Workplace Resolution #3: Watch What You Say Online…

• Author: Gabriel Granatstein
• Date: January 27, 2015

What you say online stays online and could get you fired. It is becoming increasingly clear in Canada that offensive or disparaging online statements can merit termination for cause, particularly where the conduct has a negative impact on the employer. Surprisingly, the same is not necessarily true in the United States (see my post here for more details). However, the recent wave of employer-supportive decisions favouring terminations for cause may have given some companies a false sense of security. The recent decision of Kim v. International Triathlon Union, 2014 BCSC 2151 is a good illustration of that point and how employers still need to consider disciplinary action before terminating an employee for social media postings.

In it, the plaintiff, a short service employee responsible for, among other things, social media for her employer, made a number of questionable “tweets” and Facebook posts, including:

[29] Specific reference was made to three tweets from the plaintiff’s personal Twitter account, and one Facebook message: the Facebook message, written in late October 2012 after the world championships wrapped up on October 23, read: “2012 ITU season…DONE. now leave me alone until 2013!!”; the three tweets (one without a date, one dated October 22 and the other November 4 read: “surprisingly fun congress after-party last night. probly [sic] only time I’ll see so many Eboard members hungover & lamenting those tequila shots”; “I wonder if other IF congresses have as much propaganda as ours…”; and finally, “hey ITU, remember this next time I fly off the deep end…‘@Relationship 1O2: If I didn’t care, I...