#NoFilter: Outside-of-Work Social Media Posts Can Create a Hostile Work Environment
Prior to the advent of social media, employers were generally comfortable drawing a bright line between what employees did on their own time and workplace misconduct . Those bygone times, however, have been replaced by a modern era wherein employers are forced to apply employment laws created before the personal computer to their workforce located in an increasingly virtual world. Courts are addressing employment matters involving speech on social media at a progressively increasing rat e. In this edition of #NoFilter, we will discuss a recent 9 th Circuit Court of Appeals decision involving outside-of-work social media posts to an employee’s workplace hostile work environment claim. Factual Background In Okonowsky v. Merrick Garland , a staff psychologist (the Plaintiff) working for a federal prison discovered that a corrections Lieutenant operated an Instagram account followed by more than one hundred other prison employees. The page contained s exually off...