Managing employee social media posts

We are now in an age where the arts of conversation and letter writing have been displaced, if not lost, in favour of online comment and social media posts. TikTok, Twitter and Facebook are now commonplace destinations for individuals to air their views and grievances against whatever and whomever has upset them. Management, colleagues, customers and the general public are frequently considered legitimate targets.

In the past 12 months in particular, a pervasive undercurrent of anti-work sentiment has emerged on social media, epitomised by recent trends such as the ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘lazy girl job’ movement. These trends challenge the conventional belief that employees should endeavour to go the extra mile at work, and instead encourages readers to dial down their efforts and do the bare minimum required to keep their job.

The evolution of social media has transformed how employees share their workplace experiences, and what was once confined to casual coffee chats with friends now finds a public platform online. In addition to venting about work and openly rejecting certain work conventions, it is now common for employees to share their encounters with difficult customers or colleagues, sometimes in the form of dramatised skits which are often exaggerated for comic effect.