Suds and Substance: #GoodVibesOnly

Fred Pressley will be one of three hosts for "Suds and Substance: #GoodVibesOnly" at the 2018 National Conference on Equal Employment Opportunity Law presented by the American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law.

Increasingly, workers are learning about, praising, and even complaining about their workplaces in conversations away from the proverbial water cooler. Those conversations are happening not just one-on-one, but also in groups of workers and with the broader community, with the aid of electronic communications and social media. Workers sometimes turn to social media, tweets, blog posts, open letters, alignment with advocacy groups, and other non-traditional paths to effect recognition and seek change. What does this mean for the traditional HR department and their employment lawyers? How do management-side and in-house lawyers advise clients about this new type of advocacy? What does this mean for plaintiffs’ lawyers who are used to pursuing traditional litigation? Does this change the role of human resources and code of conduct/ethics hotlines? Are major consumer-facing companies using their social media response teams for employee-related social media matters as well, and are they well served by those activities? How do we, as employment lawyers, fit into the new normal?