money mutual.com

In today's Newsbreak, Lawyers.com Editorial Director Betsy Kim reports on three cases that show what you say on Facebook can affect your job. In Pennsylvania, Skinsmart Dermatology fired a worker for complaining about her job to a Facebook group of former and current company employees. Skinsmart said her posts showed she did not want to be at the company and raised concerns over her working with their patients -- and fired her. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) upheld the termination, saying her comments were just individual boastings and personal gripes. They were not expressions of shared concerns about the workplace, thus were not protected under the National Labor Relations Act. In New York, a teacher posted inappropriate comments on Facebook, saying she wished her students "would drown." The school fired her. But a New York court held the teacher was just venting frustration to friends online and overturned the school's decision. Importantly, her comments were NOT public, but were instead set to be viewed only by her Facebook friends. Therefore the court held she had an expectation of privacy and that her firing was wrong. Finally, a former airline baggage handler sued United Airlines and Allied Aviation Services for a workplace injury. The companies wanted to access the plaintiff's Facebook account to show he had been traveling and socializing to prove his injuries were not severe. When the judge instructed the plaintiff to give the companies access to his Facebook account, he deactivated his account. This auto-deleted the contents. The judge ruled this was "spoliation of evidence," which created the inference that the Facebook evidence was incriminating. Watch the full video report and remember in today's social media age, legal cases show the need to watch out for your privacy.