Minnesota Labor & Employment Law Blog : Minnesota Employment Lawyers & Attorneys : Abrams & Schmidt Law Firm : Unfair Labor Practices, Workplace Investigations : Minneapolis, St. Paul, Twin Cities

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Some would say there is nothing worse than a woman scorned, except maybe an employee scorned by their employer. Before the Internet, scorned or disgruntled employees told all of their family and friends about how bad their job was, how unfair their boss treated them, or how lousy their employer’s products were. Today the Internet can take the comments of a scorned or disgruntled employee and make them viral in a matter of hours through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or a blog.

No workplace is exempt from the wrath of a scorned employee, not even a law firm. The ABA recently blogged about a former associate of Levinson Axelrod, a New jersey law firm, and the “cyber-assault” created by the associate’s blog site “Levinson Axelrod Really Sucks.” The parties have reached a settlement and the blog site has since been removed, but not until many blogs were posted and a lawsuit was commenced.

Employees have taken to using the Internet to vent about workplaces, co-workers, and bosses. Several websites encourage employees to talk candidly about their jobs including:

• www.workrant.com, which offers a bulletin board for employees to express their workplace frustrations,
• www.glassdoor.com, which offers company reviews including salaries,
• www.vault.com, which offers help with resumes, career changes, and the chance to $500.00 if you submit a review of your employer, and
• www.jobvent.com which asks employees, “Love your job, hate your job, share your experience, post an anonymous review of your company.”

Workplace rants by employees using social media can be a real headache for any business. Having a plan and a strategy is the first step for any employer. The question is not whether a workplace may be attacked through social media by a scorned employee; the question is when will it happen. I have blogged about the need for any business with employees to have a tailor-made social media policy in place, and to train employees on the policy. Having the name of a good media relations firm on hand is also a good idea, to be able to respond quickly to the viral attack, and to manage the response of your business.