Employment Clause on Social Media Contacts

gettingtheresometime · 22 August 2019 at 4:16PM

I think the easiest think to do would be to not accept the promotion and stick with your existing contract

regency_man · 22 August 2019 at 4:19PM

Also consider this. Two salespeople of a company, Alan and Barry, are drinking in a bar after work. They start chatting with another person, Clive, and end up meandering onto the topic of their jobs. Thanks to affable Alan's charisma and generally likeable personality, Clive gives Alan his business card and says they should talk more. Despite Clive knowing boring Barry also works for the same company, Clive doesn't give his business card to Barry.

Did Alan make the contact as a result of his business position, or his personal attributes? In which case, is it a business contact or a personal contact?

Show your working.

getmore4less · 22 August 2019 at 4:19PM

The networking sites are relatively simple you need to remove that you are working for the old company.

What if your new company has a social policy that says any networking sites should be updated with your new work place.

Regular social media gets more complicated, best just don't use it for any work related stuff.

Get a seperate business profile for that if needed.

surreysaver · 22 August 2019 at 4:29PM

regency_man wrote: »

I think you're right, I have no intention of screwing anyone over so it's unlikely to ever be an issue.

It just really grinds my gears that companies now expect you to be 'always at work' blurring your personal vs work time, my contract even says I have no set hours and am expected to work whatever hours needed to get the job done. Yet there is no recognition that this flows both ways.

I mean, if I'm in a bar at 10pm after an event and my director sends me an email and I decide to answer it, and at exactly the same time someone comes up to me and hands me their business card - did I just make a business contact or a personal contact?!

Surely its you blurring your personal and work time by adding business contacts to your personal social media account?

Doshwaster · 22 August 2019 at 4:50PM

regency_man wrote: »

As part of a promotion my employer has asked me to sign a new contract. They have said this is just to bring it 'up to date with the current version given to new employees'.

It is largely the same, and my benefits are not affected, however it contains a pretty strict new clause on social media contacts.

I don't want to quote it directly here because it would be pretty identifiable, but essentially it says:
Any contacts or connections that I make during the process of conducting my job are considered business contacts and not personal contacts and upon leaving the company I must delete all those contacts from my personal social media accounts and address books, destroy any copies and permit them to audit that this has been done.

Updating my Linked In account in a way that would notify business contacts that I have a new job would count as 'solicitation' and therefore I'm not permitted to change my Employer on Linked In for 6 months after termination, in line with their non-solicitation clause.

This seems crazy. Is this actually enforceable?

Point 1) Seems good practice to keep the two separate. I wouldn't have a purely business contact, even (or especially?) people I work with, as a personal social media connection. As the saying goes "Facebook is not LinkedIn". They would have to become good friends before making the transition to a personal social media contact.

Point 2) Seems impossible for them to enforce. My previous employer had a social media policy that we couldn't name clients we had worked on for projects, which was fair enough and I complied but as soon as I was made redundant I named them as it was part of my CV.

regency_man · 22 August 2019 at 5:29PM

surreysaver wrote: »

Surely its you blurring your personal and work time by adding business contacts to your personal social media account?

I'm not sure if you've ever used LinkedIn but this is the WHOLE POINT OF IT.

steampowered · 22 August 2019 at 5:31PM

They sound like nonsense restrictions to me.

I think they would struggle to convince a judge that those restrictions are "no more than is reasonably necessary", which is the legal standard.

TELLIT01 · 22 August 2019 at 5:38PM

spadoosh wrote: »

Personal contacts do not hand out business cards. Business contacts hand out business cards. The clue is in the title.

I bet you get paid more than me too. :mad::p

Not true. Over the years I've met a number of people on holiday who've handed me their business cards and said "If your ever in the area give me a call". That is absolutely a personal contact handing out a business card.

TELLIT01 · 22 August 2019 at 5:41PM

surreysaver wrote: »

Surely its you blurring your personal and work time by adding business contacts to your personal social media account?

The world of business and personal life is blurred. My wife and I were invited to an event by a person I had business dealings with. My wife then invited him and his wife to her 50th birthday party, and they came. Is he now a business or personal contact?

ReadingTim · 22 August 2019 at 5:58PM

With respect to point 2, one can easily change a setting in LinkedIn so that profile changes (such as job title, employer etc) aren't broadcast to your entire network - people often do this when brushing up their profile/looking for a new job.

They're not preventing you from updating your profile - any new job is a statement of fact - they're simply trying to ensure you don't advertise it, which is a non-issue.

Employment Clause on Social Media Contacts

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