For the Financial Post, Laura Williams wrote about a beer can toss incident during a Toronto Blue Jays game that ignited social media outrage, and employers’ responses to employees’ off-duty conduct.
See an excerpt below:
Why a tossed beer can and an online mob should get you thinking about protecting your brand
The ballgame beer-toss reignited debate over social media’s quick rush to judgment and raised questions about an employer’s ability to react to employees’ extracurricular activities
It was the beer can toss seen around the sporting world. When a fan threw a brew-filled projectile from the outfield bleachers during the AL Wild Card game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles game at Rogers Centre narrowly missing Orioles left fielder Hyun Soo Kim — social media lit up in a firestorm of indignation. The online mob went to work to find the alleged perpetrator, who Toronto police soon identified as journalist Ken Pagan.
Not surprisingly, many shame-happy users of Twitter and other platforms called for his banishment from Rogers Centre, criminal prosecution and even termination from his position at Postmedia. Pagan has since retained legal counsel and is denying the allegations, stating in an email to media that he was drinking beer from a cup when the alleged incident occurred.
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The ballgame beer-toss reignited debate over social media’s quick rush to judgment and raised questions over the degree to which an employer can monitor and react to the extracurricular activities of its employees. The simple answer is employers who apply and meet the existing legal test relating to off-duty misconduct can discipline or terminate if they believe an employee’s actions adversely harm their business prospects or brand.
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Whether or not Postmedia takes action against him, there’s an important lesson here for organizations large or small. You need to have communications and crisis-management strategies ready in the event an employee behaves badly off the clock, and is eventually linked to the employer — a relatively easy task in the era of LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
This post is provided as information and a summary of workplace legal issues.
This information is not intended as legal advice.