Employment Lawyers Warn Against Glowing Reviews on LinkedIn
Corporate employment lawyers can be real buzzkills. I'm reminded of the early days of the Internet when the corporate types were warning all us lawyers to take down our websites because they crossed state lines and therefore constituted the unlicensed practice of law in other states. Now, when everyone is hot on social networking through sites such as LinkedIn, the employment lawyers warn of dire consequences if employers post nice comments about their workers.
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You see, when an employee is terminated and a lawyer is looking for a way to claim it was wrongful, they look first to the job evaluations and any awards and accolades. If it can be shown that the employee walked on water, then obviously there was no reason to fire the employee and the termination must have been based on some nefarious reason, such as discrimination.
Sadly, a company's compassion can get it in trouble. A company is forced to terminate an employee due to downsizing, so to give his job search a little boost it creates a recommendation for the employee's LinkedIn profile. An employment lawyer will spin that by arguing that at the very moment the employee was being terminated, the company was saying glowing things about him. When interviewed by Law.com, Philadelphia lawyer Carlyn Plump had this to say about that:
"Just don't do it," Plump said. "Generally, my advice is that I think employers are often better served by merely stating dates of employment, positions with the company and salary, and staying away from much more because there are so many potential ramifications if they say something." She added: "If they say something negative, there could be a lawsuit. If they say something positive, there could be a lawsuit." The entire Law.com article can be found here.
My philosophy? It's not all about avoiding lawsuits. Employers should not be fearful to heap some praise on good and faithful employees just because others file frivolous suits. In any event, for an unfortunate number of plaintiff's attorneys, wrongful termination actions are a form of legalized extortion. They will sue regardless of the merits of the case, hoping for a "cost-of-defense" settlement, and the fact that you said something nice about the employee on LinkedIn will not be the deciding factor.
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This all seems a little silly, no? There is a plenty long paper trail of employer evaluation of employees. Performance reviews, post-project evaluations. Not to mention raises. If your linkedin recommendation is the proverbial straw to break the camel's back, your camel had a pre-existing condition!
Even where there is a lawsuit, I've found that employers do not have to make everything all bad. In fact, being able to say that an employee had some skill in a particular area does not necessarily translate into meaning that employee needed to be retained by the business. Termination may have been necessary for a variety of valid and understandable reasons.
And - employers who can speak more humanely about a terminated employee often gain credibility with a jury.
Good thoughts!!! There are nice information about employees which is important for employment lawyers.Coaching employers and human resource personnel on strategies for preventing employment litigation. There are many types of laws. I agree with you.