<p>^^^Back when I worked in an office with real people, if you came to work sick you were promptly sent home by a supervisor. A low grade flu can spread through an office like wildfire and our boss made it very clear that he would rather lose 2 people for a couple days each then to have the whole office at sub-par for a week.</p>
<p>Anyone who friends co-workers on Facebook is just asking for trouble. Posting any discussion about work is just stupid. I would not want someone working for me that showed that poor judgement. </p>
<p>They will be on a very short leash I’m sure. Employment at will - they can be fired for any reason. </p>
<p>I’ll bet anyone a week’s pay that these employees don’t have their Facebook security set correctly either. So anyone can see their posts. </p>
<p>I know when I am interviewing applicants I check social networking sites. If I can see their info I automatically reject their application. If they are that careless and/or uninformed about privacy I can’t rely on them to protect my business data.</p>
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<p>This is interesting. Could applicants’ willingness to let others see their posts mean that they do not post sensitive information on Facebook, rather than mean that they are ignorant or careless about privacy?</p>
<p>Isn’t that a bit draconian, Iron Maiden? I have a lot of sympathy for your position if the information open to the public is inappropriate. But if some people only have favorite song, or their schools, up on FB doesn’t seem like a crime worthy of being denied employment on an automatic basis. Lots of people are careful about FB, and treat it more like linkedin, which is a FB for business. Senators, the President, CEO’s - you can find lots of them on FB. I believe you can see College Confidential on FB. Merely having a FB page open to the public, without regard for what’s in it, doesn’t seem a reason for automatically refusing to hire someone, without further consideration.</p>
<p>“I know when I am interviewing applicants I check social networking sites. If I can see their info I automatically reject their application.”</p>
<p>LinkedIn is a professional social networking site. Does it mean that anyone who has a LinkedIn profile automatically goes in the wastebasket?</p>
<p>What people don’t understand is that you can always find a reason to fire someone. Posting mean things about a supervisor on facebook makes for a poor employee, no matter how well they do their job, because is brings down morale. Certainly, since none of us are perfect, a reason can be found to fire such a person.</p>
<p>GTalum, actually, no reason is needed if a person is not bound by any contracts (“employment at will”).</p>
<p>As someone who is friends with coworkers on facebook, you would be amazed what people put on there. It may be work related, or it may not. Who knows what else they put on there. </p>
<p>If you have a job where you deal with the public, you need your profile set to private. Period. I don’t have anything bad on my page but I do not want any of my customers facebooking me (trust me, I’ve had them ask me if I am on facebook and I tell them no.) I don’t want them looking me up, finding photos of my family, etc.</p>
<p>Linkedin is a completely different story. That is a professional site. </p>
<p>If someone has their Facebook totally open that tells me a lot. At a minimum am employee should be savvy enough to set their profile to private. If they can’t do that I can’t trust them to protect my data abs my customer’s data. </p>
<p>With dozens of qualified applicants for every job why would I take a chance with am applicant that has no regard for their online privacy? Or just as bad is ignorant about it. </p>
<p>You would be surprised how many employers do this and research Facebook.</p>
<p>Actually, Iron Maiden, I think your rationale makes sense. You and your employees must constantly have your guard up regarding your data – the polar opposite of facebook which thrives on people spilling impulsively and thinking about it after. I totally get why you wouldn’t want employees who have that habit in their personal online lives.</p>
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<p>I’m not defending the bad judgment and stupidity of employees (this is not exactly a set of good poster children for my cause), but when I read these responses, I’m just very thankful I live in a part of the world where you can’t just be arbitrarily fired ‘just because’. I’m not even a big fan of unions (anyone with too much power- business or unions- is invariably a tyrant), but let me just say I’m extremely thankful for employment laws that balance the scales somewhat and make it a fair playing field.</p>
<p>^^ What part of the world is that? Are you SURE that can’t just fire you if they want? A lot of these ‘controls’ regarding firing aren’t laws at all - they’re company policies. Most people in the US are ‘at will’ employees which means the employer can fire them anytime they want and there’s no excuse needed. The issue would be if the person was fired under a condition controlled by a law - for example, you can’t fire someone because of their race or (generally) age.</p>
<p>“… make it a fair playing field.”</p>
<p>Whoa, where is this mythical “fair playing field” place? The whole point of not exposing yourself on Facebook (or at the company picnic or annual Christmas party) is that the employment field is COMPLETELY unfair. Incompetent bosses have been terminating competent subordinates for ages. Why open yourself to mistreatment???</p>
<p>If I am not mistaken Starbright is probably talking being in Canada. We do have Federal and Provincial Labour laws against wrongful dismissal without just cause. I know very little about the Labour laws in the US so I cannot compare. In Canada it is much more difficult to just let someone go. Between our Labour laws and the unions believe me there are people that can get away with almost anything and cant get fired. All firings except those cause by criminal acts of course must be documented beyond belief. I have (had) an employee that people were afraid of, they were concerned that he would lose it one day and come to work with a gun or something. I had to meet with him 3 times a week to discuss his attitude and the fear he brought out in people. Every meeting was documented and finally one day he said the wrong thing allowed me to send him for a psychiatric assessment. It came back that he did have problems and was put on medication. We allowed him 6 months of paid time off (requested by his DR.)to get himself under control and to follow medical treatment. He has since returned and is one of the best employees I could have. His first day back he walked into my office and said thank you for caring enough to push him to the point I did. Honestly I was trying to find a way to fire him but the laws here are such that all reasonable efforts must be made. In this case it worked perfectly, he is on medication, he is extremely productive, everyone has become friends with him again and all is well. Without the laws to protect him as a person he would have been fired and nobody knows what that would have triggered .</p>