Category: Human Resource Materials

 

True story of a high school athletic coach and how she sealed her already shaky fate with the organization she worked for…

A coach was hired for a high school athletic team. While young and inexperienced, the season started off okay. However, as the season progressed, it became clear that perhaps this coach was not the best choice for the organization, as there were conversations with the owner sporadically throughout the season. While addressed with the coach in question, things would improve for a short time, but then fall back into old patterns.

More supervision was given, but as the season was coming to a close it was clear that this coach should not return next year. The coach herself sealed the deal with one wrong Instagram post.

Imagine being at a regional, year end tournament. It’s the last day, which is often referred to as elimination day – teams play until they lose, hoping to reach the semi-finals or even the championship game in their division. The athletes anticipate this day and come ready to leave it all on the court.

Sadly, the coach didn’t feel the same way.

That morning, as girls arrived at the venue, they received a mass text from the coach stating she was “sick” and would not be there that day. She also claimed that attempts to call the owner and other coaches within the organization failed – it’s amazing that the text to the athletics got through. The athletes, not wanting to forfeit, took action and got the assistance of officials to reach out to coaches of sister teams and the owner, who rushed to get to the venue in time for their first game.

The owner huddled with the girls, and all parents could see was team conversation followed by more than one get their cell phone to show something to the owner. The owner did get in touch with the coach en route and she explained how sick she was the night before and that morning. Upon sharing this with the team, at least one mentioned that they saw her post on Instagram at 2am the night prior from a bar. That right there was the icing on the cake, and her fate was sealed.

This was wrong on a few levels:

1. Those in a position of authority, namely coaches, teachers, and other similar roles, should not “friend” or connect with athletes and students on social media. It crosses lines, and should not happen.

2. The coach clearly wasn’t thinking ahead. Perhaps it was a last minute decision to not show the last day, or maybe she realized the writing was on the wall, planned not to show the last day. At any rate, if you are going to call in sick, it’s probably a good idea to keep quiet on social media, ESPECIALLY if those you coach are your social media friends.

This is a great example of how social media can help or hurt employees. Monitoring social conversations of staff can uncover some of these issues proactively; the newest technology also allows for connection scans of employees. While this process is most often used for scans revolving around jury selection and/or trial preparation, industries such as coaching and teaching have seen great benefit in using this deeper, connection scan to ensure that there are not inappropriate social connections or relationships within the organization.

I’m sure this coach learned a big lesson, and will hopefully not repeat these mistakes in her next job.

 

 

 

One simple post caused an uproar for Brookfield Zoo guests recently. The following picture was posted by a Brookfield Zoo employee, apparently while at work and in front of a concession stand of sorts. To further indicate she was in fact at her place of employment when this picture was posted, she tagged her location as “Brookfield Zoo.”

 

 

 

This one post caused an outrage by several zoo customers, who learned of this picture, shared it, and then posted their thoughts to the zoo’s Facebook page.

The zoo indicated that they realized this incident after it was brought to their attention. This tells me that they are not actively monitoring social media, especially with regard to employee activity. It does appear that the zoo has a social media policy in place, as stated by Sondra Katzen in a recent article:

“This employee’s statements in social media are in violation of our policies and do not reflect our institution’s values. We have zero tolerance for these kinds of divisive behaviors. We treat all employment matters confidentially, but rest assured that we have taken prompt action to remedy the situation.”

How could this have been prevented? It’s possible that it maybe could not have been – social media spreads very quickly, and one post can travel faster than the speed of light, especially when it’s controversial in nature. However, if the right social media monitoring program is used, this type of content could be easily picked up quickly. The appropriate staff would be notified and the employee could have been dealt with efficiently, whether that means termination, having the employee remove the offending content, or any other actions that are needed in this case.

Why wait for customers to bring issues to your attention? This is an excellent case for routinely using a social media monitoring program for your organization, especially as it relates to employee social media policies. While I’m sure this will not likely be an incident that will result in guests not returning to the zoo, it is one that brings negative attention to the zoo. With the speed of social media sharing, it’s vital to prevent negative press as much as possible – social media monitoring is one tool to use as a preventative measure.