Stuart Rudner here.
This time I don’t have an employment law update, but I do have some friendly HR advice.
So it’s not often that we have HR related videos that go viral, but very recently one was posted by someone named Tammy Sepetis, hopefully I’m pronouncing that correctly, who is a licensed HR professional apparently holds the CHRL and CHRP’s designation with the HRPA, she posted a video on tiktok called “some friendly HR advice”, the video already has more than 2.3 million views. Now the video is addressed to so-called freedom fighters referring to the freedom convoy that we saw a few months ago and it was obviously quite controversial.
Despite the title her advice is really anything but friendly and she’s certainly not shy with the f-bombs but one of her points that she directs to the so-called freedom fighters is that what you do while you’re off duty or what you post online will be noticed by HR and can come back to haunt you.
As one of my favorite lines from Airplane 2, the sequel to one of the greatest comedies ever, goes “I guess irony can be pretty ironic sometimes”. Now it’s Miss Sepetis who is in trouble and being investigated for what she posted online.
The HRPA is apparently reviewing the video and assessing whether there has been a breach of the rules of professional conduct.
Who knows what this means for her career, but this is what I would say when I offer some friendly HR advice: if you say or do anything off duty that could impact your employment relationship or your employer’s reputation, it can lead to discipline or even dismissal, and if you’re looking for work, what people learn about you or find about you online can definitely impact your job prospects.
So the default is that what you do on your own time is your own business, but it’s not absolute. And the things you post online can come back to haunt you, so please, my tip of today is think twice before you post.
Thanks very much have a great day.
