Face Book and Sick Days

I was talking to a young woman the other day who had gotten into trouble with her manager who read a posting she had put on Face Book on a day she was supposed to be home sick. She was genuinely ill with one of those loose wet colds that make you back away whenever the person is near. Bored with TV, she went onto Face Book. The manager (who read the innocuous comment after her shift was over) sent a snippy note to the effect that she was glad the young person was all better.

Recently, someone else lost their job for using Face Book on a sick day. Her posting, however, was a negative comment about her boss.

Is this the sign of the future? If you are away from work, should you be banned from using Face Book? Or only for saying certain things on it? What about your emails? Should you be forbidden from replying to emails when you are sick?

Emails and Privacy

I understand that emails written by managers at Toyota are now being subpoened for an upcoming lawsuit. Why do people think that what they write in an email is private? It ends up in your sent box, on your server, on your receiver's server, in your reciever's inbox, etc. You can delete it from one place, but you will probably miss others.

Just recently, councillors at the City of Mississauga were all up in arms because they found out some designated members of city staff could review messages they sent and received on city-owned computers. Where have these people been hanging out?

The spoken language is diffuse. It can become a matter of he said/she said. Written words -- particularly those in emails -- can come back to haunt you and your business. It's important to watch what your write.