This past weekend, I went to my high school reunion. I didn’t really know what to expect going in. I had kept in touch with many former classmates and friends over the years, but many had drifted off the radar in the quarter century since we graduated.
However, in the days leading up to the festivities, I found myself blaming social media, and particularly Facebook, for ruining some of the “mystery”. Before even getting to the reunion, I already knew what many of my classmates looked like in 2011, where they lived, who they married, if they had kids, what their high scores were in Farmville, and what they happen to be eating “right now”. My anticipation for the reunion was surely tempered by a bit of disdain for the Harvard kid whose invention would deprive me of the kind of good surprises that no longer occur in everyday life.
But, at the expense of making this post continue to sound like an overly-dramatic Oprah moment, my negativity about social media in this context was short-lived. I realized that the limited time I had Saturday night could be spent learning more about the lives, endeavors, and experiences of my classmates, rather than having to get out of the way the usual “surface” information that Facebook already provided. I was truly impressed with everything everyone had been doing over the years. More importantly, I realized that the “speak to you soon” farewell would not have to ring hollow for another twenty-five years, as social media would afford an easy opportunity to maintain contact with friends and other professionals.
Employer Take Away: What should you as an employer take away from this development?
I’ve said it a thousand times, and my recent experience makes the case as well: Don’t view social media negatively, or diminish its appropriate benefits. In the same vein, don’t be afraid of it, don’t pretend it doesn’t exist, and don’t think you can regulate it away with an iron fist. Do, however, embrace it, and learn how to manage it so as to reap its benefits for your company.
How can social media help you to attract valuable new employees to your work environment?
How can social media help you retain productive existing employees?
How can social media work to your advantage to help monitor your workplace and workforce, without eradicating morale and running afoul of the law?
It is to your benefit to reunite with your in-house and outside team to answer these basic questions.
Michael C. Schmidt is the vice chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment Department, and the office managing partner, vice chair, of the New York Midtown office, where he is resident. For more than two decades, Mike has concentrated his practice on representing companies and management in all facets of employment law, such as: (i) defense in litigation involving wage and hour (overtime and unpaid compensation), discrimination, harassment, retaliation and whistle-blowing, non-competes and trade secrets, and disability and other leave-related issues; (ii) day-to-day counseling and in-house training on issues from hiring to firing, and other questions unique to his client’s industries and business; and (iii) drafting and reviewing employment agreements, termination and severance agreements, confidentiality and non-competes, and employment policies and manuals.
Social Media Employment Law Blog is devoted to the interplay between social media and employment law, an extremely topical and significant area of law for employers in this new technology era. Published and edited by 
I enjoyed reading the article and the advice is sound. Having represented employees and being in charge of a local municipal employee unit, I can tell you the distractions in the workplace will always be there, especially in the office setting. In a few short years we have gone from thick romance novels to email to Google to Ebay to instant messaging to Farm… to whatever.
When I was 15 I worked in an old factory–some employees did only “piece-work,” everyone of them built up a cache of “tickets” to turn in on days they decided to chat with their fellow bench workers out of earshot of the supervisors.
Anything that compels managers and supervisors to deal with their employees is time well spent