Boaz Fischer, Sean, and Dan Holman discuss whether employers can fairly fire workers for social media posts. They explore how online messaging replaced office hallway conversations, the collaboration benefits, and why companies need clear social media policies and training. Holman founded Weldstack and Check Social, which builds tools to analyze web and social data.
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Hello everyone and welcome to Top Secret. We have stepped to one step forward from Virtual Pub. So it's all things about insider risk. So my name is Boss Fisher and we have shown off here and a special guest. And a special guest, Dan Holman, who's the CEO of Woodstock and Check Social Media. But before we get into it, why are we here? Sean?
So today we wanted to discuss a very interesting topic and quite common about the role of social media in our life and what's the impact for our workplace, especially in these days of the COVID Excellent.
So let me introduce Dan Holman. Dan, just give me a little bit of background of who you are, the organizations that you work for. So we've got a sort of a good perspective. Perspective and context.
Yeah, no worries. Thanks, Buzz. My name is Dan Holman. I'm the founder and CEO of weldstack. We've also created a company called Check Social. So weldstack was founded about seven years ago. Its focus is on open source intelligence, which is in my case, a discipline of cyber security. So we build software solutions to help turn data from the web, social media, deep and dark web into actionable intelligence. So there's a variety of different business problems that we use that data to solve. And we've developed a tech platform called the World Stack Engine, which essentially automates the collection and analytics and reporting of that data. So my background is in it. So I started out as a techie doing desktop support, went and did a degree in computer science, so did engineering for a while. You know, I've done pretty much every job there is to do inside it, from development, support, testing, delivery, project management, solution architecture, enterprise architecture. And for the last 10 years I've been working in the cyber security space as a consultant, primarily in defense and national security. So I guess it was during my time there that I sort of run into a few of the problems that we solve now with WorldSac. So one of them is Check Social and it's very related to the conversation we're going to have today.
Beautiful. Looks like you've got a very wide and varied background there. So let's get into the meat of seeing. So we know that technology has become so much embedded into our daily lives. So I'm going to pose a question to you, Shawn. What role does social media play today in the workplace?
So you know, if we look at, in a traditional back days, people used to go to offices and they used to have their coffee breaks, lunch breaks, they used to talk between themselves in a corridor, conversations and culture Conversations, it was quite common and also some relaxing during the workday. Today, the social media made it more. It changed everything. People are not gossiping anymore in any color. People are sitting on their desk and just open. They use their online chatting and different applications to communicate, whether it's with corporate applications or just using their phone. In fact, we are online 24,7 to our social media, different apps, we are users all the time. So it changed the way we communicate.
So why is it important? What is the benefit?
So look, people want to share feelings, they want to share moments, they want to talk, they want to share information. And the traditional approach was to pick up the phone to call someone, to set an appointment, to find the right.
Time.
In a boardroom. Today we can set up a group and people can chat everywhere. People can share information instantly to their own peers. It's good and bad as we are going to discuss further on it. Easy and simplify the communication between people for work and personal.
So from your own perspective, do you think it's changed the way companies are now looked at? I mean, would someone say, okay, I'm going to join your company, Would they say, what social media platforms have you got that I can use?
I don't think they ask. But I think if I'm, I'm looking for a job and I'm talking to HR and I'm in the process of, you know, hiring, I'm sure, and I know that today my social media will be checked. It's very easy. Just Google my name and you can see all the profiles, all the profiles I have. And if everything is public, you can easily see my posts, my pictures, my likes, my feelings, my personal conversations. I can't hide anything. So organizations, they can easily learn about me.
Yeah, excellent. So then let me come to you. So it would be hard to find anyone that is employed that doesn't have a social media connection. But the question is, I read Some figures that 50% of employees post doing business hours. Is that a good practice? I mean, should that be allowed?
Well, that's an interesting question. I suppose that's a matter for each employer to decide what their policy says about employee use of social media. And all organizations should have a social media policy and provide training to their staff about, you know, what is the expectation around the use of social media during business hours, but otherwise as well. So personally, from my point of view, in my company, I don't mind, I don't mind when they use social media as long as they're getting the work done right. That's what's important.
Correct. So let me follow up with the next question. So what are the. The adverse effects of using social media in the workplace from your perspective? And I'll also pose a question to Sean.
Sure, sure. So, look, I think that social media is a reality these days for all businesses. It's a necessary evil is one way to look at it. It's used by businesses for sales and marketing functions. It's used for talent attraction. It's used for a variety of different functions now in business, and it's heavily entranced and it's effective. So, I mean, okay, so we have to have social media. Some organizations have chosen not to have it, but let's just say it's a necessary evil. So there are certain risks associated with social media, both from an employer point of view in how you communicate to your customers and to your partners, but also from an employee point of view in terms of what you're saying and how what you're saying can affect your employer.
Correct.
And hopefully we talk some more about that today.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Sean, did you want to add anything?
I think, as Dan mentioned, it's a necessary evil. And what happens today, employees, when they sit in the workplace, they basically open other tunnels of it, of communication information in and out to externals. And it's an easy bypass of the security controls in every organization. I could have the best firewall, but if I'm sending a document.
