How Leaders Deal with Social Media Fame

Social media can have amazing benefits and disastrous consequences for an organization or a team. It's a huge challenge for leaders that aside from a few brief paragraphs of policy most have never addressed. How do you handle the individual team member that commits grievous offenses on social media, even if on their own time?

In this episode (#56) of The Tech Leader's Toolbox podcast, Paul Simkins talks about some of the questions you need to asking when you are faced with handling the employee who wanted their 15 minutes of social media fame.

Plus, a great recipe for Bacon Explosion. This recipe was brought to our attention by Ed Gatzke on the Smoke and Ash Facebook Group and derived from one at BBQAddicts.com.
If you have a favorite outdoor cooking recipe you would like to share, send it to paul@BoldlyLead.com. If we put it in an episode we'll let you know and give you credit for it on the show.

You can get a copy of Paul's eBook 15 Innovative Ways to Show Employees You Care and Not Break the Bank by emailing him at paul@BoldlyLead.com.

Join the discussions at our Podcast Facebook group here.
Learn more about Paul Simkins on his website.

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Transcript

Producer: 0:00

The tech leaders toolbox podcast is brought to you by Paul Simkins and the bully LEAD program, focusing on helping tech leaders like you, and the frustration of low performing teams, and losing excellent employees, so they can increase productivity by 50%. Go home on time, and sleep better at night.

Paul Simkins: 0:23

Hello, and welcome to the tech leaders toolbox. I'm Paul Simkins. And we're here because how you lead today determines how your team succeeds tomorrow. This is Episode 56 of the podcast. And I've been thinking about lately a lot about social media and the impact that it's had. And like everything else it has its positives or negatives, they present some real challenges for leaders in terms of how individual use affects the organization's reputation, and bottom line and how it impacts the team. So let's talk about some questions that leaders need to be asking. And if you like bacon, have I got a recipe for you? Are you ready? Let's go. It's no secret that one of the downsides of social media is the plethora of people looking to have their own 15 minutes of fame. Now, if you haven't ever, ever heard that term before, it's it's a term it was derived from some statements that the artist Andy Warhol made back in the 70s. That talking about again, how everyone gets their 15 minutes of where again, all the focus is on them. And social media now has created a an art almost out of that on Facebook and tik tok and Instagram and other outlets. People are always looking for ways to create their own 15 minutes of fame. I think a lot of these challenges that they come up with, some of which, you know, are meant to benefit charities, but then many of them aren't. I remember, you know, my kids were talking about the cinnamon challenge a while back where he had to take a whole tablespoon of cinnamon and you had to take it dry and straight and take it down. And there were others as well tide, the tide pod challenge and all that it's just silly stuff that the only purpose it had was again, to get a lot of likes, and to get a lot of viewership of your video shared on tik tok, or wherever. And the thing is, though, is that while social media has kind of amplified that, that's nothing new people have always looked for ways to get their own 15 minutes of fame, for example. But again, what social media has done is amplified that it's given them an easy platform, you know, it was hit and miss. Now it's becoming easier and easier to go viral. And it seems the dumber it gets, the more extreme it gets, the more attention it gets. And unfortunately, though, it can have an impact in the workplace, what individuals who work for you do on their own time granted, but it can have an impact on you. And it can have an impact on results in the workplace. And sometimes I can have very negative consequences. And thinking about some examples. I actually remember a few years back, there was actually a Google employee who had more conservative views than Well, probably most Google employees. And on a employee created social media platform was rather expressive about those views. Well eventually got him fired. And not just for having conservative views. But because several found those more extreme views to be offensive within the workplace. And people complain, they no longer felt safe around them, and things like that. And that was the result of that. I also think about more recently, I mean, we can go back to what happened in January 6 of 2021. With what happened in Washington, DC. And there were a lot of employees there who took a lot of people who, again, not as employees as individuals made the decision because of their stance because of their political position because of their political opinions, because of their affiliations, decided to basically storm, the capital of Washington DC, and basically break in committing several felonies and misdemeanors in the process and are facing consequences about it. Three that stood out to me was and again because the picture was all over the place. There was an employee of Navistar who again was in the lead breaking into the Capitol, you see pictures of them right there in the hallway. And what is he doing? He's wearing his employee badge while he's doing this. Needless to say, they no longer have a job. Specifically, and specifically, there was person named Libby Andrews from Pennsylvania. She's a real estate agent, affiliated with a real estate agency. She was there. She maintained she was not part of that group storming. In fact, she says she had even gone back to her hotel by that time, but she was there and documenting some of the stuff was going on posting it on social media. And just because of that, she was basically separated from the agency she was affiliated with, and she found out by an email blast, which of course is inadvisable, but and we'll talk and that's another kind of question that comes up. And also attorney Paul Davis of Texas, who again, was an active participant in all of this, and from his smartphone shot videos, and narrated his participation in it. And he was an attorney working for an insurance firm that immediately severed all ties with him. And it also raises a story of a story of one that I remembered from a few years back, which some of you may remember in Simone is the story of Juli briskman, Juli briskman, was a marketing analyst for a government contract called akoma, LLC. And briskman was out she was riding your bicycle along on some back roads. And it just so happened that the presidential motorcade was coming by she was stopped on her bicycle wallet came by. And because of her positions and thoughts, she did not necessarily agree with the president at the time. And so she decided to exclude as it were by extending her middle finger at the cat at the presidential caravan as it went by. Now, again, she didn't record it. She didn't go on social media and brag about it or anything else. But a White House photographer quickly took a picture of that scene. It went viral on the internet. Now, she did do one thing that was inadvisable, which we'll talk about in a second. But the end result was it went viral and she was afraid that again, it would be found out and that there would be trouble. So she took the initiative to go to our human resources office, inform them that she was the person in the picture that is all over the internet. her boss thank you for stepping forward and then promptly fired her. Here's the thing. According to her boss, Juli briskman, had violated the akama LLC code of conduct and that conduct states that first it's the policies of Aquaman its subsidiary companies for conducting business in accordance with applicable laws and the highest ethical standards. Acme expects that a high level of ethical standards and personal integrity will be reflected in all of its business dealings. Okay, not really a case right there. But similarly, Acme expects its employees, officers and directors to exercise good judgment and maintain high ethical standards in all activities, which affect akama. Every akama employee is held to these standards. So according to them, briskman was given the motorcade the finger was an obscenity, and therefore a violation of policy. They were concerned about the impact it would have on their core business of contracting with the federal government. So goodbye to Julie. And this is where it gets complicated. Now, there is probably a good number of people right now saying, well, she probably deserves it. And that may be true, it was inadvisable, even if it was strongly felt. At the same time, it opens up a whole bunch of questions worth considering from both a leadership and employee engagement perspective. And here are some pertinent facts to consider on her particular case, that again, can be easily extended other similar types of cases First of all, risk when was off duty. She was wearing nothing that represented her company, unlike the guy from Navistar who had his badge right there on the front of his shirt. She was wearing nothing that represented or indicated who she worked for. She did not take the picture, nor did she arranged to have it taken. Now she did and this is what again what she did that was inadvisable. She liked she saw it. She liked it. She made it her profile picture on her personal Facebook page, which incidentally does not mention her employment. And most companies that contract with the federal government will have policies that say you should Do that you shouldn't mention your employment on your Facebook page. Now part of what happened comparatively, within the same organization, a male quote, co worker, allegedly posted a public message calling someone a pretty obscene name, typically associated to liberals on his Facebook page, where he features the company logo in his profile picture. And he was reprimanded and deleted the post, but he was not fired. And again, another factor akoma was totally unaware of her involvement until she took the initiative to tell them, in fact, it's probably likely they would have never known. And then another factor is that Virginia is in employment at will state meaning technically, an employer can terminate you for any reason at any time. So that's the factors pertinent to that. And again, things to think about, if you face similar situations, how much is too much? How much can you really justify what an individual does on their own time of their own initiative? And can you justify how that impacts the organization? How can you can you justify terminating somebody's employment? Because their views or their political affiliation differ greatly from yours? Here's some other questions to consider. Again, raises questions about the reach of organizations into our personal lives. I have personally always kind of had a push back on that, of how much you can ask questions about how I conduct my life. It also raises questions about the message we send, when the application of policy appears uneven, as in this case, you know, again, taking the case of briskman. And the male co worker who was conservative, doing something very offensive, and even showing a cut a tie to the organization, yet was not fired. briskman being liberal, not showing an affiliation to the organization takes an action and yet is fired for. Where are the lines? Where behavior and choices and personal life are of concern to an employer?

Producer: 12:42

Further,

Paul Simkins: 12:43

What message does it send when an employee shows integrity and suffers consequences? As a result, remember that again, especially in brisbanes case, she went to them told them, I'm the person in the picture, you need to know that before you find it out from somebody else. I'm that person she showed integrity in her behavior, yet as a result, she was terminated. And why the uneven application of the obscenity policy? How do you do you let political alignment play apart? And if so, does it show discrimination that someone obviously an extreme conservative is reprimanded but a liberal is terminated? And is the company's concern about her behavior potentially affecting their core business? A valid one? In other words, part of their concern was that, that they had this policy because it could affect how they do business, their core business. And that was part of why she was terminated. Is that legitimate? Can they really make that case here? And if it is, could I be terminated for being a Protestant? Because the company's biggest client is Catholic. Again, where do we draw the lines? And now on the surface, they they may seem like easy questions to answer yet, like a Russian nesting doll, you know, every time you open one up you you discover inside is something else to be opened and explored. It's It's not easy. And and and unfortunately, I didn't come here today to be able to give you answers on this. But rather to get you thinking. So the question is, again, where do we draw the lines? beyond just the legal where do we draw the lines. So one of the things I want to do and I'm working to line this up right now, is I'm going to bring in a panel for one of our episodes here in the near future. And we're all I'm going to discuss this because questions really playing on my mind a lot, and I'm sure it probably is in yours. And we want to discuss this a little bit more and see where we go with this. So look forward to again in very near future. And I'll make sure I let you know when it's happening. But I'm going to try and get a panel in here of some experts to talk about this a little bit more. In the meantime, we'll be back in a moment.

Producer: 15:25

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Paul Simkins: 15:54

Alright, so here we are, again, at the last part of the show where again, those of you who've listened before know that I love outdoor cooking of every kind. And I love it so much that I have actually created a Facebook group. Just about that, I call it smoke and dash. And on the smokin dash Facebook group. Everyone comes out we are we're growing by the way in leaps and bounds we've had just like a huge growth lately, everybody's like really getting into outdoor cooking. And so they come out there they talk about their smokers, their grills, doing stuff in Dutch ovens and all kinds of creative recipes and, and barbecue food they have eaten and and so it's a great place, whether you're an experienced outdoor cooker, whether you're just interested in it, or you just like to eat outdoor cooking, it's a great place to be. And I invite you to come and join us at the smoking dash Facebook group. Now I like to share a recipe, an outdoor cooking recipe on every one of my shows. And you know, and again, I have quite an extensive book of recipes. But I get tired of just sharing mine all the time. And I want to get new ones. And so I encourage out of my facebook group, I actually encouraged all of the members, hey, if you got a recipe to share, share that recipe with me. And I'll feature it on the show and I'll give you a shout out. So actually, this is one of those situations. Today, I'm going to give a shout out. Excuse me, I'm going to give a shout out to Ed gaskey, who's a member of our smoke and ash Facebook group, he brought this recipe to my attention. The recipe is actually derived from a recipe on barbecue attics.com BBQ attics.com is where this was originally featured. And you've probably heard of it before. It's called bacon explosion. So again, if you love bacon, I think you're really gonna like this recipe. And here's how it goes. So you need about two pounds of thick cut bacon. And then about one to two pounds of bulk pork sausage. You're going to want some cooked bacon cut up into pieces and and if you're really lazy you can get away with buying the already bacon pieces but you can just buy like the pre cooked bacon heated up and cut it up into pieces. You're going to want to eat some barbecue sauce. And what you're going to want for this is you're going to want a sweet tasting barbecue, you don't want salty or savory you want sweet and you want a sweet barbecue seasoning. That usually means it's got a good deal of sugar in it or something similar. And then what I like to do my little twist on this is I like to have either turbinado or dimora sugar. That's kind of a step between table sugar and raw sugar. And it's got a great benefit in barbecue in that it gives you a nice sweetness, but it doesn't break down as readily as table sugar does. And so it tend to be real good for putting a nice glaze and flavor on things. So here's what you're going to do with this you're going to take the bacon, and you're basically going to weave it together it's uncooked, you're going to weave it together in a very tight lattice pattern. You know, basically a weave in you want it to be you want it to end up with about a five to six inch square from that. And again, it's got to be tight, no gaps between the bacon. Now you're going to take your barbecue seasoning, and you're going to sprinkle that seasoning all over the bacon over the top of the bacon. Then you're going to take your bulk sausage, and you're going to spread that out evenly overtop of the bacon. And then take the barbecue sauce and spread that evenly over the sausage. And then take those bacon pieces. sprinkle that over top of all that. And then at this point, you're going to take from the sausage leaving the lattice bacon alone. Take the sausage and roll it up into a tight roll and seal it And put it at one end of the bacon lattice of the bacon weave. Then you're going to take the bacon and the roll and roll the whole thing up tightly. And then take your barbecue seasoning sprinkle more of the barbecue seasoning on the outside of the bacon, you're going to put that in your smoker, you want to get those smokers temperature up to about 225 to 250. and maintain it there, you're going to put that in the smoker with the seam side of the bacon down. So it doesn't unravel on you. And you're going to cook that for about one and a half hours. At the one and a half hour mark, you're going to take your turbinado sugar, sprinkle that sugar evenly all over the roll. Again, doesn't have to be a heavy sprinkle, but sprinkle it good a good sprinkling all over the roll, and then cook it for another one to one and a half hours. On the inside temperature. If you're checking with a like an instant read thermometer should be about 160 degrees. Then you're going to remove that and let it sit for about five minutes before cutting it into half inch slices. Now what that turbinado sugar does on that whole thing is it put a nice glaze, sweet glaze over the top of it, you could add a little bit more barbecue sauce when you serve it. And it'd be so delicious. It's called a bacon explosion. And that's kind of one of those things where if you look at all those ingredients, you know, if you have a high cholesterol, you may not want to do this one. But my often joke you know, I often joke about it, I say you know you get a free Plavix with it, because you might need it. But anyway, it is absolutely delicious, though, and be great something you want to do. If you're having any kind of an outdoor picnic or party or anything like that sports party we got coming up soon, we're gonna have March Madness coming up might be ideal for that if you're having a March Madness party. So there it is bacon explosion. All right. So this week, we talked about questions that need leaders need to be asking about how social media and what individuals do on social media impacts the organization, and what kind of policy you should have in place for that. Now we've got all kinds of things and and again, if you have a recipe you'd like to share with the podcast, or even better, if you have questions you'd like us to address here on the podcast, all you have to do is send us an email to Paul at boldly lead.com. And we'll take a look at that. And we'll address that. And again, if I if you share a recipe and I use it on the show, I'll give you a shout out. My shout out this week to Ed gaskey for sharing the recipe to this week. And, and again, if you bring up topics that we discussed, we'll give you credit for that as well for bringing that to mind. And we will discuss those topics here on the show. And I do this for free and I do it because I want to add as much value too as I can to leaders within the tech industry as much as I can. So I want to ask a favor from you. If you are listening to this on any kind of a podcast directory service, like Apple podcast or anything like that, would you take the time right now, to give us a five star review and to share the podcast with others. I really want to grow the listenership to the podcast here. I want to add value to as many people as I can. And so I need your help to do that. I can't do it on my own. So please give us a five star review. Share the podcast with your friends, let them know it's here and what it's done for you and the benefits is provided and the value is added to you. Well, that's about all we have for this week, folks. Until next week, go out and be the leader. You were meant to be