ForumsManaging Employees and HR

What are your company guidelines regarding extracurricular free speech? If you don't have any guidelines, I would consult a labnor attorney and develop them quick. When these new rules are adopted and made a part of the company policy, then you will have to talk to this person and tell them that their actions are divisive and rude.

I would NEVER allow anyone working for me to post anything such as you have described in one of our public areas. Our only public area is our BaseCamp site but my employees would never post these things out of general regard for the other people on the team. I guess that's what bothers me most about your question, this person has no regard for their workmates. How sad.

What you have to remember is that it is your place of business and that you have the right to not let anything offensive be placed anywhere that can compromise the integrity of your business. Like it was said before, consulting a lawyer on this matter is your best option but there are ways that you can protect yourself from any backlash. You always want to use documentation when talking with any employee about such behavior. Write ups for such action is used by many big companies to show that they did give the employee a fair chance to return to work even though they were talked too about the incident. One thing you have to be careful with is people who try to take advantage of free speech laws.

Many companies have clauses in their initial hirring contract with an employee that states what can be done in the event that such a incident takes place. And also many employers make new hire employees take sensitivity courses and upon completion make the new associate sign a document saying they know full well of the issues talked about and what can be done if they break the rules of the company.