President Donald Trump has not been discreet in expressing his dissatisfaction with certain key members on his team. Recent taunts blasted to his millions of followers on Twitter about Jeff Sessions essentially equates to a public and very negative performance review.
Trump called the U.S. attorney general beleaguered and weak and questioned why he hasn t launched investigations into leaks and into alleged crimes by Hillary Clinton, among other public scoldings in speeches and on social media.
It appears Trump could be carrying out a deliberate campaign to pressure Sessions to quit, amid the mounting scrutiny and public attention from an investigation into his campaign s ties with Russia. The backlash against Sessions flared up when Trump told The New York Times he would not have picked Sessions for attorney general if he knew he would step aside from overseeing the Russia investigation.
How would this public scolding fly in the corporate world? When does a boss cross a line in publicly tweeting about a subordinate s performance? What happens when an employer gives a performance review via social media?
Such behavior could be legally problematic and, at a minimum, bad business practice, labor and management experts said. Depending on the circumstances, sharing a performance review or bullying a subordinate could lead to harassment, hostile workplace, defamation or invasion of privacy claims.
Harassment, as defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, generally applies to a protected status, such as race, sex, religion or other such issues protected under federal and state discrimination laws. No specific federal law defines a hostile work environment.
The use of social media in the workplace to lodge complaints has become a growing area of interest for employment law experts and the EEOC. Laws governing speech on social media, both for employees and employers, is evolving and employers could see increased liability with discrimination claims, according to a paper prepared by a team from Reed Smith for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform in 2014.
Generally, social media use is treated like any other communication under the law, said Felicia Davis, a Paul Hastings associate in Los Angeles who focuses on employment matters.
We haven t developed a body of law regarding social media, Davis said Tuesday. Generally there is no separate cause of action for just being a nasty boss or creating a bad work environment for everyone. She added, I think one of the problems is that the law evolves so much more slowly than technology.