There was an interesting piece on npr last week about the impact of social media on the courtroom. What’s really amazing is how HR people and lawyers are suddenly all over social media and the implications to their respective worlds. And, these insights are turning into a business in and of themselves. As Organic’s Executive Director of HR, my mailbox has seen a surge of invitations lately to training seminars on this topic. Most claim to “teach” people about the latest trends in social media, how to write policies and how to apply draconian, non-enforceable limits on individual freedom of speech and expression. 

My favorite recent example of an organization taking the “concerned” approach around social media activity is the not very progressive city of Bozeman, Montana. They are requiring job candidates to offer up their passwords to Facebook and any other social sites they use. What’s even more shocking is that this isn’t something they’ve just recently implemented.

This just seems ludicrous to most of us, not to mention an infringement of civil liberty and a right to privacy. But it’s really happening. What on earth made them think they should do that? Did they also ask to read diaries? Personal email? Look at checkbooks? Go through dresser drawers?

Sure, there are certain things that legally — and perhaps ethically — people shouldn’t tweet about or talk about in a public forum. Yet for the most part, trying to limit access to the internet in a courtroom or the workplace is akin to creating a no talking policy! Social media is changing the nature of the workplace, the courtroom and business in general. Instead of trying to limit it (as some of these training seminars might suggest), we should be guiding employees on the how they can use it.

Tracy Cote