Expressing your personal opinions on social media could cost you your job, according to a legal expert.

Even including ‘all opinions are my own’ in your bio won’t spare you from disciplinary action, according to barrister Michael O’Doherty.

He told Moncrieff that this is a huge grey area in the world of law – but that it is always better to err on the side of caution.

“Very often it is to do with the employee handbook that you would get along with your contract,” he said.

“That would hopefully explain what you can and can’t do on social media as an employee but I’m finding increasingly as a barrister that a lot of these employee handbooks are very ineffectual in terms of social media usage clauses.

“A lot of them don’t have one at all, a lot of them, they’re very poorly drafted.

“This causes huge problems for employers when they come to try and discipline an employee because of something that the employee because of something that the employee has said on social media.”

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Mr O’Doherty said that the law definitively allows employers to reprimand workers for expressing an opinion that breaks a law, such as hate speech or harassment.

However, he said things become unclear when it comes to personal – and often political – opinions.

“The grey area is when the employee is expressing opinions about a topical issue, for example, Palestine-Israel or the immigration issue, which was the subject of another case last year where somebody voiced opinions about immigrants,” Mr O’Doherty said.

“That becomes a grey are to the degree of, do you have a policy in place? Are you dismissing or disciplining somebody simply because you don’t agree with the opinion?

“How strongly worded is the opinion? Does it constitute hate speech or is it just a valid expression of opinion?”

Reputational damage

According to Mr O’Doherty, companies will often claim reputational damage to avoid this issue.

“An employee might say something controversial on X, formerly Twitter, for example,” he said.

“Various other users of X criticise that person – as a lot of people are wont to do.

“But in criticising the individual, they tag the employer.

“They find out who the employer is and they tag them and suggest, ‘What are you going to do about this?’ or, ‘Do you feel comfortable about having somebody working for you who has these opinions?’

“That puts pressure on the employer to deal with it in some way.”

Mr O’Doherty said that criticising your employer on social media is always a “no go” and recommended people keep an overall low profile online.

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Main image: Young upset fired businessman with cardboard box and boss in office. Image: LightField Studios Inc. / Alamy. 3 March 2017