per follower for eight months, for a total of $340,000.

The company is arguing that Kravitz's list of followers constitutes a customer database and the valuation is an estimate of how much each follower is worth to the company.

The case raises questions about the value of Twitter to companies that are increasingly using the website to communicate with customers and promote their products.

Legal observers believe that if damages are awarded against Kravitz, it could set a precedent for assigning a commercial value to Twitter followers acquired in a business context.

For more details see Company sues ex-employee for his Twitter followers (by Robert Booth).

Teachers warned about use of Twitter and Facebook

Scottish teachers are being warned that their use of social networking sites could put their careers at risk.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers Association believes teachers can reveal too much personal information on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The union also fears they could become overly familiar with pupils.

For more details see: Teachers warned over Facebook and Twitter use (BBC News).

Why strike?

Grip tightening on what you can say about employers on the Internet?

According to an article from The Guardian, firms and employment tribunals are finally getting to grips with social networking, in that many companies now have a social media/blogging policy as part of their contractual terms with employees, as well as employment tribunals recently upholding a number of dismissals against employees for gross misconduct relating to blogging about work.

Game over?

Personally, I doubt it, but it will have some affect on what employees write on their Facebook or blog.

In my view this is just more evidence of employers punishing people for the problems they create in the first, i.e. employers manage people badly, the employee has few ways to complain about the employer, the employer finds out and disciplines the employee.

Britain will struggle to emerge from recession if British employers keep leaning on law makers to keep changing employment law to suit their own interests.

For more details see How your Facebook status could put you out of work by Philip Landau.

More Facebook-related misbehaviour

There are many examples of how Facebook has played a part in employee misbehaviour on this blog - see "Facebook" tag below.

A further example of how Facebook can play in employee misbehaviour/misconduct was reported today on the BBC News website.

Some details...

An investigation is under way into claims a hospital cleaner contacted a female patient on Facebook after accessing her personal records.

It is understood the mother-of-two was treated in accident and emergency at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary last week.

The woman said she was contacted by the cleaner on the social network site the following day.

Consort, the private company which employs the man, said they were treating the matter very seriously.

For more information see Cleaner 'contacted patient' on Facebook.

"Negative" work blogging can be good for employers

I've just come across a paper that suggests employee who post negative comments about their employer can lead to positive outcomes.

There is a catch of course in that the ratio of "negative" postings to more positive postings should not generally exceed 15 to 20 per cent.

For more information about this paper - Blog, Blogger, and the Firm: Can Negative Posts by Employees Lead to Positive Outcomes? by Rohit Aggarwal - click here.

Nurse sacked for misuse of Facebook

According to the BBC News website:

A nurse was dismissed from Nottingham University Hospitals Trust after posting a picture of a patient on Facebook, it has emerged.

The case was one of 29 reported breaches of patient confidentiality at the trust over the past three years.

The figures from July 2008 to July 2011 were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request from campaign group Big Brother Watch.

The trust said it took any breach of data protection extremely seriously.

A total of eight members of staff were dismissed over the breaches.

For more details see Nottingham nurse sacked over Facebook photo.

Facebook and careers

I found an interesting article in the Telegraph just yesterday that relates to students being concerned about how using Facebook may hamper their future careers.

It is based on a YouGov survey that suggests over 40 per cent of current students have concerns in this area.

For more information see Students fear Facebook posts will hurt job prospects by Emma Barnett.

Web 2.0 and employment relations

ACAS has published a research paper on the implications of Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, etc.) for employment relations.

The paper is called Workplaces and Social Networking: The Implications for Employment Relations.

It is written by Andrea Broughton, Tom Higgins, Ben Hicks and Annette Cox of the Institute for Employment Studies.

The aim of the paper is to answer the following questions:

● How extensive is the use of social media in UK workplaces?

● What challenges and opportunities do social media present for management of employment relations?

● What does good practice in this area look like?

Click here to access the paper.

Japanese work blogger in trouble

According to the BBC News website a Japanese air traffic controller has been questioned after apparently blogging about the flight plans of the US president's plane, Air Force One.

The unnamed controller, who works at Tokyo International Airport, faces possible charges or disciplinary action.

For more details see Japan air controller 'blogged Air Force One flight plans'.

New research paper on employee blogging

I've just come across a paper published earlier this year on employee blogging.

General details can be found here.

Some details of the study (provided by Business Wire):

The authors looked at bloggers in Fortune 500 IT consulting and services companies that permitted both leisure- and work-related blogging, and studied work environments where the company prohibits leisurely blogging.

They found that when organizations put restrictions on leisure blogging, online work-related knowledge sharing decreases.

The authors believe this happens because creating social media content at work not only helps employees to educate those seeking information, but also helps them build social relationships in the workplace.

An employee can attract fellow employees to his blog with an entertaining or leisure post and, because work-related posts are on the same page, there is a spillover effect with people reading work-related articles.

The actual paper can be found here: A Structural Model of Employee Behavioral Dynamics in Enterprise Social Media by Yan Huang, Param Vir Singh and Anindya Ghose.

Employee sacked for criticising employer on Facebook

According to an article in the Daily Mail newspaper over the weekend another employee has last his job for criticising his employer on Facebook.

What appears to be an important difference to previous dismissals for this kind of behaviour is that the employer in question - Argos - was not named by the employee on his Facebook page.

There appears to be plenty of information missing in the article so it's hard to say if the employer over-reacted.

See Argos fires father with cancer after he uses Facebook to call company 'shambles' by Simon Neville for more details.

RAF blogger

According to the BBC News website:

A blog about the life of an RAF airman currently on tour in Afghanistan has notched up 80,000 hits, thanks to its blend of humour and gritty realism.

The article goes onto look at the attraction in describing war.

Click here for the article in question (by Andy McFarlane).

Click here to view the RAF Airman Blog.

What civil servants (mis)use the Internet for on work time

According to the BBC News website the other day, the Department for Transport (DfT) has disclosed the 1,000 sites visited most often by staff while at work.

Belly dancing, Doctor Who and the Roman Empire are just some of the interests of civil servants as revealed by their web browsing habits.

To see the BBC News article (by Victoria King) click here.

To see the actual report by the DfT click here.

Employer guidance on Web 2.0 use in the workplace

Employers need to provide clear guidance for staff regarding the use of social networking sites to avoid inappropriate relationships, harassment of staff and the potential for disclosure of confidential information, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has warned.

See Businesses warned to provide guidance on social media by Nick Martindale for more details.

Work blog becomes TV comedy drama

According to the Independent a work blog has been turned into a TV comedy drama.

The blog in question is Random Acts of Reality.

The blog is now defunct (or on hiatus?) and written by Brian Kellet.

The TV drama is called Sirens and will be first transmitted on Channel 4 at 10 p.m. Monday 27 June.

Brief details from Channel 4: A team of world-weary paramedics are forced to confront the dregs of society - not to mention their own inadequacies.

For a good introduction/overview of Sirens see Is blogging really the stuff of great drama? by Gerard Gilbert.

Police officer sacked because of Facebook use

Looks like a police officer was not following the advice of the article detailed below.

Some details:

A police constable has been sacked for posting offensive messages about a colleague on Facebook and harassing a female colleague.

The 35-year-old Met officer, who was based in Islington, referred to another officer as a "grass" and a "liar" on the social networking site last year.

See Metropolitan Police officer sacked over Facebook posts (BBC News) for more details.

What you shouldn't do on Facebook...

The BBC recently came up with a list of things you should perhaps not do when on Facebook, many of which relate to employment.

The five include:

1) Make friends with people you shouldn't.

2) Moan about your boss/customers/constituents.

3) Upload dodgy photos.

4) Enjoy your sick leave too much.

5) Spill secrets.

For more details see Facebook: Five things to avoid by Marie Jackson.

Trade unions video message to IBM

Winner of LabourStart labour video of the year

Research report on social networking tools in the workplace

HR Zone have just released a new report about the uses for social networking tools in the workplace.

The report has been done in conjunction with Skillsoft.

To get a copy of the report click HERE.

Work blog helps tsunami survivors

An article in today's Guardian (see G2 section) looks at a blog kept by a Japanese nurse in the aftermath of the recent tsunami.

A quick snippet from the article:

...Painstakingly tapped into the nurse's mobile phone at the end of exhausting days touring evacuation zones and hospitals, the blog chronicles eight days that begin with trepidation and end with a reluctant return to Tokyo.

In between, there are moments of despair and optimism, even humour.

And floods of tears...

For more details see 'Do not cry': a nurse's blog brings comfort to Japan's tsunami survivors by Justin McCurry.

E-learning and Web 2.0

The CIPD has just announced a new podcast on the topic of e-learning and web 2.0 communication technology.

The podcast is entitled: Learning and development in a socially networked age.

A brief outline:

John McGurk assess how e-learning is increasing in the workplace but wonders about how effectively it is used and evaluated in companies.

He is a convert to the Twitter method of sharing of information.

Later he adds to the discussion on the age divide in the use of social media.

To access the podcast click HERE.

The law of work blogging

I just came across a blog article about work-related blogs that comes via the Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal.

It's called "Blog Wars: Employer Controls and Employee Rights Regarding Personal Blogging".

It's written by Kyle Mitchell.

The article is based on USA labour law but worth a look whatever the case may be.

To view it click HERE.

Is it okay to criticise your employer on Twitter?

According to a recent article courtesy of the New York Times it is.

However, the criticism is restricted and needs to be reasonable as the follow section of the article suggests:

...Labor law specialists say employees have the right to criticize or disparage their companies or supervisors as part of a conversation aimed at improving working conditions, but do not have the right to merely curse supervisors or make untrue, disloyal statements that damage a company’s reputation...

For more details see Labor Panel to Press Reuters Over Reaction to Twitter Post by Steven Greenhouse.

Thanks to Union Renewal blog for story.

More work-related blog research...

For the second month in succession is a new research article on work-related blogs.

It's by Abigail Schoneboom again.

The title of the article is Workblogging in a Facebook age.

The abstract is as follows:

In keeping with this journal’s recent attempt to revive worker narratives as a means of understanding social questions, this research note reflects on the significance of workblogging as a window on the labour process.

The article reflects on the impact of emerging social networking tools such as Facebook, as well as factors such as increased surveillance and blog searchability, on how and where workplace stories are told.

It assesses some of the problems of conducting research in a rapidly changing blogosphere and argues that researchers must sustain trusting relationships with bloggers, as well as staying abreast of emerging social networking practices, in order not to lose sight of these important recalcitrant voices.

For more details of the said article click here.

New work-related blog research

A new research article by Abigail Schoneboom on work-related blogs has just come out.

It has been published in the New Technology, Work and Employment journal.

It is entitled: Sleeping giants? Fired workbloggers and labour organisation.

The abstract reads as follows:

This paper argues that the Waterstone's fired blogger incident performed a labour organising function in terms of garnering pro-labour media attention and encouraging critical discourse.

Looking at the blog's distinctive features and evolution, it evaluates the strengths, limitations and potential for recurrence of similar high-profile incidents.

For more details click here.

TUC video competition about spending cuts

The TUC invites you to make a 60 second awareness-raising advert about the Impact of the spending cuts...

For more detail click here.

Web 2.0 and work

Two Web 2.0 and work stories in the news just recently.

The first is from Australia and involves the use of social networking sites to discuss employment matters:

The Commonwealth Bank in Australia has been forced to rethink its social media policy after revelations that staff could be disciplined or even sacked if their friends criticised the bank on sites such as Facebook...

Social media policy goes bad at Commonwealth Bank (Cath Everett, HR Zone).

The second concerns whether Twittered messages are in the public domain:

Material that is published on Twitter should be considered public and can be published, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has ruled.

The decision follows a complaint by a Department of Transport official that the use of her tweets by newspapers constituted an invasion of privacy...

'Twitter messages not private' rules PCC (BBC News).

Top ten corporate blogs

Below is a link to an article that claims to have found the ten best corporate blogs.

The criteria:

...Amid the coal pile that is the state of corporate blogging today, I did manage to find a few diamonds that don’t bore to tears with pronouncements, promotions and product announcements (the Killer P’s) ...

See The Ten Best Corporate Blogs in the World (Business 2 Community).

Web 2.0 and the future of workplace relations

A new report from ACAS comments on Web 2.0 and how such technology could have an effect on the future of workplace/employment relations.

For employees the following is discussed in the new report:

The use of social media by unions to reach both a younger generation and a more dispersed workforce is already well underway.

Commentators believe that the unions are moving from the services model of the 90s through the organising model of the noughties to the more sophisticated social movement model with its greater appeal to a younger audience.

Web 3.0 technology with its seamless integration between data bases will enable
much greater interactivity between users and the web.

This will enable trade unions to refine their recruitment practices where individuals can be attracted to a social movement website first and then directed to trade union sites.

For employers:

As the virtual workplace becomes more prevalent, employers will need to give careful thought to the management of a dispersed workforce where employees may have infrequent face-to-face contact with their colleagues...

For more details and concluding comments see The Future of Workplace Relations - An ACAS View.

Web 2.0 and finding a job

Tweeting football players

Two stories recently emerged of disgruntled professional football players letting off some steam on Twitter.

Aldershot Town striker Marvin Morgan has been placed on the transfer list following a message he posted on social networking website Twitter... - see Aldershot's Marvin Morgan transfer listed over tweet (BBC News).

And...

Players' chief Gordon Taylor has described the Football Association as "very precious" for charging Liverpool winger Ryan Babel over Twitter posts... - see PFA's Gordon Taylor defends Ryan Babel's Twitter posts (BBC News).

And footballers wonder why people roll their eyes when they refer to themselves as "professionals"!

Social worker blog

I've not put any new work-related blogs on my blog for some time.

However, my eye was caught by the reference to a work-related blog via a brief mention in today's Guardian - click here.

The work-related blog is called Fighting Monsters: The Life and Thoughts of a British Social Worker.

Is Web 2.0 changing the nature of employee-employer disputes?

According to a conference organised by ACAS: "the rise of social media could see more and different forms of unofficial unrest used in future disputes."

It was argued that "the accessibility and speed of tools such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook mean that workers can be mobilised quicker than ever before."

For more details see Social media needs to be taken seriously warns Acas.

Draft dodgers caught via Facebook

I've just come a cross an article several weeks old, yet it tells quite a modern work-related story.

It seems that the Israeli army has come up with a way to deal with female draft dodgers - by using Facebook to see if they are actually Orthodox Jews.

Here are some of things the Israeli army found:

Examples of young women who had declared themselves exempt posting photographs of themselves on Facebook in immodest clothing, or eating in non-kosher restaurants.

Others were caught by responding to party invitations on Friday nights - the Jewish Sabbath.

For more details see Israeli army uses Facebook to expose draft dodgers by Wyre Davies (BBC News).

Me, myself and social media

Stuck at a train station today in the freezing weather, I was drawn to an article in the Harvard Business Review.

The article is called: Managing Yourself: What’s Your Personal Social Media Strategy? and is by Soumitra Dutta.

The article is arguing that organisational leaders should do more to lead via social media, or Web 2.0 communication technologies, such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

Reasons why Dutta believes leaders should "embrace" social media:

1) They provide a low-cost platform on which to build your personal brand, communicating who you are both within and outside your company.

2) They allow you to engage rapidly and simultaneously with peers, employees, customers, and the broader public, especially younger generations, in the same transparent and direct way they expect from everyone in their lives.

3) They give you an opportunity to learn from instant information and unvarnished feedback.

Active participation in social media can be a powerful tool—the difference between leading effectively and ineffectively, and between advancing and faltering in the pursuit of your goals.

I think these views have wider relevance and application, although I also think that organisational leaders potentially have an awful lot to lose if they do all the above.

USA military goes Web 2.0

It says something when the USA military email you directly with a press release!

The press release concerns a new venture by the USA army in relation to army staff and how they use Web 2.0 communication technology.

From my viewpoint this looks like a way to contain the problems the military has with employees communicating from "behind the lines."

Here is the press release and supporting video (make of it what you wish to!):

The U.S. Army has launched milTube, a secure, behind-the-firewall website providing a safe military alternative to commercial video-sharing sites like YouTube.

MilTube allows the military workforce to watch and share videos across installations worldwide.

The site follows Web 2.0 tools milBook, milWiki and milBlog, which already have more than 88,500 users across the Department of Defense.

Attached is a press release and high-resolution images for your publication.

You can watch a short video about milTube here:

Sacked by text and unfair dismissal

I don't think this is the first time I have referred to a story about an employee sacked via a new form of information communication technology.

Another story emerged over the past few days involving a "bar maid" sacked via text message, except this time the employee filed for unfair dismissal.

The verdict: A £14,000 pay out from the employer for failing to follow standard disciplinary procedures.

For more details see Dundee barmaid payout after text sacking (BBC News).

Internet and regret

Ever regret posting something to the Internet?

Worried that your Internet antics may catch up on you in later life?

May be they have done already!

Well, according to the BBC News website, you could get in touch with what has been terms an "online reputation manager" - in other words, someone you can employ to clean up your record on the web.

Apparently a small range of firms have set themselves up to "monitor what is written about clients and drown out unwanted comments or photographs by creating or sourcing a barrage of positive Google-friendly content."

Sound a bit extreme to me, but could be worth it if you have a lot to lose from having a dodgy "netrep."

See Online profile spring cleaning by Claire Prentice for a lot more details.

Police use of Twitter

According to BBC News website, Greater Manchester Police have set up a 24-hour Twitter feed so every call it receives can be made public.

More details:

The feed has revealed the extremely varied nature of emergency calls the force receives.

One minute someone is calling about a baby being dangled over a bridge - although later it turns out that it was a dog.

Shortly afterwards, the force receives another 999 call about fireworks being set off in a local park.

Then another call is received about a missing mother and son, and at the same time another operator is taking down details of a missing person who has been found.

Another tweet from a member of the public congratulates the police on the finding the missing woman, then a second later there's a robbery in Salford to attend to.

For more details see Greater Manchester Police tweets sparking interest.

What's the odds of the boss finding out you have a work blog?

I'm sure of the methodology behind these findings, but a recent article suggests the following concerning employer monitoring of employee Internet and Web 2.0 activities:

The odds an employer monitors employee blogs are 1 in 7.14

1 in 3.13 employers monitor employee email at work

1 in 6.25 employers, or 16 per cent monitor employees’ social networking profiles

The odds an employer monitors employee instant messaging at work are 1 in 6.25.

For more details see The Boss is Listening: Electronic Monitoring at Work by Jon Sobel (Book of Odds).

UnionBook

It appears that LabourStart has re-launched it's trade unionist social networking site.

The social networking site is called UnionBook.

Updated tools include:

- post your photos, videos and music

- join existing groups and create new ones

- add comments to other people's content

- add events to our online labour calendar

- post entries to your blog

- update your status

- make friends

- use the online chat to talk with other trade unionists online

- invite friends and fellow union members to sign up too

- send us your questions, comments, and suggestions - use the special group called "UnionBook Help and Support Network" to do so.