Public servants cannot even react angrily to social media posts that criticise the government, under new guidelines revealed this week.

New social media guidelines published this week by the Australian Public Service Commission, say APS employees “have the right to participate in public and political debate”, but it is “not an unlimited right”.

“If you ‘like’ something on a social media platform, it will generally be taken to be an endorsement of that material as though you’d created that material yourself,” the guidelines state.

“‘Sharing’ a post has much the same effect. However, if you’re sharing something because you disagree with it and want to draw it someone else’s attention, make sure that you make that clear at the time in a way that doesn’t breach the Code itself. It may not be enough to select the ‘angry face’ icon, especially if you’re one of thousands that have done so.”

When writing private emails, the guidelines inform that public sector that there is “nothing to stop your friend taking a screenshot of that email, including your personal details, and sending it to other people or posting it all over the internet”.

“Again, the breach of the Code is not in their subsequent publication of your material, but in your emailing that material in the first place.

“In fact, there’s nothing to stop your friend from forwarding your email directly to your employer and reporting your behaviour.”

In the case of “nasty comments made by someone else on my social media pages”, the guidelines say “doing nothing about objectionable material that someone else has posted on your page can reasonably be seen in some circumstances as your endorsement of that material”.

“If someone does post material of this kind, it may be sensible to delete it or make it plain that you don’t agree with it or support it,” the guidelines say.

“Any breach of the Code would not come from the person making the post. It would come from how you reacted to it.”

The APS guidelines even attempt to stop staff from posting anti-government content anonymously.

“Posting material anonymously or using a pseudonym doesn’t guarantee your identity will stay hidden,” the guidelines say.

“Even if you don’t identify yourself you can still be identified by someone else. It’s a simple fact: agencies often receive dob-ins about comments made by their employees. Often those employees are shocked to find they’ve been linked back to their employer so easily.”

The PAS says an employee’s “capacity to affect the reputation” of their agency and the broader public sector “does not stop when you leave the office”.

“APS employees are required by law to uphold the APS Values at all times,” the guidelines say.

Just joining the wrong Facebook group could be enough.

“People will draw conclusions about you and your ability to work impartially from a range of factors. This can include the nature of any online communities that you join,” the APS says.

“For example, if you work as a Customer Service Officer in Centrelink while being a member of a Facebook group that is opposed to current laws about the payment of welfare benefits to migrants. This might raise a concern about whether you would deal with all of your clients fairly and professionally in your APS role.

“People would reasonably be concerned about your ability to implement Government policies in a way that is free from bias and in accordance with the law.”

CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said the new policy is “overreach”, that “clearly does not strike the right balance between giving our community faith in the Commonwealth public service and allowing people who work in public services to undertake normal, everyday activity in a democracy”.

“The notion that the mum of a gay son who happens to work in Centrelink can’t like a Facebook post on marriage equality without endangering her job is patently absurd,” the union leader said in a statement.

“It is one thing to say that public servants working on a particular Government policy shouldn’t be publicly criticising that policy, quite another to say they have no right to engage on social media on anything that could be a community issue.

“It’s completely unreasonable for a worker to face disciplinary action over a private email or something as benign as ‘liking’ a social media post,” she said.

“Of course there need to be limits but [this] policy goes too far.”