“Can My Boss Legally Prevent Me from Promoting My Side Business on Social Media While Working Full-Time?”
#sidehustle #fulltimejob #socialmediamarketing #smallbusinessmarketing #promotions #workpolicies #legalrights
**Background:**
– *Laid off from prestigious remote job
– *Accepting lower-paying full-time non-profit position
– *Developed small social media business with husband
– *Boss confronted him about advertising business on personal LinkedIn
**Current Situation:**
– *Boss warned him about advertising personal projects
– *Feels pressure to secure new role before leaving non-profit
– *Consulted HR, seeking clarification on rights
**Key Questions:**
– *Is it legal for boss to restrict promotion of personal business on personal social media?
– *Confusion about company’s reaction given disclosure during interview
– *Concerns about maintaining side business while working full-time for non-profit
**Action Taken:**
– *Considering removing colleagues from LinkedIn
– *HR involved in addressing situation with boss
Stay tuned for updates as the story unfolds!
Ask a suitable lawyer in your area. Reach out to your labor board.
You are probably right to begin looking for a new job right now. You should feel bothered, whether it is legal or not for them to do that.
Are you under a contract with your employer?
Is there a conflict of interest?
welcome to right to work, you’re a rightless slave and you can consider yourself lucky you get to lick the boots – legally speaking you’re SOL, you have absolutely less than zero recourse on this one – you can be fired for any and no reason
at least you learned a valuable lesson; nobody in your career or private life should know about any of your social media, it was stupid of you to market it on your linkedin
Lots of places they can fire you just because they want to, but most jobs you wouldn’t assume this would be a problem.
Given your manager didn’t actually demand you stop I would adopt a “better to ask forgiveness than permission” approach and just try to excel at the new job while doing so.
Be absolutely perfectly ridiculously careful that you never ever do your own business on company time or on company equipment. Big obvious firewall.
Look for a new job. Disclose your side business upon receiving a new job offer. If someone goes through all the hoops to offer you a job and it doesn’t compete with their business, they will probably agree you can have your side-hustle and still want to hire you. I think you are wise to disassociate from your Non-profit contacts on LinkedIn for now.
I have my own online business and interviewers have asked me why I wouldn’t just keep doing that and why I need/want a job. Because in this economy it’s not paying me enough money. Any company that won’t let you have more than 1 job, whether self employment or not, is not a company I’d want to work for. That’s bullshit.
I’ve worked at several non-profits and at least a few of them had a clause that requires you to inform HR about other sources of income as well as language that suggests that these other sources could cause you to lose your employment .
Some of this is because of regulations provided by sources of funding, it’s also partly that some pretty big conflicts of interests are possible and show up more often than you think and cause problems that can shut a non-profit down completely if they jeopardize tax-exempt status.
It probably doesn’t apply to what your particular thing and your boss is probably being shitty about this but reporting other sources of income is fairly standard at non-profits.
Don’t just remove them from your LinkedIn, actively BLOCK your boss and the director of development. In case you didn’t know you can block someone from seeing your profile entirely.
Your boss fucking lied to you. No one walked into his office, he or maybe the director of development saw it after they connected to you and got pissy. I am 100% certain no one complained.
Firing you for working a second job is not a valid reason to challenge an unemployment claim.
The worse thing you can do is competently do your job. If he feels the need to fire a competent employee…(shrug)
Tell them your husband has taken over operations of the company.
I highly doubt anyone is checking your page and just casually telling them about you. Your boss or someone he hired is checking your page to up his own organization. Is your state a right-to-work state? They could potentially fire you for anything and nothing. Also, check your contract and/or work agreement. If nothing is outlined about social media presence and some form of standard or compensation for keeping it strictly about their organization, I’m not sure why they are hassling you about it. It may also be helpful to reach out to a lawyer. If HR’s response is “I’ll talk to him” they are treading on illegal territory. If it was against the rules, HR would’ve said right then you were wrong and how.
If your boss wants exclusive rights to your social media, that’s a conversation he needs to discuss and compensate you for. Plenty of people have second jobs. I’d also recommend removing your job from your LinkedIn listing. You can always add it if you decide leave.
I was in your same position at a Non-profit. It was an absolute mess and horribly ran. It was also a financial sinking ship, and my events kept getting budget cuts every year. I moved over to a park district and I instantly got paid more and it has been much nicer.
I’ve had many jobs where part of the employee agreement I signed was that I wouldn’t work other jobs. Check your employee agreement.
I suggest that you create a separate email address and LinkedIn profile that are solely for your personal small social media company. And then remove all references to it from your regular LinkedIn profile that your boss is connected to. It’s better to keep them separate and your boss in the dark to avoid issues like this. Not that it’s any of his business anyway. Too many employers treat employees like they are property when they are not. They do not own us and have no right to control what we do outside of our normal work hours.
Every npo I’ve worked for has a conflict of interest form as part of their onboarding process. I always fill it out even if I don’t think it’s a conflict. Maybe he’s miffed because you didn’t?
The OP manages marketing and special events for the NP. As long as the side business is not on company time then there is no conflict of interest, and the NP can suck their whole ass otherwise. Unless it’s in writing then it doesn’t matter. The FTC just banned non-competes anyway.
You seem like a real class act. You really can’t see why someone in a marketing job also running a side business involved in marketing might raise some questions?
You’ve also referred to them as a “bitch” and a “pussy”?
I’m sure they’ll be super sad to see you leave.
You come off so aggressive in your responses. I think it’s great that you are doing your personal business. But it’s an obvious conflict of interest. You don’t need to be so mad about it just line something up and leave your current job. Best of luck
Your boss is dumb. You’re employer can’t really say that you aren’t allowed to have another job. There doesn’t seem to be a conflict. And you aren’t using the company to promote yours. Your boss is dumb as shit, probably still has no idea what your other business even is. Like, it really just seems like your boss is a dumb human, not sure what else to say.
Non compete clause
>”People have been fired in the past for advertising their personal projects when employed because it comes off as if you’re working two jobs.”
I think a lot of people here are missing what’s likely behind this. It’s right there in those last nine words.
This is less likely to be a perceived conflict of interest than it is outward optics. It’s giving huge, “We don’t want the public appearance of not compensating our staff fairly enough.”
And they clearly aren’t if you’re wearing that many hats in a marketing/events department. I work in marketing/comms in a nonprofit, and while that salary is in range in my part of the country for coordinator or manager roles, it’s shockingly low for all those positions you mentioned combined.
So, yeah, my take after having been in this sector for roughly 20 years: they don’t think it’s a conflict of interest; they just realize it makes them look like they low-ball their staff.
You seem like a very unreasonable person. Your boss should be commended for patience
It’s unlikely for it to be illegal to say it or to fire you over it. You would likely be able to collect unemployment over it in many states.
I’m a retired labor lawyer. Generally employers, particularly of full time employees, can legally have policies, which require employees to get permission to be self employed or work other employers. These policies do not have to be in writing. I have seen it personally in numerous organizations.
There are several reasons this is the case: conflicts of interest, association with unflattering events or causes, worker’s compensation complications, etc.
If you want to run a company doing the same thing you do for your employer, raising money in the same market…it sounds like a prima facie case of conflict of interest. No need to get emotional. IMO, you’re not on good legal footing. I would advise my clients against it.
Maybe let your husband front it. You either need the job or you don’t. Nonprofits are generally a tight knit group at the executive level. Many of these folks founded these organizations. I have volunteered with a ton and they can make or break vendors by reputation.
One thing I wouldn’t advise is ticking these folks off because they have friends all throughout the industry and making have access into that industry is your ultimate goal.