As soon as employers started equipping employees with email accounts and a list of company email addresses, things started getting complicated. You can punish employees for many email attack campaigns—as long as you first make sure the content doesn’t qualify as concerted or protected activity.

This summer, more than 1,000 new online job ads for HR openings included requirements that the candidate holds social media skills. That represents a 160% increase in such requests over the same period in 2010, according to a WANTED Analytics report.

Treading carefully on today’s uncertain social media terrain, many employers might hesitate to punish employees for posting workplace comments online. But the National Labor Relations Board recently found in several scenarios that employers didn’t violate the National Labor Relations Act when they terminated or disciplined the employees.

A cellphone policy written five years ago may no longer be sufficient. Blame the rise of smartphones. Their multifunctionality makes it more important than ever to have a mobile phone policy, not only to minimize the risks of talking on a phone while driving, but for a number of other reasons as well.

There aren’t many published court opinions analyzing the propriety of company policies aimed at guiding employees on appropriate use of social media. However, a recent Minnesota Court of Appeals decision is one of the first in the state to provide such guidance.

Wonder what employees are really doing on those computers all day? A new court ruling shows that if they’re engaging in illegal cyber activities, you can show them the door. Just make sure you’ve shown them your cyber rulebook first …

Q. One of our employees secretly did an audio recording of his performance review meeting with his iPhone. Is that legal?

If you have a policy prohibiting employees from using cell phones while driving on company business, it may no longer be sufficient. Blame the rise of smartphones, which make it more important than ever to have a mobile phone policy.

With tons of undiscovered shortcuts, your BlackBerry is master of productivity. Use the following 10 tips to get more done in less time:

More employees in your organization—including you, possibly—are using iPads for business purposes. Courtesy of the editors at our sister newsletter Office Technology Today, here are some of the best apps to help maximize productivity in your workplace.

Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz.

Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz.

While you shouldn’t punish employees who complain about working conditions (pay, perks, supervisors, etc.) on social media sites, you don’t have to tolerate overt insubordination or workers who violate confidentiality rules.

Q. We recently learned that one of our employees posted comments on a friend’s Facebook page, coming to our company’s defense over a recent drop in stock price. The employee came dangerously close to disclosing information about earnings that were not yet public. What can and should we do?

Employers that want to maintain a productive workplace are smart to set limits on the websites employees can visit. Consider the following case, in which an employer was able to use its Internet policy to terminate an e­mployee whom co-workers and super­visors feared might do them harm.