Employees gathering with friends, expressing their political views and posting about these things on social media have created for employers an increasingly urgent question: When the people engaging in unsafe or politically charged behavior are your employees, and the conduct happens off the clock, is it appropriate or even possible to discipline them?

Coworkers adding each other on social media to keep in touch while they work from home. The politicization of COVID-19 safety measures, and the divisive conversations on race and social justice sparked by George Floyd's death this spring. In recent months, this cultural storm has reframed previously banal behavior as having high stakes in workplaces...