A wise man once said “stupid is as stupid does.” But one person’s stupidity can reap endless benefits to another’s wisdom, and here’s how.
The story making the news on the interwebs is that of an Oregon teenager who posted a Facebook status of “drivin drunk… classic 😉 but to whoever’s vehicle I hit I am sorry. :P.” (Slurred and borderline illiterate mistakes in the original.)
Sure enough, Drunky-McDUI hit a car and ran away to drink another day, but was turned in by Facebook “friends” who saw the Facebook post and heard about his misadventures.
What does this have to do with California Workers’ Compensation? Plenty!
As suggested by your humble blogger many times before, the fact that people do stupid things and brag about them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social media the kids are playing with today does not mean that those things are not fair game for the defense-side of this industry.
Your applicant will cry and moan about her depression at the deposition. He will testify endlessly about how he can barely get out of bed because of every single body part hurting so much after his industrial injury. You will hear claims of every kind imaginable up to the point of an award… but you know they aren’t true.
You also will hear whispers from co-workers of an injury being faked, of Ms. Applicant attending parties and dating or Mr. Applicant going skiing and working on digging a trench at his ranch (isn’t it great to get all those things done now that you don’t have to waste time at work?)
More and more of the world’s applicants are finding themselves on social media, and some can’t help but live their lives on the public stage, from reporting the fact that they are eating a sandwich to uploading video of how great they are on jet-skis.
So, what can you do right now to take advantage of such a weak degree of discretion? Well, for starters, go to facebook and create a profile. You don’t need to put in any information you don’t want to share with anyone – don’t upload a picture, or upload a picture of something random like a pencil or a puppy. Look up your applicant by name and see what network he or she is on (usually, networks are organized by school, city, or employment). And then just see what’s available to the public – is there any activity on there that is inconsistent with the applicant’s claims?
Odds are that one of the co-workers that is a Facebook friend but a real-life enemy might even report these activities to the employer if asked. After all, that’s how Captain Genius got caught in the story above.
