Cyber-Bullying--a question from the professional world

[MadImmortalMan]

If you discover cyber-bullying happening between two parties both affiliated with your organization, neither of whom are using company assets for the communications in question, what is your responsibility?

What if party A is bullying party B on facebook or somesuch, neither reports it, but party C discovers this and punishes party A. A, B and C all work for you. C is a supervisor over A and B. Did C fuck up? Is that ok on the part of the company that employs A, B and C or should the company disallow such involvement as policy? Or maybe the company has a responsibility to get involved.




What if X is a caretaker for minors in work capacity (not a parent/guardian), and discovers child Y harassing child Z. Assuming Z does not bring the matter to X's attention, may X take action without opening himself to liability?

Are the rules for schoolteachers different from the ones for other types of caretakers like babysitters and day care people?

[Barrister]

Are the rules for schoolteachers different from the ones for other types of caretakers like babysitters and day care people?

Yes, because teachers are invariably unionized, whereas the others usually are not.

[viper37]

If you discover cyber-bullying happening between two parties both affiliated with your organization, neither of whom are using company assets for the communications in question, what is your responsibility?

What if party A is bullying party B on facebook or somesuch, neither reports it, but party C discovers this and punishes party A. A, B and C all work for you. C is a supervisor over A and B. Did C fuck up? Is that ok on the part of the company that employs A, B and C or should the company disallow such involvement as policy? Or maybe the company has a responsibility to get involved.

Does it involve the company in any way?  Is A bullying B because of work related issues?  Why can't B block FB access to A?
Does the bullying spill into the corporate environment?  Does it affect their work?

If it affects their work, C has a right to intervene and he should do so.  If nobody's work is concerned, if the supervisor does not notice anything at work, if A&B don't seem concerned, then it's not the company's business.

[derspiess]

Unless it qualifies as sexual harassment, I don't have a clue. 

If it *is* sexual harassment, as I recall from my "scare the shit out of the men" sexual harassment training a decade ago, it would need to be dealt with even if it occurs outside of the workplace, since it creates a 'hostile work environment'.

[DGuller]

In my company, getting fired takes a lot of effort.  One guy who succeeded in that goal did it by attacking another coworker in a bar after work hours.  None of this was reported to anyone, but when the rumors reached the ears of the manager some time later, the attacker got canned.

[PDH]

In my company, getting fired takes a lot of effort.  One guy who succeeded in that goal did it by attacking another coworker in a bar after work hours.  None of this was reported to anyone, but when the rumors reached the ears of the manager some time later, the attacker got canned.

Caned?

[Capetan Mihali]

One guy who succeeded in that goal did it by attacking another coworker in a bar after work hours.

Actuary brawl?

[DGuller]

One guy who succeeded in that goal did it by attacking another coworker in a bar after work hours.

Actuary brawl?

There was some choking involved.  Actuaries are hardcore like that.

[Zanza]

If you discover cyber-bullying happening between two parties both affiliated with your organization, neither of whom are using company assets for the communications in question, what is your responsibility?

What if party A is bullying party B on facebook or somesuch, neither reports it, but party C discovers this and punishes party A. A, B and C all work for you. C is a supervisor over A and B. Did C fuck up? Is that ok on the part of the company that employs A, B and C or should the company disallow such involvement as policy? Or maybe the company has a responsibility to get involved.

If the bullying is related to work, the company has every right to sanction it even if the channel used is not in its control.

What if X is a caretaker for minors in work capacity (not a parent/guardian), and discovers child Y harassing child Z. Assuming Z does not bring the matter to X's attention, may X take action without opening himself to liability?

Eh? Isn't that the task of a caretaker? I would rather say X opens himself to liability if he doesn't intervene.

[Malthus]

One guy who succeeded in that goal did it by attacking another coworker in a bar after work hours.

Actuary brawl?

There was some choking involved.  Actuaries are hardcore like that.

I would have thought organizing an arena and charging admission would be preferable to firing. May the best actuary win!

[MadImmortalMan]

Eh? Isn't that the task of a caretaker? I would rather say X opens himself to liability if he doesn't intervene.

In my scenario the kids are doing the harassment online and not using any equipment under the caretaker's ownership or control to do it. Say they're using their personal cell phones to post nasty messages to each other on fb or twitter or something. Still the same, even if, say, the kids' parents don't want them to do anything?


What if it's a college and the kids in question are 20 years old. That gay kid who got recorded screwing in his dorm---did the school have a liability in that case?

[crazy canuck]

Tricky area MiM.  In this jurisidiction I was involved in some litigation on very similar facts.  I suspect the answer to the many issues involved will vary across jurisdictions.

[DontSayBanana]

For A, B, and C, I think C's absolutely in the clear.  If C spots this and doesn't step in, there's a real question of whether there could be a hostile work environment situation now or down the line.

I'll admit to being stumped on X, Y, and Z.  I'd suspect more factors need to be considered as well as the form of action taken by X (like are they reporting to parents, reporting to administration, reporting to law enforcement, or attempting to personally intervene?).

EDIT: With the Rutgers situation, the school could be liable.  The students lived on-campus, so the school should be ensuring that kind of surveillance doesn't happen in the first place.  Also, the student doing the harassing was using the school's network for that communication; the school definitely has the right, if not the outright responsibility, to restrict that communication.

[Razgovory]

In my company, getting fired takes a lot of effort.  One guy who succeeded in that goal did it by attacking another coworker in a bar after work hours.  None of this was reported to anyone, but when the rumors reached the ears of the manager some time later, the attacker got canned.

I did that once.  Except it was just outside the office.  And I didn't get fired.  I quit.  Also I bit him.