The document summarizes a report by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on guidelines for social media use in the workplace. It outlines employees' right to discuss workplace conditions on social media (Section 7 rights) and that employees cannot be fired for social media posts exercising these rights. It also notes that while companies can have social media policies, they cannot restrict Section 7 rights and employees can argue policies are unlawful if they infringe on these discussion rights. The slideshow aims to explain these NLRB guidelines clearly.

1. The National Labor Relations
Board’s Social Media Report
A user’s guide to navigating social
media in the workplace

2. Recently, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a report
which outlined the guidelines that they have established for social media
through various court cases. This slideshow will be dedicated to breaking
this report down into manageable terms for people to understand.

3. DISCLAIMER!!!
The content in this slideshow is not meant to encourage employees to push
the boundaries of their employer’s rules. These guidelines will not save you
from getting fired, it will merely aid you in a possible wrongful termination
suit.

4. Understanding Your
Rights:
The main thing that the
court will look for in a
wrongful termination
suit, involving social
media, is the content of
what was the employee
was terminated for. This
content must fall
under, what the NLRB has
established as, an
employee’s “Section 7
rights.”

5. Understanding Your Rights:
An Employee’s Section 7 rights extend to any
conversation about the workplace that can
reasonably be considered as sparking a
discussion about conditions in the workplace.
The NLRB has previously established that
discussion about one’s work environment and
conditions counts as protected employee
activity. In recent years, they have successfully
established that this is policy extends to the
realm of social media.

6. How This Applies To You
• You are allowed to complain
about the workplace online as
long as you can argue that what
you were saying had to do with
your work conditions
• You also need to prove that you
had an intended audience in
mind when you publish your
comments to Facebook or
Twitter. Being friends with
employees goes a long way.
• The language that you choose to
use does not matter as long as
you stay within the parameters of
your Section 7 rights (although
inappropriate language is never a
good idea).

7. Understanding Your
Rights:
As social media has become
more and more
mainstream, companies
everywhere are trying to stay
ahead of the game by drafting
social media policies. By
making these policies known
to their employees, the
assumption is often that, if
violated, the employer has a
right to cite the company’s
social media policy.
However, the NLRB has
established that due to
employee’s “Section 8 (a) (1)
rights.”

8. Understanding Your Rights:
An employee can argue that a policy drafted
by a company was unlawful under the NLRB
Act. In other words, if it can be reasonably
believed that the policy that an employee was
forced to adhere too could, in any way, restrict
their established Section 7 rights, then that
policy is unlawful and thus an employee
cannot be held to disciplinary actions for
violating it.

9. How This Applies To You
• Section 8 (a) (1) exists so
that employees do not
have to fear the social
media policy boogeyman
created by their firm.
• As long as an employee
understands and works
within their Section 7
rights, they will know
which parts of their
employer’s social media
policy holds up legally
and which ones do not.

10. Navigating the NLRB’s Social Media
Report:
• As social media grows more and more
important in the modern business world, it is
important for those engaged in private and
public discourse online to understand their
rights. The NLRB works to ensure that
employees have rights to combat companies
from making heavy handed policies. It is
therefore our responsibility to know what
these rights are and how to apply them.