Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

Is your organization one of the many with policies restricting employees’ use of social and other electronic media? If so, you need to consider last month’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision, finding that Costco’s policy violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This decision is another recent example of a regulator’s interpretation of ambiguous employer policies in ways that protect employee rights by using the employer’s ambiguity against it – and reinforce that employment law best practices require clarity and narrow drafting.

I find that, because I run my own practice, I spend a lot of time networking, meeting people and learning. One of the “hot topics” of conversation I often encounter is “branding”, and how everyone wants to establish, and use, their new brands consistently on social media and in other avenues.

The internet is such a special place. It makes life so easy. I know that there are a slew of attorneys who existed before the time of the internet, and on-line legal research, but I am so glad that I did not have to be one of them. I am grateful that I did not have to know that kind of grueling legal practice. This is so much more fun!

FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, TWITTER AND BLOGS:  HOW TO MANAGE SOCIAL MEDIA AT WORK.  A recent article in the Globe and Mail described how Canadians spend on average approximately 43.5 hours a month on the Web, which is, according to data released by a Web research firm comScore, almost twice the worldwide average of 23.1 hours.(1)