Employee gets written up by HR for posting about disliking Mondays on personal social media account: 'Someone in the office is creeping on my social media'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 15, 2024 2:00 PM EST

There are a number of reasons why HR might reprimand you for something… but this seems a bit far-fetched.

Here, we have an employee who, like any other twenty-something employee in the 2020s, has a personal social media account where they post photos with friends and the occasional relatable memes. This past weekend, the employee shared a relatively benign photo of their friend group grabbing drinks on a Saturday night. There was nothing inappropriate documented that could come back to bite them on the behind… or so they thought.

Somehow, an anonymous coworker spun this post along with another one the employee shared about their distaste for Mondays into a false narrative that they were unprofessional. The employee got reported and reprimanded by HR for these two posts, which for clarification, were entirely posted on a private social media account that no one in the office should have access to…

Keep scrolling below to see how the employee responded to all this nonsense. For more stories like this, check out this post about a boss's fake message before layoffs began.

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    [NY] My employer found my Instagram and now they're making it a problem
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    So I work for a mid-sized company in New York, and I thought things were going pretty well—at least until this week. Out
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    of nowhere, my manager called me into their office and said they "came across" my Instagram profile and were concerned about what I post. Mind you, my
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    Instagram is PRIVATE, and I don't have anyone from work following me. So... how exactly did they "come across" it??
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    Apparently, a coworker (they wouldn't say who) showed them a post of mine where I was out with friends having drinks last weekend. Nothing inappropriate
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    ―it was just a group photo at a bar. They also mentioned a meme I posted about hating Mondays (like who doesn't??). Now they're acting like this is some huge deal and implying that it reflects poorly on the company.
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    Here's where it gets weird: they didn't outright tell me to delete anything, but they "strongly suggested" I reconsider the type
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    of content I post. They also hinted that it could be brought up in my next performance review if I don't "align with the company's values."
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    I feel like this is a massive overstep. My social media is personal. I don't even mention where I work, and I'm very careful not to post anything that could get me in trouble. Do they even have the right to comment on what I do outside of work, especially when it's not affecting my job performance?
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    I want to push back, but I don't want to make things worse for myself. Can HR actually enforce anything here? Should I even go to HR, or does that risk
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    escalating things? Honestly, I feel super violated knowing that someone in the office is creeping on my social media and reporting back to management.
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    Would really appreciate advice from anyone who's been in a similar spot. Is this just one of those "ignore it and hope it blows over" things, or do I need to take action?
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    Sad-Sheepherde... . 1d ago. Almost all of these replies focused on OP allowing coworkers to follow them. They clearly said in their post that their profile is private and don't have coworkers following them.
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    OP, as someone else said, sure, your employer can tell you to not post stuff that doesn't "align" with them.
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    The affecting you come review time is a threat I'm sure they'll act on. If push comes to shove, since all states (except Montana, sure, but they can still find a way) are at will states, they can fire you for any reason.
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    Private and zero coworkers though.. Look out for those private and/or zero post accounts with a random or no pfp.. Someone CLEARLY
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    made a burner account and is watching your stories and worse, bringing it to your manager so you can get in trouble.
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    cslackie 1d ago If your profile is private and no coworkers are following you, how did your coworker (or whomever) show your posts to your employer?
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    TournantDanger... • 2d ago What do you want to happen? Yeah, don't add coworkers on social media. They aren't your friends. Lock down all your social media accounts and scrub your followers.
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    • Objective-Amou... 2d ago. How did they see your posts if no one from work is on your Instagram and it's private?
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    They can definitely ask you not to post something and they can fire you for anything that isn't a legally. protected reason. So in theory, yes, they could take
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    action against you. Usually I would say make your posts private and don't add anyone from work but you say you've done that so __(ツ)_
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    Pomsky_Party · 1d ago • Are you sure your account is private? Because people you aren't friends with can't see private. It sounds like its still a public profile, or at least some things are public. Lock it down, now, and Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and all of that.
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    Optimal_Law_42... . 1d ago If management is objecting to the stuff you post then. you're not likely going to be able to align with their culture. While I might try to get them to be specific on the off chance that there's a misunderstanding that's easy to fix, there's a pretty
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    good chance that you stumbled across a land mine that (right or wrong) poisoned them against you. Even if it shouldn't matter (like going out with friends to the bar) they still can let you go or give bad reviews. They just make it about something else.
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    You already know not to connect social media to people from work. In your case the company could just do searches on employees. You do leave a footprint. Sometimes you're a lot easier to find than you think.
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