Delaware Employment Law Blog

Employee resigns. But before her last day of work, Employee copies thousands of emails and documents from Employer’s computer.  Off goes Employee into the sunset.

How often is this scenario?  I bet most employers think this never happens in their workplace. I’d be willing to bet that it happens in almost every workplace.  It happens with such regularity, yet most employers are absolutely stunned to discover that it’s happened to them.

If you think it doesn’t happen pretty much all of the time, check out this post at the uber-popular website, Lifehacker.com, titled, How Can I Save All My Work Emails for a Personal Backup?  A reader submitted the following question:

I'm leaving my job and want to take my work emails with me. I've been burned at jobs before, and it became very useful to have an email paper trail behind me. How can I save all the emails so I can access them in the future, just in case I need them?

The author of the piece responds back, providing detailed, step-by-step instructions for how to do exactly that—take with you each and every email you sent and/or received during the course of your employment.

Putting aside how terrible of an idea this is on Lifehacker’s part (can you say, “promoting or endorsing illegal activity?), let’s focus just on the reality—which is, clearly, that your employees are taking your stuff!

What remedies are available to the employer?  Well, most immediately, there’s the demand that the items be returned.  Lawyers have a particular flair when it comes to a well-crafted cease-and-desist letter, so consider having your employment counsel get involved from the outset.

But if the employee refuses to return the documents or ignores your demand, then what? One option is to sue.  A variety of claims may be applicable, depending on the precise nature of the documents and information and on what the employee has done with them since her departure.  For example, the employer may have claims like conversion (civil theft, generally speaking), misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference, etc. 

And, depending on where the employee worked, there also may be a claim under the state and/or federal computer-misuse statutes.  In Delaware, for example, we have computer-misuse statutes that provide for recovery of an award of treble damages and attorney’s fees.  And, because Delaware is in the Third Circuit, we have the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. 

This statute has limited application in other states—including those within in the Fourth and Ninth Circuits, where the Courts of Appeals have rejected the application of the CFAA in the employee-traitor context.  Instead, in those states, the statute is construed as applying only to the true computer hacker. 

The CFAA is a fascinating statute with complex provisions.  The Florida Bar Journal has an excellent analysis of the law—and of the different interpretations of the various Courts of Appeals—for those who may be interested.

For the rest of you, though, now is the time to implement a confidentiality agreement if you don’t already have one in place and to consider just how certain you are about what employees can and cannot take at the end of employment.

See also

Judge's Porn Habit Results In Suspension

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Government to the Rescue of Employers?

Putting the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to Work for Employers

Putting the CFAA to Use, TV Style

Medical-marijuana laws have been passed in several states. Although Delaware passed a law permitting medicinal use of marijuana, implementation was blunted by potential prosecution by the federal government. And, last month, Colorado and Washington voters made recreational use of marijuana legal in those states. Both medical- and recreational-marijuana-use laws raise lots of questions for employers.

One such question is how these laws will impact an employer's ability to drug test employees and applicants. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requires drug testing for safety-sensitive positions. Applicants must be tested before beginning work. Current employees must be tested in certain circumstances, including following an accident. Marijuana is one of the drugs that must be included in the DOT-required screenings.

In 2009, in response to the passage of medical-marijuana laws in several states, the DOT clarified that marijuana remained unlawful under federal law. The DOT reiterated that medical use of marijuana was still "use" and was still considered a violation of the DOT's regulations.

In response to the Colorado and Washington laws permitting recreational use of marijuana, the DOT has spoken yet again. On December 3, 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy Compliance issued a Notice to address the recent passage of state initiatives purporting to legalize marijuana use for recreational purposes. Not surprisingly, the DOT's position is unaffected by these State's laws and the prohibition against marijuana use by anyone in a safety-sensitive position remains fully intact.

The conflict between state and federal drug laws will be resolved eventually. But, until then, the questions and contradictions will continue to cause confusion for employers.

Can an employee be fired for violating a social-media policy that doesn't exist? This is a question that many employers have faced. And, if the NLRB continues to scare employers away from social-media policies, it's a question that will continue to arise.

The answer, simply put, is "yes." Employers need not have express written policies on each and every possible workplace infraction. For example, if an employee decided he would speak only Vulcan at work, he surely could be terminated without legal consequence. Similarly, most employers do not have a policy prohibiting employees from walking around the office on their hands. Yet, terminating an employee for clown-like conduct would not trigger a lawsuit.

The same concept applies when it comes to social media. If an employee posts the employer's confidential information on the employee's Facebook page, the employee can be terminated, right? Whether there is a policy that specifically prohibits employees from leaking confidential information via social media is irrelevant. So long as the adverse action is not being taken for unlawful reasons, a written policy is not necessarily required.

That said, whether an employer can do something is often quite different from whether it should do it. This is particularly true when it comes to social media.

A recent example of this dichotomy involves a meteorologist from Shreveport, Louisiana who was fired for allegedly violating her employer's unwritten social-media policy:

A broadcaster at a news station in Louisiana politely responded to a Facebook comment about her hair. She lost her job over it, via a policy that wasn't codified. Was that legal? Was it fair?

You can read my answer to both questions at Ragan.com.

Hurricane Sandy is heading right for Delaware; Gov. Markell announced a state of emergency earlier today. The hurricane is forecasted to be the second worst in recorded history. Our neighbors in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland are facing similarly treacherous weather conditions in the coming days. In light of the anticipated power outages, it's likely that things on the blog will be quiet for the next few days.

Until then, here are some of our previous posts on emergency preparedness for employers:

State of Emergency: Liability for Employers During Inclement Weather

Workplace Crisis Management (Earthquake)

Must Exempt Employees Be Paid During Snow Days?

And one from Dan Schwartz in Connecticut relating to Hurricane Sandy.

Hopefully, we'll be back up and running soon. In the meantime, we'll be doing our best to stay dry.

Jason Selch worked as an investment analyst for his employer for 10 years. The company went through multiple mergers and acquisitions and eventually was bought by a Bank of America subsidiary. After the BoA merger, Selch learned that his friend and co-worker had been terminated after declining to accept a pay cut.  

Presumably in protest of his friend's exit, Selch marched into a conference room where the COO and CIO were meeting.  He asked the executives if he was subject to a non-compete agreement.  When the CIO answered that he was not, Selch promptly dropped his drawers and mooned the two executives.

The two execs, to their credit, weren't flustered by the demonstration and simply returned to their discussion and went on with the meeting. Later, at the COO's instruction, HR issued Selch a final written warning, which stated that any subsequent violation would result in his termination.  

When the CEO learned of Selch's flagrant "display" of insubordination, however, he insisted that Selch be terminated.  As a result of being terminated for cause, Selch had to foreit contingency payments of approximately $2 million, which would have vested in a few months. 

Not surprisingly, Selch sued his former employer, claiming that he was entitled to the contingency payments because, in part, the written warning was a contract, which constituted a promise that he would not be fired unless he engaged in a subsequent policy violation. 

The court granted summary judgment to his employer and the decision was upheld on appeal.  In short, the court held that the warning was not a 
"promise" such that an enforceable contract was created. 

What are the employer take-aways from this case?

Well, first, kudos to the executives who, remarkably, managed not to lose their cool after such a visual assault.  Let us all be inspired by their ability to stay focused on the task at hand.

Second, today is my birthday and I find this story more than mildly entertaining. Because it is my birthday, I will take the liberty to be a bit more candid in disclosing my opinion here--what an idiot. Shame on Selch for acting like an immature middle-school kid. The good guys won this battle and I am glad for that. 

Via NY Daily News

Health-and-wellness benefits are all the rage. Some employers offer their employees a discount on gym memberships. Some offer a monthly stipend to be used towards the fees at a health-club. And some have an on-site fitness center.

Employers who are considering building an on-site fitness center for employees commonly want to know how they can protect themselves against a personal-injury lawsuit. For example, an employee drops a dumbbell on his foot and breaks a toe. (Don't laugh, people, broken toes are brutal!)

What's to stop the employee from suing his employer for his injury? Assuming that lifting weights is not part of the employee's job, it would not have been an injury incurred in the "course and scope" of his employment and, therefore, would not be covered by workers' comp. And you, dear employer, own the equipment, including the dumbbell, so you'd surely be the first defendant to be named.

To avoid the "no-good-deed-goes-unpunished" phenomenon, employers will ask whether they can require employees to sign a waiver or release as a condition of using the fitness center. Until a few years ago, the answer was, "not really." Of course, you could require that they sign a waiver but it would not be effective if you ever needed to use it because the law prohibited waivers of claims for future injury.

In 2008, in Slowe v. Pike Creek Court Club, the Delaware Superior Court held that such claims could be released but only if "the language makes it crystal clear and unequivocal that the parties specifically contemplated such a release." In Slowe, the court held that the waiver at issue did not meet this "crystal-clear-and-unequivocal" standard and, consequently, the waiver was not effective, but left open the possibility that a "properly-worded release might effect a waiver of premises liability."

In July, the court had the opportunity to address the issue again and, this time, found the waiver to be enforceable. In Hong v. Hockessin Athletic Club, the plaintiff, a member of the athletic club, signed a comprehensive waiver of liability and release in connection with her membership agreement. The waiver expressly stated that she and all others on her membership assumed the risk of "any injury or damage incurred while engaging in any physical exercise or activity or use of any club facility on the premises," including the use of "any equipment in the facility." The court held that this was sufficient to constitute a waiver in "crystal clear and unequivocal" terms and dismissed the suit.

There are no guarantees in life or in the law and this situation is no exception. Although this case offers employers some very good news when it comes to avoiding liability for on-site injury of employees and visitors, it is, of course, not a guarantee. Nevertheless, in light of this case, there seems to be no reason not to require a waiver for your on-site fitness center.

Hong v. Hockessin Athletic Club, No. N12C-05-004-PLA (Del. Super. July 18, 2012).

BYOD (short for "bring your own device"), is all the rage these days. Well, at least you'd think so based on all of the on-line talk about it. See, e.g., this post on the WSJ Blog, CIO Report. The basic idea is that employees are using their own electronic devices, such as smartphones and laptops, for work-related purposes. The causes of the BYOD movement are not entirely clear but one explanation is that employees are dissatisfied with the technology provided by their employer, so they just "bring their own" technology with them.

In any event, the reality is that, even in workplaces where no one brings their own device to work, many of us bring our employer-provided devices home with us. For example, it's not uncommon for an employee to have just one smartphone, through which he access both his personal and work email accounts. If the employer pays for or subsidizes the cost of the device and/or the monthly charges, there is an argument to be made that the employer may have some rights to access all data stored on the phone.

So what's an employee to do? Heaven forbid we had to carry around two phones everywhere we went. (This would particularly disastrous for airheads like me, who can barely remember to bring one cellphone with us when we leave the house). Well, according to the tech blog, Chip Chick, there is now, officially, an app for that. At least for Android users, anyway.

According to Chip Chick, the aptly named app, Device, "allows you to have your personal device and work device all in one." Users can keep the work side of the device encrypted and secure. If you're a really outstanding [read: show-off] employee, you can even limit the apps that will function on the work side to "business-oriented" apps. And, if you lose your phone (which I do no more than twice a year, I swear), Divide allows you to remotely wipe everything on the work side.

Delaware employers should be aware of the risks of employees' use of cell phones while driving. It's a recipe for litigation. Delaware employers should have a clear policy prohibiting employees from using cell phones whild driving on company business. The use of hand-held devices while driving is illegal in Delaware and employers should avoid liability for employees' violations of state law. As a starting point, employers should prohibit employees from violating any traffic laws while operating a vehicle on company time.

A recent article in the Washington Post takes these concerns one step further, and discusses several incidents in which employees did serious bodily harm to innocent third-parties while they were driving and talking on cell phones. Pizza delivery companies have also learned this lesson the hard way--you no longer see 30-minute delivery guarantees because franchisors were sued when their employees took up dangerous driving practices to meet the deadlines. One plaintiff won a $21.6 million jury verdict in a case arising from a cell-phone related car accident. Significantly, that accident occurred in 2004, before many states prohibited use of hand-held phones for talking or texting while driving.

If you weren't convinced already , these stories should encourage you to communicate clearly with your employees that, regardless of how important their assignment, they may not violate traffic laws to complete it!

Social-media issues faced by employers continue to change and develop. Your social-media policy (or guidelines, if you prefer), should do the same.  An updated social-media policy is provided via the link below for your reference as a starting point for drafting your own workplace policy addressing employees' social-media use.  There are, of course, any number of variations that may be appropriate for your specific workplace.  The sample is intended to be just that--a sample, to give you a running start when you've got your key stakeholders seated at the table ready to discuss the approach that is appropriate for your particular workforce.  You should consult with qualified employment-law counsel before implementing any new policy to ensure legal compliance.
Sample Social Media Policy YCST.pdf

The four-day workweek is no more. Well, at least in Utah, reports NPR. Next week, Utah State employees will return to a traditional five-day workweek. The four-day workweek officially died last week but workers can ease their way into the grueling five-day schedule thanks to the Labor Day holiday.

Former Utah Governor John Huntsman initiated the program in 2008, heralding it as a way to increase efficiency and morale, while reducing costs and conserving energy. As our long-time readers may recall, I was skeptical that the purported benefits of a four-day workweek would be realized fully. It seems that my skepticism was well founded. The State-wide program is being abandoned after a legislative audit revealed that the savings were not as great as had been hoped and residents were dissatisfied with the limited access to government services.

Not all four-day workweeks have been unsuccessful, though. The smaller size of local governments appear to be the key to successful implementation of the so-called 4/10 workweek. With fewer employees and offices, towns and municipalities are able to more effectively adjust the program to fit the needs of residents and demands of employees.

As for me, my opinion is unchanged. Workplace flexibility is a good thing. And that’s exactly why the Utah program did not work. Utah’s four-day workweek was mandatory. “Mandatory flexibility” is an oxymoron. That’s why, in my opinion, mandatory workplace flexibility in the form of a state-wide program doesn’t work.

Many Delaware residents experienced their first earthquake today. From Virginia to New York, floors were trembling and windows were shaking. The employees in my high-rise office building in Wilmington, Delaware reacted to the experience quite differently: some sat planted in our chairs stunned, later wandering into the hallways to see if anyone else felt the odd sensations, some immediately sought to flee the building, and others were convinced we were in mortal danger and upset the building was not evacuated. How, as an HR professional, do you advise your management to handle these crises—whether fleeting, or one that results in a more drastic impact?

Develop a communication and contingency plan

The key to handling crises, whether natural or man-made, is to have a Crisis Management and Disaster Preparedness Plan in place before the disaster strikes. Disorganization and a lack of well-thought-out emergency procedures pose almost as great a risk to employee safety in a time of crisis as the underlying catastrophic event itself. As a result, you should consider distributing to your employees a clearly articulated and easy-to-understand communication and contingency plan. At a minimum, your policy should explain what your employees should do and where they should go in the event of an emergency. For example, it should provide information about how they're to exit the facility if there's a fire or another type of disaster.

In addition, you should periodically practice evacuation drills and provide emergency contingency training to familiarize your employees with the proper procedures after an emergency occurs. You should also consider things like which equipment needs to be turned off when an emergency strikes, what your backup power sources are, where first-aid supplies will be kept, and how to communicate instructions to your employees or customers while an emergency is unfolding.

Every employer must keep a list of vital contacts. You should have complete contact information for your employees and corporate officers. A good contact list should also include local and federal emergency telephone numbers, including contact information for the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (whose phone number is (302) 659-DEMA).

On the business side, you should also keep telephone numbers and physical and e-mail addresses for major clients, suppliers, contractors, financial institutions, insurance agents, radio stations and newspapers, and any other individuals or businesses you might need to notify after a crisis occurs. Keep your contact list stored off-site so it's available if your main facility is inaccessible.

In addition, consider setting up a place on your website where employees can log in to indicate they are safe. If internet access is unavailable, the old-fashioned "phone tree" that assigns your employees to contact teams can by put into place. Employees on each contact team will be responsible for communicating with other employees on the team after an emergency. That makes locating employees and confirming their safety a far easier task than having no system at all. Another alternative is designating an off-site location employees can call to get information after a disaster or to notify your company and their family and friends that they're OK.

Include in your contingency plan a timeline of tasks to be accomplished. Your list should include things that must be accomplished before disaster strikes (if you have advance warning, like when a hurricane is predicted) and what must be done afterward.

Protect your records

Most of you can't really imagine how much you depend on the documents, forms, employee records, customer and contact lists, and accounting information you've developed over the years you've been in business. To reduce your losses, you must have adequate backups of all your company's important records, computer data, vendor and customer lists, and other information that is essential to your operations.

Make sure your backups are updated frequently and stored in an off-site location specially constructed for data and record storage. You can have all the backups in the world, but they won't do you any good if they're five years old or if they're stored in your office building when it burns to the ground.

Identify emergency business facilities

In the case of emergencies that disable your facilities for a significant amount of time, you may want to consider alternate facilities you might use to operate if a disaster hits your business. Look for facilities that will rent office or warehouse space for short terms, or consider using your employees' homes if your business can be conducted through telecommuting. Of course, you'll have to have a communication plan in place before disaster strikes so your employees and customers will know you're still operating.

Make provisions for employees' wages, benefits

Employers aren't required to pay hourly nonexempt employees for time away from work because of a workplace disaster. Nevertheless, those employees may be eligible for certain pay benefits, including unemployment compensation. You should be cognizant that under the Fair Labor Standards Act, salaried exempt employees must be paid their full salary for any workweek in which they perform any amount of work — regardless of how many days or hours they actually work. If they aren't, you risk having them lose their exemption.

If you're like most employers, some of the most important benefits you provide your employees are health, disability, and life insurance. If any of your employees or their beneficiaries are injured or killed during a disaster, those benefits may be their (and their families') only lifeline of hope. Consequently, make sure you provide whatever help they or their families need to file their health insurance or workers' compensation claims. Injured employees may also need help filing claims under your short-term or long-term disability policies.

Here are some helpful things you can do:
• Let your employees know about pertinent deadlines. Be sure to provide them with the correct forms promptly and help them fill out the paperwork if necessary.

• If an employee's injuries prevent her from filing a claim, contact her spouse or another family member to advise her which benefits are available.

• If an employee is temporarily or permanently disabled, work with her to determine whether there's a reasonable accommodation that will allow her to return to work.
Address employee leave

Keep in mind the proper application of your company's leave policies — and the various laws that protect employees who are injured or whose family members are injured. Take care to apply your sick, personal, vacation, paid time off, and bereavement leave policies uniformly and with compassion.

Injuries sustained during a disaster may qualify someone to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for himself or a family member. If an employee needs to take a leave of absence for nonmedical reasons, check your policies and let him know what his options are. Even if you don't usually allow nonmedical leaves of absence, storm cleanup may be an extenuating circumstance that will allow you to grant leave now. Just remember to treat all employees fairly when doling out leave.
Prepare for emotional component

Finally, the stress of a disaster takes a tremendous toll on everyone, both physically and emotionally. If you're prepared to target the fears and concerns of your workforce, you'll be better prepared to recover from a disaster. Managers should have plans to address those concerns and understand that people respond differently during crises. You must accept the fact that performance and productivity will drop, and some employees may have increased absences and difficulty concentrating on their work.

Contact your employee assistance program (EAP) provider for counseling information for stressed workers and their families. Alert your provider that employees will be contacting it. Remind employees about the EAP, and provide them with its phone number.

Bottom line

It appears that the earthquake felt in Delaware did not harm anyone or significantly impact businesses, but it’s a good reminder of what you need in place in case it had. Planning for the unthinkable is the smart thing to do from a business standpoint. Because every business is unique, employers are well advised to consult with employment counsel to help develop a disaster-preparedness and crisis-management policy best suited to your needs.

Employers who are preparing to adopt a social-media policy would be well advised to read an excellent post on Mashable.com, titled, HOW TO: Get Your Employees On Board With Your Social Media Policy.  The piece, which is written by Maria Ogneva, who is the Head of Community at Yammer, offers some terrific suggestions for making your social-media policy work.  

She makes a number of suggestions about ways to implement a social-media policy effectively.  All of the suggestions are top-notch.  But a more important message underlying the post is this: no matter how well drafted your social-media policy is, it’s worth nothing unless your employees know about and understand it.  Compliance is always the single most important objective to consider when drafting any kind of workplace policy.  The goal for a social-media policy is no different.

The purpose is not to have a written document that you can use as a basis for disciplining employees when they violate the rules you’ve prescribed.  Instead, you’re trying to avoid having employees violate those rules in the first place.  The key to compliance is education.  Making sure your workforce is not only aware of the policy (which is, by the way, an important component of the process), but, also, that they truly understand the policy and what it is trying to prevent and protect against. 

Consider engaging in some dialogue with employees as part of the roll-out of your policy.  You may be surprised at the insight they’re able to offer.

Social-media policies are on the mind of employers everywhere. I taught my first social-media policy workshop in 2009 and have been talking about them ever since. It's only been in the last 12-18 months, though, that I've seen a real movement towards adopting and implementing social-media policies, as opposed to just talking about them.

In the coming months, I will be giving a number of presentations about social-media policies. I'll be speaking to the Virginia Bar Association's Labor & Employment Section's annual CLE in Richmond on May 5 and just outside of D.C. on May 12. Then I'll be back in Delaware on May 18 for a CLE hosted by the Delaware Bar Association's Technology and Corporate Counsel. At each of these seminars, I'll be talking about social-media policies.

Although not specific to policy drafting, I will also be speaking about the ethical issues relating to social media for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute on April 21 in Pittsburgh and on April 27 in Philadelphia.

Although the sessions listed above are for legal professionals, human-resource professionals will have their chance, too. On May 11, at Young Conaway's Annual Employment Law Seminar, which is not to be missed for Delaware employers, Bill Bowser and I will be giving an encore presentation of our popular social-media policy workshop. (If you haven't registered yet, do it now--it looks like the event will likely sell out this year). Then, this Fall, I'll be speaking again at both of M. Lee Smith's Advanced Employment Issues Symposiums. The first one is in October in Nashville, Tennessee; the second is in Las Vegas in November.

For the next several months, I'll be living and breathing (and talking a lot about) social-media policies. To make it a truly well-rounded experience, I'll also be writing about them here on the blog. Specifically, I'll be writing an extensive series of posts about the specific considerations that are involved in drafting a social-media policy. These posts will address the details of social-media policies, as opposed to the big-picture considerations that I have written about in the past. All of the posts in this series will be titled, "Drafting Considerations for Social-Media Policies," making them easy to identify.

Kenneth Kratz, district attorney of Calumet County, Wisconsin, sent 30 text messages to a 26-year-old domestic-abuse victim.  Odd choice of medium, one might say, for an attorney to communicate with a witness.  I can't say that I generally communicate with clients or witnesses via text message.  But that may be because I tend to communicate with clients and witnesses about case-related issues--and do so in a professional context.  Not Mr. Kratz.

DA Kratz is reported to have sent these text messages in an attempt to solicit her for a romantic relationship.  In other words, he "sexted" her.  The content of the messages are salacious and, well, obnoxious.  For example, he wrote in one message, "Are you the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA ... the riskier the better?" 

Remember, he is sending these messages to a woman whose ex-boyfriend he was also prosecuting on charges that the ex-boyfriend nearly choked her to death.

Katz did not deny sending the message but, instead, defended himself, saying that the state's disciplinary board had cleared him of any misconduct.  He is reported as being angry that the "non-news story" of his sexting worried him because of its potential effect on his "reputational interests."  

The story came to light after Katz failed to take the witness' lack of interest seriously, leading her to report the messages to the police.  The police department released the messages to the media at the request of the Associated Press. 

[H/T Sharon Nelson, Ride the Lightning]

So, what are some of the numerous lessons for employers to learn from this story?  (Read on after the jump to find out)

The Navy has released its second handbook on social media.  The first was directed to ombudsmen and was released this summer.  The second was released last week and is directed to commanding officers. The handbook offers guidelines and suggestions for safe social-media use. Here are some of the most transferrable points from the new handbook, which employers may want to consider when drafting their own social-media policies:

• Protect the safety of your family’s personal information;
• Be familiar with the privacy settings of your account;
• Keep sensitive information safe.

The social-media handbook also addresses how to respond if your account is hacked and what to do if you find that inappropriate comments have been posted to a Naval social-media account.

One particularly interesting section addresses the issue of friend requests between a commanding officer and those in his chain of command.  Regarding online relationships with subordinates, the handbook states:

If your social media presence exists simply to engage with people on a professional basis then becoming a friend of one of your Sailors or following them is less of an issue. However, if you use social media actively to communicate with your close friends and family then including Sailors who work for you is a more difficult decision. However you approach your connecting with subordinates from your command, it is up to you to lead by example and ensure that the relationship remains on a professional level and that deference to your rank and position is respected online and in the real world.

This is one of the better social-media handbooks I’ve encountered and is an excellent starting point for those employer who are beginning the process of writing a similar policy for their workplace.

See also:

Sample Social-Media Policy for Employers