From Trump to L'Oréal: Dangers of employee social media usage

Donald Trump has been making headlines with his Twitter activity, with his most recent spat caused by retweeting content from a member of far-right organisation Britain First, which prompted a transatlantic row with Theresa May.

PM May retaliated to Trump’s posts, condemning his actions as ‘wrong.’ The posts which he shared were considered to be anti-Muslim.

While it is hard to know whether the leader of the free world can be disciplined for these actions – and with Trumps’ tweets a recurring theme within his presidency, it doesn’t look like he’s taken heed to reprimand - what can an employer do if an employee does something similar?

HR Grapevine spoke to Peninsula’s Head of Advisory Kate Palmer, to find out whether employers have a right to react to offensive social media profiles. “The first issue for employers is to determine what online behaviour they’ll class as gross misconduct,” she advises. “This can differ from business to business, depending on, among other factors, the importance of online reputation to the business.