Dom Giordano is a Philadelphia talk radio personality and newspaper columnist. He recently interviewed me for an article in the Philadelphia Bulletin about social networking. You can read it over here.

The column was prompted by this incident in which the Philadcelphia Eagles fired a game-day employee (he guarded one of the gates) for something he said on Facebook.

The guy took the post down, but does anyone think that the Eagles didn’t overreact in the extreme? Taking away the man’s job is harsh punishment, particularly in this economy. They should have just talked to him so it didn’t happen again.

The incident raises a larger issue, though: Companies and organizations need to have policies in place for all employees to observe when it comes to blogging, participating in social networks, and general online conduct.

There’s no one set of rules that fits all companies. Some companies will want their employees to have high profiles online. Others will want them to avoid saying anything. Most will be somewhere in the middle. But rules should be drawn up, agreed to by everyone from the C-level offices to the legal department, and communicated to every employee during job orientation.

Rules aside, though: Lighten up, companies. It’s a random comment on Facebook. Don’t be taking away someone’s job over it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 9:22 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Social Media.