More office spoofs surface

Sunday, August 27, 2006 Making a video at the workplace can be a touchy subject. LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY How would your boss react if you created and posted to the Internet a video spoof of your office? Let's say the video portrayed colleagues as egomaniacs, including an office-supply thief and a Blackberry addict? And it described your office as moving from your company tagline — "clever, fast, witty" — all the way to "tragic, despondent, bipolar" — and back again? Fortunately for Wilson Cleveland, associate vice president of Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek Communications in New York City, his boss not only gave the green light for such a video — but she even appears in it. The almost 10-minute video is called "CJP Behind the Magic" and is posted for all the world to see at YouTube.com. Cleveland and his colleagues created it last November in response to a query from the London office: What's a typical day like in the New York office? Cleveland, who plays the role of the recovering BlackBerry addict, could have simply sent an e-mail. But, as he says, "I don't do anything small." More show up A growing number of employee-created videos — some sophisticated like Cleveland's, others shot in a goofy way on handheld video devices — is showing up on sites such as YouTube.com, MySpace.com and Metacafe.com. On Metacafe you can see workers from offices around the world: rowing crew-style while seated in a line of rolling office chairs; shooting rubber bands; enacting a colleague's fake fall from an office chair; disco dancing behind their office friends. Fun, yes. But fun can be in the eye of the beholder. Video scenarios can be embarrassing to the employer or even to other employees. They can violate trade secrets. And they're even potentially illegal. Just when employers were getting a handle on workplace blogging — whether it's OK for employees to blog about the office and, if so, under what kinds of restrictions — companies are starting to call their attorneys about this latest online happening. Matt Halpern, a partner in the Long Island, N.Y., office of workplace-law firm Jackson Lewis Llp, says he's recently started getting a call about this issue every two weeks or so. It's telling that even as technology is allowing employers to monitor and regulate employee behavior, it's also paving the way for workers to spoof — or even vilify — the boss or workplace. Some employers have begun to add yet another layer to their employee policy manual with the do's and don'ts of camera and video use in the workplace. Survey results But it's an issue few workplaces have come to grips with: An online survey in March of 424 human resources professionals found that 65 percent did not have policies on workplace use of cell phones with multimedia capability. The survey, from the Society for Human Resource Management, found that only 7 percent expected to have such a policy in place within six months. Employees may want to take a lesson from the experience of Michael Hanscom. As a temp worker in Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., copy shop, he spotted a stack of Apple computers on a Microsoft loading dock back in 2003, shot a picture and posted it to his personal blog. That brought a hurried end to his work at Microsoft. A spokesman for Microsoft said the company does not comment on such matters. Halpern adds that bosses may videotape an employee asleep on the job or engaged in other inappropriate conduct, but they should have the audio function switched off. Otherwise, he said, the boss may be in violation of the state law regulating wiretapping unless they have employees' permission to do such monitoring. Subject to lawsuits Employees, too, can violate that law if they remotely videotape colleagues in conversation without their knowledge, using the audio recording feature, he said. And he warns that they should be aware, as well, that if their creations hit the Web, they could be subject to civil lawsuits from colleagues who don't necessarily appreciate the exposure. "It's a pretty dangerous world," says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute, a training and consultant company in Columbus, that helps employers set policies regarding e-mail and Internet use. "You don't want to lose your job over a photo," and posting a photo or video can trigger any number of employer policies, she says, whether it involves accessing the Internet, use of a company-owned cell phone, blogging or posting a video to a blog — known as vlogging. And, then, there also are a company's confidentiality or ethics policies to consider. Using caution Employees should beware: Employers are becoming more sophisticated in the use of search engines to sniff out anonymous posts about the company. On the other hand, workplace videos can have values that employers appreciate. Jennifer Prosek, managing partner in Cleveland's office, encourages the videos as a way to build team spirit and attract hip, young workers. Employees are "always looking for creative outlets," says Shiv Singh, director of enterprise solutions in the New York City office of Avenue A/Razorfish, an interactive marketing firm. Cleveland's employer sees the value of allowing employees some creative license. Such videos — his is clearly identified as a spoof — can function as recruiting tools, team boosters, ways to distinguish a creative company from the competition, says Cleveland. "Behind the Magic" was created with a nod to the long-running hit Broadway musical "Rent" and shows that "we take our clients and our work seriously, but not ourselves," he says. "Who doesn't want to work for a company where people are enjoying what they are doing?"