Is my boss allowed to go on my twitter account and show my updates to co-workers?

ceridwen

Sidekick2 wrote: »

It's not like I update my status during work time - everything i update on there is done in my own time.

I would say the relevant words here are "in my OWN time".

ceridwen

Sidekick2 wrote: »

Hi,

The only work related thing I've said on there is 'I hate work' and that was a while ago.

Another relevant quote from the original post.

I think we are all aware by now of the poor woman who got dismissed recently just for stating she was bored at work (along with a good 90% of the rest of employees) - but I would think the employer got away with that because she had less than a years service.

......goes off vowing to be polite to people even if they arent polite themselves....

KME91

Look at it this way, say your potential clients saw your twitter updates and decided not to give their business to a company which employed people unprofessional enough to slag off their employer to the whole world. That to me would be an act of bringing the company into disrepute. And that is considered gross misconduct in some places. so yes you can be sacked for it, even if you wrote it in your own time, at home on your own computer.

As others have said, if you write things on the internet that can be seen by anyone and can be attributed to you, then you can be held liable for the content. So twittering under your own name to the whole planet about work, whatever you say, can see you being investigated for misconduct. regardless of when you wrote it. likewise libel laws apply to anything you write on the internet.

In terms of whether your boss can print off the things you wrote and show them to other people - whilst this is unprofessional possibly, there's nothing illegal about it. your company might limit your internet access, so accessing twitter could be a breach of that policy, but other than that there's nothing stopping them. You could pursue a case of bullying but to be frank the investigation would get to the point of looking at what was printed on the document the woman was waving about and you'd probably find your managers would lose interest in following up your complaint.

never say on the internet anthing you wouldn't say in real life, and never say anything that could jeapordise your job if it could be traced back to you.