Watch what You say and do at Work
By iHeartMedia's Scott Crowder
You may think your social media commentary is witty and your pranks are hilarious, but your employer -- and the law -- may see it differently.
Houston labor and employment attorney Aaron Holt with Cozen O'Connor says you may force your employer to take action.
"If any of those comments online reference race, gender, sex, national origin -- things like that -- then an employer might have a duty and an obligation to correct that behavior and that might end the job,"
Holt says a series of harmless pranks can escalate to something actionable and there are cases where employees have been arrested. He remembers a case from nine years ago in Virginia.
"A co-worker tried to get revenge on an employee by urinating in the coffee pot; he got caught and they tested the coffee and he ended up spending a month in jail, got fined and then got sued civilly for it."
Holt says if you defame someone on social media you can not only be fired, you can be charged with a crime.