October 9, 2009
Dealing with Disgruntled Ex-employees via Social Media
Your company is forced to terminate someone’s employment, with good reason, and now the ex-employee is blasting your company on Twitter, Facebook and other popular social networks. Everything you’ve read about Social Media says you should be transparent and engage your audience – so how should you respond?
When dealing with social media, your responses should always be on a case-by-case basis. But in this case, let’s assume the rant is simply that – a rant – and it doesn’t raise legitimate, business-damaging issues. In that event, you DON’T respond.
Here are three reasons why, in THIS case, you should ignore disgruntled ex-employees on Social Networks.
1) People know a rant when they read one
When an upset employee rants on a social media website they are usually just blowing off steam – and their audience sees that. The individual is just trying to generate sympathy or brew anger and, in most cases, readers know better than to take them too seriously.
2) It’s a Human Resources issue
Companies are often legally restricted regarding what they can say in situations that involve HR issues. For this reason alone it’s usually best just to leave it be. Don’t put your company and yourself at risk of crossing a legal line.
3) It’s a lose/lose situation
Nothing you say or do will make up for the loss of that person’s job so it’s best just to let it run its course. By engaging in a conversation you are just prolonging that individual’s fury and drawing more attention to that person and your situation.
When dealing with personalized attacks with no merit and no business-damaging substance, please consider that saying nothing is better than saying the wrong something.
Filed by Brie at 2:55 pm under Public Relations, Social Media, Trends, Twitter
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