Confessions of an angry employee: The dark side of de-identified “confessions” on Facebook

• We analyzed Facebook confessions to understand employees’ motivations in posting.
• We used concepts of uses and gratifications and employee communication behavior.
• Posts found to be for the organization were related to pride and nostalgia.
• Posts against the company expressed anger and frustration.
• Posts petitioning the company to revise its behaviors were also found.

Employees’ communication behaviors are an important area of research for public relations. In this study, employees’ communication behaviors in a de-identified context have been studied from the perspective of online flaming by analyzing “confessions” posted on a Facebook confessions page. The theoretical perspectives of the uses and gratification theory and employee communication behavior in public relations literature were adopted in this study. Positive and negative “confessions” were analyzed to identify employees’ motivations in posting them. While negative posts expressing anger and frustration at policies, personnel, and the management in general dominated the page, positive posts indicated expressions of pride, nostalgia, and gratitude for social support from co-workers. Petitions from employees to change behaviors and policies were also found, and were examined from the perspective of paracrises.