Social media misconduct in the office is rising.

• Position: SOCIAL MEDIA - Survey on misuse of social media in office

The misuse of social media among employees is skyrocketing, according to the 2014 global survey on social media in the workplace conducted by the international legal group Proskauer Rose LLP. In fact, 70% of businesses reported taking disciplinary action against social media misuse in the office. That's not so surprising given that 90% of companies now use social media for business purposes. After all, the more that people use social media for business, the more likely the fine line between personal use and business use will blur, noted the researchers.

The good news is that nearly 80% of companies today have social media policies in place, a significant increase over 60% reported last year. More than half of those businesses have also updated their policies within the last year. In addition, most of these organizations are now taking precautions to protect against specific risks associated with the misuse of social media, such as:

* Misuse of confidential information (80%)

* Misrepresenting the company's views (71%)

* Inappropriate non-business use (67%)

* Disparaging remarks about the business or employees (64%)

* Harassment (64%)

In many cases, the policy is to restrict employees' use of social media in the office. More than a third (36%) of employers actively block access to such sites, compared to 29% last year; 43% allow all employees to access social media sites today, a 10% decrease from last year. An area that still isn't getting enough attention, however, is employee training. Only about 38% of businesses train their employees on the appropriate use of social media, a slight increase from last year's 33%.

Proskauer noted that there are no actual laws specifically addressing the issue of monitoring social media usage, although the National Labor Relations Act plays a pivotal role in this issue in the United States. Consequently, the common approach to this issue is to apply general legal principles, especially...