If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all

Social media can often connect employees in a meaningful way, particularly on employer-run social media pages. However, it's equally important to ensure employees are conducting themselves properly and following sound policies when they discuss workplace issues, and they should be held to appropriate policy standards. Those principles were front and center in a recent case in which an appellate court reviewed the conduct of a school counselor who apparently let her emotions guide her public commentary.

Facebook blunder

Patricia Crawford was a guidance counselor at Rubidoux High School (RHS). In February 2017, RHS students participated in "A Day Without Immigrants," a nationwide boycott seeking to illustrate the economic impact of immigrants and protest the president's immigration policies.

RHS's student body is approximately 90% Hispanic/Latino. One quarter of its students boycotted school in support of the protest. Later that day, Geoffrey Greer, an RHS teacher, posted on Facebook:

Perhaps . . . the missing workers . . . had the intended impact. . . . As for the public school system, having my class size reduced by 50% all day long only served to SUPPORT Trump's initiatives and prove how much better things might be without all this overcrowding. That's what you get when you jump on some sort of bandwagon cause as an excuse to be lazy and/or get drunk. Best school day ever.

Crawford commented, "Cafeteria was much cleaner after lunch, lunch, itself, went quicker, less traffic on the roads, and no discipline issues today. More, please."