If he was handed the account and acknowledged it was company property, how does he have a leg to stand on?
And the guy before him apparently used the account and turned it over when he left? Definitely looks like it wasn't an amicable departure.
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If he was handed the account and acknowledged it was company property, how does he have a leg to stand on?
Did the RT include in the filing as an Exhibit the acknowledgment it says Bitter signed saying the account was properly of the paper? That's also critical.
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A couple of things -- the handbook definitely uses the terms social media, though in the section that would be most pertinent it refers to "communication" on "social accounts." Legally, that covers Twitter. Facts are important.Yes, you can view that in the Deadspin article. Critically, the handbook section never even uses the word "social media" or "Twitter." It certainly doesn't spell out the intricacies of account ownership. It's a boilerplate paragraph about company property that we've probably all signed.
It's a laugher of a case that the paper has no chance of winning. They are wasting money and embarrassing themselves.
Have we seen a copy of the handbook?
The acknowledgment receipt Bitter signed (and that was presented as evidence) says he agrees to abide by the policies described in the handbook.
I'd love to read that handbook.
Edit: Nevermind, based on JRoyal's post.
A couple of things -- the handbook definitely uses the terms social media, though in the section that would be most pertinent it refers to "communication" on "social accounts." Legally, that covers Twitter. Facts are important.
If he had started the account himself, he would probably have a case. I started my Twitter separate from work and use it for some work stuff but a lot of non-work stuff. He didn't. He took it over from the previous beat writer and used it to promote his work for the Times. I think that's the key. He was provided the account by the company. If he had come with his own account and the former beat writer said, "Hey, follow the new guy, he's gonna be great," then he'd have a case to keep it. He didn't. Even if it started with fewer followers, it came from the company initially. And the company employee handbook spells out that all communication from company-owned social media accounts are the property of the company. Since he inherited the account from the company, that's a company account.
You're right that it's a laugher of the case. You're wrong in who is on the winning side.
I work for a BH paper. I was looking at the employee handbook when I posted. As for the time he worked, that's another issue entirely separate from the Twitter account and has no relevance to the case at hand.Deadspin says it posted the "full suit." If that's true, I can't speculate why BH Media would not include its most convincing piece of evidence -- the portion of the handbook addressing social media -- in its filing, but perhaps you know since you seem very close to it.
On a side note, I think it would be fun for the U.S. Department of Labor to look at the time stamps on all these tweets. Surely, the company was monitoring its official company account to ensure that its employee was using company equipment to do his job no more than five days and 40 hours per week during the course of his employment.
I'm sure BH lawyers have already compared Bitter's timecards to his tweet activity. I can only hope they match up exactly. Surely, with such a strictly monitored company account, his supervisors would have noticed if he was using company equipment outside of his designated hours and immediately put a stop to such activity.
Maybe that will be in the next filing.
I hadn't read much of the handbook before today, to be honest, and I've been here in Tulsa for 13 years, and BH has owned us since 2010, I think (maybe 2009). I'm guessing they've revised that section a few times over the years, and I'm expecting a pretty hefty revision of the social media policy and communications accounts sections after this. It'll be interesting to see what it includes if they do change it.I wish I remember exactly what it said, but alas, it's been nearly three years since I left a BH paper, and probably like way longer than that since I read the actual employee handbook.