Here are some items of note that we’ve found on other weblogs this week.
The whole world may be watching – Chris McKinney at The HR Lawyer’s Blog discusses the case of a a whistle-blowing employee who uses YouTube as a vehicle for his message. In an environment where technology allows anyone to have a soapbox, Chris reminds employers to “… handle workplace issues as if the whole world is watching because… they just might be.”
Genghis Khan, management guru? – What lessons can we learn from the Genghis Khan school of management? While they may not exactly fall into the “I’m OK, you’re OK” school of management, Jon Coppelman of Workers Comp Insider thinks there are several lessons to be learned, and most of them positive. It’s a worthwhile read.
Using social networking sites for background checks – George Leonard hosts George’s Employment Blawg, a great employment law weblog that is one of our favorite regular reads. We note that he has just authored an article for CollegeRecruiter.com on the legality of employers using MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites for background checking. Some employers use information gained from such sites as the basis for firing employees or rejecting job candidates. In the article, he explores such issues as discrimination and invasion of privacy. We think his summary is worth quoting:
“I would advise employers to cut applicants and employees some slack. You were once young too and maybe did similar things — if not publicly on the Internet. Ask yourself how relevant the information creating the negative impression is to job performance. If you are going to do Internet searches and use them as a basis for employment decisions, you better document them and do it consistently, without regard to any legally protected classifications, e.g. race, sex, age. I also agree 100% with Steven’s suggestion to use social networking sites and blogs in a positive fashion in your search to find good candidates. Consider the whole person, of whom the Internet persona is not always a fully accurate reflection.”
Labor Day wrap-up – Kudos to the editors of Workplace Prof Blog for compiling an excellent Blawg Review for Labor Day 2006 – a wrap-up of labor-related stories from HR, labor, and employment law blogs. There’s a wide variety of interesting approaches to posts commemorating the holiday. If you are new to HR-related blogs, this is a good way to get a sampling.
More from the “U R fired” file – Diane Pfadenhauer at Strategic Human Resources Lawyer points us to another case of termination by technology. Should companies be issuing pink slips to 400 people via e-mail? We noted a similar case recently – see the last item in this post.