Federal Article Feeds Is your Employer “Big Brother”?
An employer’s ban on fraternization among its employees, on-duty or off-duty, has recently made news reports. Guardsmark, LLC, a company that provides uniformed security personnel to commercial entities, has a policy that states that its employees must NOT “fraternize on duty or off duty, date or become overly friendly with the client’s employees or with co-employees.” The National Labor Relations Board considered whether this policy (and others) violates the National Labor Relations Act, and concluded that it does not.
Some writers seem appalled that an employer would seek to regulate employees’ off-duty conduct to the point of banning fraternization. One asks, “What if your boss could ban happiness”? But is this not a natural, defensive response to the burdens we continue to place on employers.