I know lots of people blog about Facebook, but this topic was especially interesting to me. A year ago at the company I was interning with, we had a meeting where we discussed if we should check an applicant on Facebook before hiring them and monitoring our current employees. I am strongly opposed to the idea. I spoke my mind that Facebook is a "social" networking site, not a "what I do at work" site. Management still does not check Facebook or other social media sites at that company.
In the
CIO article that I read, it lists 6 mistakes that people make on social networking sites that could get them fired or not hired to a job all together.
- Post negative comments about your job or your company
- Defending your employer in an online dispute
- Discussing private and/or security-related company matters
- Disguising your identity and pretending to be someone else
- Offering up too much information about your personal life and recreational activities
- Posting questionable pictures
All of these seem pretty self-explanatory to me but apparently most people don't get the "Facebook" talk all the time like us MBAs do, right? People need to get a little smarter about what they post on social networking sites. One example that the CIO article gave was when a female employee was actually friends with her boss and posted not so flattering comments about her boss. "The woman updated her status to read: OMG I HATE MY JOB!! My boss is a total pervvy (sic) w**ker, always making me do s**t stuff just to p**s me off!! W**ker!" The boss responded: "I guess you forgot about adding me on here? " and ended with "Don't bother coming in tomorrow. And yes, I'm serious."" Now that does not seem very smart! You should really remember that you're friends with your boss.
The article states that 7% of all organizations have fired someone for activity on social networking sites, while 20% of employers have disciplined employees for activities on social networking sites.
Okay... I want to hear your stories. Anyone have anything happen to them or a friend because of something they had posted on a social networking site?
It never ceases to amaze me that people can be so ingorant. We have become so used to being anonymous through the internet that we often don't think that minding manners matters in real life, as well as in the virtual world.
ReplyDeleteWell in residential life (hopefully I don't get fired for this) our supervisors added us on facebook and we accepted. We are hired to be role models and all when we are in the halls and outside which caused the problem in this case. We woke up one morning to find out that 4 of the staff members had been fired. Why? because they were at a house party and some residents were there (we are not supposed to go party with them) and our boss saw the pictures posted on facebook. Needless to say our bosses can see very little of our profiles now!!!!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I hate the idea of relating a persons social life to their work capabilities, I have no sympathy for those clowns who share private personal info on social sites such as facebook. The bottom line is that people judge other constantly. So if you are foolish enough to make negative comments about your company or your boss then you deserve to get fired.
ReplyDeleteIf your going to subject yourself to public social networks, then it is your responsibility to maintain an appropriate image...The easy answer to this problem is to not make yourself look like a fool online.
If you are not capable of portraying a proper image online, then at least monitor your "friends list" and ensure that only the right people can see you making a fool of yourself.
Thats just my 2 cents