The Fallacy of Employment Law Lessons from a Viral Video

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. See, there was this viral video going around showing [insert questionable behavior that could — or could not — be employment law related].

It happened again yesterday.

It was at a Coldplay concert in Boston. I’m sure you’ve seen it by now. I won’t link to it because, well, let me explain.

Within hours (minutes?) of the video going viral came the flurry of holier-than-thou posts on LinkedIn professing a utter breakdown in HR practices at this particular company and offering helpful suggestions on what real employers should do.

Please spare me.

Now, to be sure, this is not the first viral something to make news regarding some employment law issue. You might remember the woman who tweeted something stupid before going on to a plane flight and being pilloried for it afterwards.

Or do you remember #AlexfromTarget?

In fact, way back in 2014, I cautioned employers to stop chasing the virality of headlines and click bait.

Sure, you have to still be worried about your particular workplace going viral, but drawing significant employment law lessons from a viral video. At a Coldplay concert?

Nope.

Now, that’s not to say that there’s not humor or even good storytelling from life or even viral videos. Heck, just last week I was posting employment law lessons from pickleball.

But there’s a difference between those of us who have been doing this for years finding inspiration and humor in everyday life and even people who write for a living on the subject, (like the terrific Suzanne Lucas), and the so-called “HR influencers” who are more interested in drawing clicks and outrage, than they are for distilling actual employment law advice.

Employers have enough to worry about with the threat of real lawsuits and government enforcement actions hanging over their heads.

Now, I love LinkedIn and have seen (and shared) more than a few viral videos on TikTok. And there will no doubt be someone who will even claim that this post itself is designed for the very purpose it professes to disdain.

But we all do better when we ignore the clickbait on LinkedIn and instead focus on real people doing the real hard work each day to share our legal insights without phony outrage.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go back to watch videos of tornadoes taken by drones.

Hey, everyone’s got something, right?