Blurring the lines: social media and the implications for employees

Australia has some of the highest per capita use of social media in the world. While social media offers a range of communication channels locally and internationally that are without cost to users, it is increasingly encroaching on our working lives; an effect its creators might never have contemplated becoming a legal issue.

The most significant legal challenge that social media presents to employers and employees alike is the blurring of personal and professional lines when employees use social media. It has been recognised by the courts that the "separation between home and work is now less pronounced than it used to be" (Deputy President Swan in Damian O'Keefe v Williams Muir's Pty Ltd.)