Hello fellow bloggers! We are all enthusiastically writing posts for this very interesting blog. Besides the fact that it is fun, we actually get rewarded for it with a pass or a fail. However, not everyone is as lucky as we are…
What some of us do not realize is that what we post on the Internet, whether it is a blog, Facebook post, Twitter update, or LinkedIn status-change, not only gets read by our friends and family but also by your future employers. You can save yourself the following embarrassment by taking into account this realization every time before you post something.
(Lifehacker)
However, you should not forget about your colleagues and bosses! They might also check your Facebook or blog and might not be too happy with what you are posting there. Flight attendant Ellen Simonetti and Google employee Mark Jen know this from experience. Simonetti had posted some pictures of herself in uniform on her blog while Jen speculated about Google’s finances. Neither of their bosses were happy with their employees’ love for blogging and both of them got fired.
(Luckyaviation)
Now you might think the following: “I am way too smart to do such things! I know what I can and cannot do.” However, can you actually know what you can or cannot do? The fact is that many companies have guidelines that prohibit visiting porn sites (really?) or posting racist comments (duh!), there are not many companies that explicitly state their policies regarding social media use.
Thus, can you actually fire employees for their social media use?
In my opinion, companies should first make sure to have a social media policy and spread this policy amongst their employees. Companies can only fire people for breaking rules that 1) exist and 2) widely known. Second, there should be a widespread realization amongst students and employees that whatever they post will be available for everyone forever! Universities, parents, and employers are just a few of the many institutions that can help in establishing this realization.
My tip for you: Make sure you get this realization before it is too late.
Sadly, this realization came too late for Lindsay…
(Lifehacker)
First of all, nice topic. This relates to everybody who uses social media and eventually wants to get a job or those who already have a job.
You state that companies must set rules that 1) exist and 2) are widely known. I completely agree with these points. We live in 2013; every company should have social media guidelines for their (future) employees by now.
On the other side I think that posting something inappropriate on social media is a thing that you should not do in real life either. If you complain about your boss – the wanker – to one of your colleagues, you know these complaints could end up on the desk of your boss. So why should you lose this realization when using social media? It’s about common sense here. An employee without the common sense to know that everything he or she posts to the internet will be available to everyone around the world is not a capable employee in my opinion.
In this time, the time that almost everybody uses social media, companies all have to make certain rules about how social media is used in their company. Especially if it is a company that is specialized in social media! I think these rules or guidelines are almost the same as ‘house rules’ in a company. They just have to be there.
I agree with the fact that posting bad things about your boss or colleague is something you just don’t do, so it is definitily about common sense. In real life you also have to use your brains to avoid that you do not just say what you think.
But social media is meant to be open. It makes it possible for people to raise their voices and to show the world what they think.
I think that you can post something negative about your job, or about how things go there. But people have to think ‘how far’ they can go in that.
By the way, your blog is really nice to read!
Hi!
It is indeed becoming increasingly more important to think before you post nowadays. Even if you set your profile settings to private, chances are that you will befriend some colleagues or even your boss later on in your career on Facebook or on other social media. Sometimes I see it passing by on my own newsfeed on Facebook as well; a couple of former colleagues in their work uniform playing soccer on the roof (which is a prohibited area) or making fun of the company, while all this is exposed on such a large public platform. I must say that I can understand why organizations fire their employees for this, since they are damaging the company’s reputation in public. However, there are of course limits. I agree with you that the social media policy of the company should exist and be widely known across all employees.
This blogpost made me think of a case that was discussed in a course that I took last year, and I was wondering what you all would think of it, since we encountered some very diverging opinions. Ashley Johnson, a waitress at Brixx Pizza, vented her frustration about some customers she served that day on her Facebook profile. She stayed an hour after her shift had ended to serve these customers, who stayed in the restaurant for 3 hours in total, and ended up with only a five dollar tip. She posted the following: “Thanks for eating at BRIXX, you cheap piece of **** camper”. Her Facebook profile was set to private, and she did not mention the names of the customers, but her manager decided to look on her Facebook wall and fired her over it. The case received a lot of attention, being picked up by several national and international news agencies (Gosset, 2011). Some were outraged that she was fired over a Facebook post, others understood how the company could not tolerate this.
Some more information can be found on: http://chris.pirillo.com/waitress-fired-over-facebook-status/
Or a more objective view on the case: http://books.google.nl/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=g7hduew1u1IC&oi=fnd&pg=PA207&dq=gosset+fired+over+facebook&ots=j_qOCtWV-_&sig=km6GA0_QH_rxMYXxKPJTZCh1hwc#v=onepage&q&f=false
So, what do you think about this? Was Brixx right in firing Ashley, or is she protected by freedom of speech? I’m curious to hear your opinions!