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Social Media At Work: Can What You Say, Do Be Used Against You By The Boss?

By KYW social media editor Melony Roy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - People who manage workplaces have a lot questions about social media - and they got some answers Wednesday at the National Constitution Center, although there are still a lot of gray areas.

When it comes to social media and the workplace, how can employers best manage the balancing act between company rules and individual rights?  That was one of the topics of the event.

"In a sense, the growth of social media is an opportunity for businesses and organizations to simply train their employees again on some of the basic rules that have applied for years," says panelist Chai Feldblum.

Feldblum is the commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"Social media policies are really important," she says. "One has to be aware of the rules applied by the national labor relations act where if employees are talking about conditions at work that they are concerned with and they are talking about it in a collective way you can not discipline someone for that because it"

Feldblum says the policy should include everything in your current employee handbook:

"You can not post harassing comments about a particular coworker, just like you can't harass that coworker in the workplace."

The Dilworth Paxson Law Firm sponsored the event, and they've just launched a social media practice group to help clients with arising social media issues in the workplace.

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