How to Legally Post Bad Comments About Your Work

You can express your complaint on Yelp if you are a restaurant customer who wants to post on your salty risotto. If you are a career seeker trying to get angry incorporate ethics, wage levels, and management experience. Now, you can go to the Yelp of Work Reports: Glassdoor.

The successful online job site which was launched in 2008 allows staff and former employees to share their views on workplace snacks anonymously (a "common pro"), management practices ("working-life balance. Any balance?"), moods ("seriously big Kool-Aid") and how they think when they quit ("Quitting was the best choice I made").

But how to post the anonymous comments of your unsatisfactory job experience not just objectionable personally, but also legally viable?

We asked legal experts to clarify the threats and constitutional protections you take when posting a comment about an Employer.

"There is almost no feasible to prevent disgruntled employers from pursuing lawsuits who're offended by the prejudices of their former employees," Aaron Mackey said, an Electronic Frontier Foundation staff lawyer. In cases that tried to identify anonymous users on behalf of the rights of all people to anonymous online speech, the EFF filed briefs with Glassdoor.

Nevertheless, in an increasingly unpredictable environment, more companies use legal measures to give workers a reason to look at what they do. "I see a massive increase of workplace litigation for all sorts of things," says Donna Ballman, a worker based in Florida. "It used to be that workers waited before they get charged, but now I see workers being very violent."

What you tell the tale of your job experience can mean the difference between being prosecuted successfully. Just saying what you think is not an opinion. In a libel case, the courts decide whether what you say is true or not— what is considered a "verifiable truth." A false state of fact is one of the key elements to prove that defamation is committed.

Pro Guide to Post Negative Comments

In its pro guidance to flagged users who leave comments that their employer is suspicious, Glassdoor gives the example of you discovering a company's substance use.

"If you state in your comments that' the CEO in every working party uses illegal drugs' well, it's hard to describe this as an opinion. If you say instead,' I think my company uses a lot of medicines,' then it would be much more likely to be noticed," says Glassdoor's tips page.

Take the case of Vogel v. Felice, in which the supposed defamatory statement was made by the defendant to place the plaintiffs on a list of "Top Ten Dumb Asses." This post meant as an insult to the listener. They have no standard definition of what a stupid ass is; it can be said lovingly or insulted. In this case, the plaintiffs failed to show that a "stupid ass" was a negative statement that proven.

"There are common terms with a range of meanings that are puffery or hyperbole and that are not capable of defamation," said Mackey.

If you want to share your lousy workplace experience without defamation risks, “stick to the facts that are honest and provably truthful or at least not provably false,” Ballman said.

The Supreme Court has continuously ruled that the first amendment protects anonymous freedom of speech. However, it does not guarantee that your employer can not find out who you are when anonymously posting.

"Nothing is completely safeguarding someone's privacy," said Mackey.

For one criminal case, a court decided that a subpoena provided by a grand jury for the identification of eight accounts was to be complied with by Glassdoor. "Glassdoor is legally required to share information relating to the identity of a user for extremely isolated situations and in a minimum number of cases. In the meantime, our users ' anonymity has been secured and checked in more than 100 cases," says Glassdoor.

There are also practical considerations, like how much information to provide if you want to remain anonymous. Glassdoor allows you to name only a small number of names.

"We permit any remarks (both positive and negative) in a report being made to people who serve the corporate community (C-Suite, Execute Manager, Ceo, Owner, and Founder, for example), as long as it is relevant to individual behavior or work performance," Glassdoor said during an interview.

Follow These Rules Before Leaving Bad Comments

1. Consider Timing

You still should be told of how much you share in a report that will say to you. Consider the timing, Ballman suggested: "Don't do it the day you get fired. You have to wait until you get cool, anyway. Think carefully before posting; don't post in wrath."

2. Draft a Clear Viewpoint

Ballman told you to write what you want to share to get a useful review like a family member from a trusted outside viewpoint, "that you trust that you don't do something stupid and that you don't misrepresent yourself somehow."

3. Take a Good Use of Your Confidentiality Arrangements

If you work as an employee, the confidentiality arrangements you sign can be used as an additional tool to avoid negative input from workers. "Some companies often make claims about either violation of non-disclosure agreements signed by executives or corporate secrecy claims," Mackey said. If you work as an employee, the confidentiality arrangements you sign can be used as an additional tool to avoid negative input from workers. "Some companies often make claims about either violation of non-disclosure agreements signed by executives or corporate secrecy claims," Mackey said.

Take the former Theranos workers who tried to promote the fraudulent practices of the blood-testing firm. Theranos alleged that, if it did not stop, one of its undercover informants exposed trade secrets and threatened to sue. In that case, threats didn't end the facts on Theranos, but they illustrate the proper methods that bad employers can use to avoid sharing the truth with the public.

In these situations, Mackey said that plenty of reason workers might want to reveal them is not because they say something they shouldn't talk about the privacy of the organization after employees, "they do it to threaten someone, to bully, harass them and silence if they could actually speak out."

Ballman said workers who would like to write an anonymous and derogatory report on their employer should be vigilant if they leave a company, too. "If you have signed a severance agreement that you will not be disregarding the organization that now has a severance agreement, you can breach it, and it can sue you," Ballman said.

When you talk badly about your boss, you may not be using a real name, but the technology can still indicate who you are. Third-party software such as Google Analytics has exposed anonymous bloggers.

IP addresses, which are "the ultimate destination of all your online traffic," as described by Mackey, can reveal information about who you are, how about where you are, and what internet service providers you use. The EFF has a detailed guide to how your Internet traffic can be anonymized. One essential tip is to use a Tor browser to redirect your connection to the internet and make finding where you're connected harder for people.

Such legal, pragmatic, and technological cautions are not to signal that you shouldn't ever leave an open report about your lousy boss or dishonest colleagues. Telling truthful statements about what you found at a place of work is protected free speech in America. Many a job seeker has been rescued from a terrible situation by first glancing at an employer's feedback.

"The safest comment is to communicate honestly and share your opinion about what you have learned," said Mackey.

Posting sensitive comments, either positive or negative could be tricky sometimes. Always keep in mind that you have to stay relevant to your critiques. Follow those specific rules before you post negative comments and you will good to go.

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