In Hills and Dales General Hospital, the NLRB recently determined that an employer’s standards of behavior policy that prohibited “negative comments” and “negativity or gossip,” and directed employees to represent the employer in a “positive and professional manner,” were held to be unlawfully overbroad under the NLRA.

The NLRB determined that prohibitions on “negative comments” and “negativity or gossip” were overbroad and ambiguous, and could be construed by employees as prohibiting NLRA-protected activity (i.e., the right to discuss workplace conditions in a critical manner and to otherwise engage in concerted action). The NLRB also found that the handbook’s provision that employees were to represent the employer in the community in a “positive and professional manner” could also be reasonably viewed by employees as prohibiting them from making any public statements on work-related matters that the employer did not perceive as positive.

Employees should keep the NLRB’s penchant to heavily scrutinize seemingly neutral workplace policies firmly in mind, and take steps to ensure that their workplace policies do not overreach, no matter how benevolent the purpose.