Your client is exasperated with what his employees post on social media sites and with having to re-hire Bob despite his negative Facebook posts about management and working conditions. Your client has had it. Despite your many offers to develop a social media policy for his company, your client spontaneously declared at an employee meeting that employees should stop posting anything about work to their social media platforms. Furthermore, if an employee feels they really have something they want to say about work, they should clear the posting with their manager first. This has caused a brouhaha at your client's place of business, and (not surprisingly) resulted in just the opposite of your client's intent — employees have posted all sorts of things to social media about work since the staff meeting. Now what?

The previous three articles in this series addressed employee social media activity, employer responses, and how employers might violate the NLRA by taking action against employees for their social media use in discussing workplace issues. So, what can a prudent employer do to balance the rights of his employees with that of his business? As your client has demonstrated, an outright ban on social media use and clearing posts with management is not the right way to go about it.

Many employers implement work rules or social media policies designed to manage employee social media use and protect the company from legal liability arising out of improper or illegal social media use. A work rule or social media policy provides specific guidelines designed to protect the company's reputation, business relationships, trade secrets, and intellectual property, as well as to minimize liability associated with employees that post harassing, confidential, and/or other inappropriate material concerning the company or the employees. Effective policies provide employers with peace of mind that it officially communicates punishable or terminable offenses when employees violate social media policies, while employees will have a clear understanding of what they can and cannot do online.