NOTICE TO ALL CALIFORNIA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PERSONNEL:
Tweeting could be hazardous to your career - Job opening in Pennsylvania

A social media specialist at the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. in
eastern Pennsylvania, a partially tax-supported economic development agency
sent a tweet from the organization’s official account on June 3 in which she
wrote, "We start summer hours today. That means most of the staff leaves at
noon, many to hit the links. Do you observe summer hours? What do you do?"

Apparently as the story goes, the employee was dismissed days later, in part
because of the message about summer hours, according to the organization.

"I think this is an interesting lesson for all of us about the use of social media
and about how chatty and how much information goes out there immediately
and what the consequences are," said, Phil Mitman president of the organization. 
He said, the message is "out of line" and not in keeping with the organization’s
mission to use social media to advance its mission to help bring new business
to the Valley.

Mitman said the summer hours policy is only for employees who've put in 40 hours
of work in a week and he promised that no one left early last Friday at the
organization, where nobody has gotten a raise in four years because of budget
problems.

The summer hours tweet was followed by some clarifying comments after one Twitter
user asked lightheartedly if the Valley could be more economically competitive if
the agency's staff hung out at their desks until 5 p.m. on Fridays.

Another follow-up tweet from LVEDC linked to a study that suggests flexible work
hours can help increase productivity and once again assured followers that no one
was taking off early to play golf because they were too busy.

Rhetorically, I ask you, they have the budget for a social media specialist?   Let
alone the time.  Get a life!

Twitterless Tim