1. Who is right, the company or the employees? Why do you say that?

2. What should the Houston’s managers have done when they learned about the negative MySpace comments?

3. How ethical were the managers in looking at the MySpace comments? How ethical were the employees in posting negative comments about their employer and its patrons?

4. To what extent was Karen St. Jean a backstabber?

additional information

Employers Watching Workers Online Spurs Privacy Debate

Edited from original source: The Wall Street Journal  

By now, many employees are uncomfortably aware that their every keystroke at work, from email on office computers to text messages on company phones, can be monitored legally by their employers.

What employees typically don't expect is for the company to spy on them while on password-protected sites using non-work computers. But even that privacy could be in jeopardy.

A case brewing in federal court in New Jersey pits bosses against two employees who were complaining about their workplace on an invite-only discussion group on MySpace.com, a social-networking site owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The case tests whether a supervisor who managed to log into the forum -- and then fired employees who badmouthed supervisors and customers there -- had the right to do so.

"The question is whether employees have a right to privacy in their non-work-created communications with each other. And I would think the answer is that they do," said Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment expert and partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP in New York.

The legal landscape is murky. For the most part, employers don't need a reason to fire nonunion workers. But state laws in California, New York and Connecticut protect employees who engage in lawful, off-duty activities from being fired or disciplined, according to a report prepared by attorneys at the firm Proskauer Rose LLP. While private conversations might be covered under those laws, none of the statutes specifically addresses social networking or blogging. Thus, privacy advocates expect to see more of these legal challenges.

The case in New Jersey centers on two employees of Houston's restaurant in Hackensack, bartender Brian Pietrylo and waitress Doreen Marino, who in 2006 created and contributed to a forum about their workplace on MySpace.com. Mr. Pietrylo emailed invitations to co-workers, who then had to log in using a personal email address and a password.

"I just thought this would be a nice way to vent...without any eyes outside spying in on us. This group is entirely private," Mr. Pietrylo wrote in his introduction to the forum, according to court filings.

On the forum, Mr. Pietrylo and Ms. Marino, who was his girlfriend, made fun of Houston's decor and patrons, and made sexual jokes. They also made negative comments about their supervisors.

The supervisors were tipped off to the forum by Karen St. Jean, a restaurant hostess, who logged into her account at an after-hours gathering with a Houston's manager to show him the site. They all had a laugh, Ms. St. Jean said in a court deposition, and she didn't think any more about it.

But later, another supervisor called Ms. St. Jean into his office and asked her for her email and password to the forum. The login information was passed up the supervisory chain, where restaurant managers viewed the comments.

The following week, Mr. Pietrylo and Ms. Marino were fired. Houston's managers have said in court filings that the pair's online posts violated policies set out in an employee handbook, which include professionalism and a positive attitude. A lawyer for Hillstone Restaurant Group, which owns Houston's, declined to comment.

In their lawsuit, Ms. Marino and Mr. Pietrylo claim that their managers illegally accessed their online communications in violation of federal wiretapping statutes and that the managers also violated their privacy under New Jersey law.

But the courts might not view online musings as private communication. "You can't post something on the Internet and claim breach of privacy when someone sees it," said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J.

Ms. St. Jean said in a deposition she feared she would be fired if she didn't give up her password, a twist in the case that Mr. Maltby says could sway a jury against the company.

Labor and legal experts say the outcome of many employee privacy cases hinges on workers' expectations of their privacy rights -- particularly whether they have been given notice that they are subject to monitoring. In the Houston's case, the workers had no idea their online activities outside of work could be monitored, says their attorney, Fred J. Pisani. A trial is set for June 9.