Social Media and the Workplace: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Privacy Settings and the NLRB

Social media has permeated every aspect of society. The use of social media can easily lead to issues in an employment law context when employees suffer adverse employment actions based on the information they choose to share via their personal social media websites. Today’s laws concerning online privacy are in a nebulous state and have led some observers to suggest that employees who use social media may not find adequate legal protection from wrongful termination. This Note refutes this contention by analyzing current laws that may protect employees from adverse employment actions due to their use of social media. This Note also addresses the recent memoranda released by the National Labor Relations Board regarding employee social media use in an attempt to distill some concrete categories of protected employee conduct. Finally, this Note addresses and dismisses suggested alternatives to the current laws, including drafting new legislation, broadening the impact of lifestyle discrimination statutes, and broadening the scope of the Fourth Amendment through the elimination of the Third Party Doctrine