If you leave all your social media passwords belong to us

Guest101

Here's the simple thing, when you leave and don't hand over your passwords, what will they do? - nothing is the short answer.


Yes your reference wont be good, but there's no court that would give an injunction for this.

Undervalued

shadowqueen wrote: »

I'd understand if it was just a case of "if you've got a hangover we'll get cross" but I think there should be a bit more clarity about what exactly constitutes a hazardous activity so that if, for example, you get into a car crash on your way to work, you're not sacked for misconduct, especially if it wasn't your fault.

Most health and travel insurance policies have restrictions and / or higher premiums for hazardous activities. Sick pay is, in effect, a form of insurance.

Sure I'm not about to badmouth an employer or do anything particularly contentious on social media. I'm in tech but I'm not stupid. If they were to say something like "You need to take down $post because we think it could be construed as talking about the company" or "We'd like you to delete your LinkedIn contacts from $client company" then sure that's a bit more reasonable.

Sadly plenty of people do. This forum and others get lots of posts from employees who have done just that!

sweaty_betty

On the surface I wouldn't be happy with this either.

I make a point of not talking about work on Facebook/twitter as I like to keep work/home separate. I certainly wouldn't hand over these passwords and would restrict/hide my profile from those I work with/for.

LinkedIn is often used for work so that's more of a grey area for me, but I'd still not hand over passwords - or details of people I'd linked to.

For both the above I'd be tempted to create alternative profiles that you can give them if they decide to try to enforce this.

The sick leave being your own fault is a grey area - there's a big difference between injured duration a skydive/skiing/anything you need extra holiday insurance for and being injured commuting to work on your bike. It's down to the company how they'd apply something like this.

Do you know anything else about the company that gives you cause for concern?

Gavin83

shadowqueen wrote: »

One clause states that upon leaving, you must hand over all LinkedIn contacts made during your employment as well as your personal LinkedIn password.

Another clause states that if you are suspected of having said something "wrong" on your personal social media you must hand over all social media passwords.

I'd say this is totally unenforceable and I wouldn't be handing over personal account passwords to my employer, even if I was still employed there. It's none of their business. I'd suggest the only exception would be if you were a recruitment consultant or something and used LinkedIn heavily for work but in this case I think it could be argued it was more a work account than personal.

I'd also agree with others here that you shouldn't be insulting your employer on Facebook. However personal opinions should be fine, as long as you aren't pushing the boundaries of the law with your views.

shadowqueen wrote: »

very vague clause about doing you for misconduct if they feel your sickness is your fault including all sickness caused by taking in hazardous activity.

This is very broad and should be more specific. Honestly 99% of sickness/accidents could be at least in part linked to a 'hazardous activity'. I have/have had some hobbies which could be considered dangerous and therefore this would be a deal breaker for me anyway. This clause to me suggests the employer would attempt to control everything you did in your personal life and I couldn't accept that.

steampowered

I would say the clause is unenforceable on data protection grounds. An employer gaining access to your social media accounts would almost certainly be an unacceptable use of your personal data.

On balance, I probably wouldn't worry about it too much.

TELLIT01

I don't understand the concern about giving over passwords when you leave. Just give them your current passwords and change them as soon as you get home. You've complied with their requirements with no harm to yourself other than a couple of minutes at the keyboard. I think it's a stupid thing to put into the contract for the very reasons I've given.
Dress code is a different matter and all employers have a right to state what is or isn't acceptable, within reason. 'Hazardous activity' is a more difficult one and should be more clearly defined by the employer simply because it is too wide open to interpretation. My first employer tried to claim that football fell into that category!

Undervalued

Gavin83 wrote: »

I'd say this is totally unenforceable and I wouldn't be handing over personal account passwords to my employer, even if I was still employed there. It's none of their business. I'd suggest the only exception would be if you were a recruitment consultant or something and used LinkedIn heavily for work but in this case I think it could be argued it was more a work account than personal.

I'd also agree with others here that you shouldn't be insulting your employer on Facebook. However personal opinions should be fine, as long as you aren't pushing the boundaries of the law with your views.

Why do you think that?

It is up to the OP whether she accepts a job on these terms or not. If she does she has voluntarily entered into a contract agreeing to give her employer this information under certain conditions.

There are certain contractual terms that are prohibited by law but as far as I can see this is not one of them.

Regardless, it is really not good practice to enter into a contract relying on the fact that you hope / wish / believe that any terms you don't like will prove unenforceable.

Finally, the OP has indicated that she generally changes her job every two years. Unless she is intending to stay longer this time most of this is moot as she could simply be dismissed anyway.

shadowqueen

Undervalued wrote: »

Finally, the OP has indicated that she generally changes her job every two years. Unless she is intending to stay longer this time most of this is moot as she could simply be dismissed anyway.

Hold up, what now? I hope you're talking about the 2 year cut off.

In my current industry changing jobs every couple of years is a fairly standard thing.

Gavin83

Undervalued wrote: »

Why do you think that?

It is up to the OP whether she accepts a job on these terms or not. If she does she has voluntarily entered into a contract agreeing to give her employer this information under certain conditions.

There are certain contractual terms that are prohibited by law but as far as I can see this is not one of them.

Regardless, it is really not good practice to enter into a contract relying on the fact that you hope / wish / believe that any terms you don't like will prove unenforceable.

Finally, the OP has indicated that she generally changes her job every two years. Unless she is intending to stay longer this time most of this is moot as she could simply be dismissed anyway.

Why not just add that they can sleep with my wife and come in and help themselves to the contents on my home as well.

They can put what they want in a contract, whether it's enforceable or not is another matter. I don't think asking you for personal information is reasonable. It's nothing to do with them, unless you directly use these accounts for work. I'd put it on par with asking you for your bank details so they can check what money you have.

You are clearly someone who feels an employer can do whatever they want. I don't. As I said the other term would be a deal breaker for me anyway but I'd just ignore this one and wouldn't be giving them my personal details if requested.

getmore4less

unless it also says you ALSO authorise them to access the accounts(which is against the terms of most accounts. anyway) handing over a password

just create a list of passwords hand them over just after they all got changed to something else.

sorry you only get the passwords once and they don't work anymore because you are using them to access my accounts without authorization.

Going to be a bit of a problem for your google and ms accounts as they have crossovers from social media into other much more private stuff.


if they want you using any of the platforms for work then create work accounts specifically for work.

don't forget things like VOIP if the company uses things like skype create a work account.