Can Facebook Get You Fired? Playing It Safe In The Social Media World

[george]

Can Facebook get you fired?

Playing it safe in the social media world

Dare to trash your boss on Facebook?

A Connecticut woman was fired for posting comments about her boss on Facebook

Social media experts say Facebook messages involving the workplace should remain positive

Employees should restrict who they let into social networks

(CNN) -- Rants about your boss or your job may have once been reserved for during after-work drinks at a bar, but employee gripes are now being voiced in the social media sphere.

Workplace complaints posted on popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace could get you fired. But ...

Full story & video: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/11/10/facebook.fired.social.media.etiquette/index.html

[hughben]

No plans to start an account and can't stand the need for people to inform the world what they are doing.

i.e. 'just got up, took a crap and washed my hands. 6 people like this'.

And anyone who posts the kind of stuff that got this woman fired deserve to get fired the buffoon.

Edited November 13, 2010 by hughben

[Moonrakers]

No plans to start an account and can't stand the need for people to inform the world what they are doing.

i.e. 'just got up, took a crap and washed my hands. 6 people like this'.

And anyone who posts the kind of stuff that got this woman fired deserve to get fired the buffoon.

I used to think the same but they can actually be very useful. Not only with keeping in touch with friends and family but also in business.

[Kwasaki]

Very true this is something that goes on !!! My daughter who works for British Airways use to use secure message never say anything bad on facebook as a she had heard some people were being reprimanded over open comments they had made on facebook.

[Englander]

No plans to start an account and can't stand the need for people to inform the world what they are doing.

Exactly!

I opened an account and within a few weeks i had 80 friends when ive only ever like about 30 people in my entire life, thus i closed it.

Plus the reason i lost contact with people from the past is i mustnt have liked them that much in the first place, so why would i want to let them know what i am upto.

[sbk]

There is a reason I have never friended george on facebook

[Ijustwannateach]

People who are on the Internet using their real names need to be careful. Part of the problem is that most people these days were never part of the initial computer-nerd group who were aware of and paranoid about all the potential risks. So they don't learn about them until they've done it the hard way.

[cdnvic]

I never mix work and Facebook. Co-workers are never added.

Still, the internet is forever so I try not to trash anyone because you never know when it will come back to bite you.

[Beetlejuice]

Facebook – A Warning. This could happen to you

Here is the story:

My Thai girlfriend’s sister in law (call her Lek, not real name) works and lives in Bangkok. Her

husband, my GFs brother works and lives in, USA.

Lek`s sister decided to take out a loan and needed Lek to act as a

guarantor for her sister in which she agreed. Later the sister failed to

make payments on the loan and did a runner, so the loan company began

to pursue Lek the guarantor in which she tried to avoid.

The loan company after unsuccessfully trying to contact Lek entered

facebook and did a search for her. Walla, a success, they discovered

Lek on there that included, her phone number, email, MSN contact

list, home address, work company name and contact details, her

friends, photos, date of birth, everything.

OWNED: now Lek either pays up the loan on behalf of her sister, or

the bailiffs will be sent in.

For those who have no desire to be traced by certain persons or

companies, that includes maybe stalkers, especially where minors are

concerned, old adversaries such as ex spouses or friends, official

bodies, work colleges who want to know your business etc, whatever

details you put about yourselves on facebook, YOU DO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

How easy is it to trace someone on facebook?

If someone has a name, or phone number or email address, all they need to do is enter it in search on facebook and if any of those details are quoted in the facebook profile, they will acquire a match.

At most times entering details in Google will yield a result. Wherever you place personal information on the Internet, sooner or later Google and other search engines will pick it up, that includes subscriptions to porn sites, webcam chats, dating and all social networking groups.

My employer regularly checks employees on line activities. Many a promotion or possible job opportunity has been lost because of the content someone has published on line.

[Evergreen]

No plans to start an account and can't stand the need for people to inform the world what they are doing.

Exactly!

I opened an account and within a few weeks i had 80 friends when ive only ever like about 30 people in my entire life, thus i closed it.

Plus the reason i lost contact with people from the past is i mustnt have liked them that much in the first place, so why would i want to let them know what i am upto.

Hmmm...sorry but you say you had 80 friends on Facebook but never liked them though? Well...why on earth did you accept them as friends in the 1st place then? If someone wants to add you as a "friend" you get a message asking you to either ACCEPT or DECLINE so for you to have all these people you do not particularly like as "friends" then you must have accepted them onto your Faceboook page!! How bizarre...

Anyway, on the actual topic, It's really quite simple. Privacy settings are there for this very reason..so that people you may know but do not particularly like, random weirdo's etc cannot access any of your details unless you actually accept them...which if you do that is entirely your own fault and no-one elses. I would never have my boss or even co-workers as friends on Facebook or any public social networking site as i know too well how relationships in work can go downhill very fast and they can use anything on your profile to go telling tales on you.

It's not rocket science, go to your privacy settings and only let friends be allowed to see anything about you and then that way no-one else can see what nasty things you may have been saying about them online... :D

[Englander]

^^

I got into the flow of it and added all sorts of passing acquaintances, i deleted my account within weeks but i believe if i typed in my email address into Facebook all friends and contacts would still be there ie your account is more dormant as opposed to wiped away.

[Forethat]

I never mix work and Facebook. Co-workers are never added.

Still, the internet is forever so I try not to trash anyone because you never know when it will come back to bite you.

You've never considered there's something fundamentally wrong if one feel the need to separate private and professional life simply because one fear to be caught when trashing someone...? This is a personality thing; a normal person doesn't have this need.

The more solid solution to this is not to be mindful of your speech (or writing), even though that's a admirable thing, but to change ones personality (if it's even possible is open for discussion) to the point where you no longer feel the urge to trash others on the internet. I have a huge collection of professional people on my FB page, I don’t have the same problem as you do.

And to answer the original question; yes, I have fired one person for being a little to open minded on FB. In this case, he did exactly what you mentioned in your post. He "trashed" a customer, but the customer happened to be a friend of a friend and saw the whole thing. So you are correct, you never know when it will come back to bite you.

[peter991]

What happens in Vegas - stays in Vegas. When gets said on Facebook goes viral - and 500 million people find out about it. Even if you delete your comment(s) a couple of minutes later - who knows how many people have copied and pasted them.

Basically - if you wouldn't put your comments in a (snail mail) letter - don't post them online.

Peter

[aussiejosh]

No plans to start an account and can't stand the need for people to inform the world what they are doing.

i.e. 'just got up, took a crap and washed my hands. 6 people like this'.

And anyone who posts the kind of stuff that got this woman fired deserve to get fired the buffoon.

You need to create an account and try it for yourself before you bash it. I hated it to once, but with all my friends spread around the world I can't imagine life without it now.

[GuestHouse]

Many companies have specific terms in their contracts of employment which forbid posting any company/client related information on line, facebook, or indeed forums such as this.

It's all part of reputation management, something that is becoming more and more important in this 'information' age.

However, there are also issues surrounding freedom of expression - most companies pay a lot of attention to what they think they are allowed to do, and little attention to what the law actually allows.

[Eff1n2ret]

I am not on Facebook. The friends I have are people whom I have actually met. Strangely enough, when I tear myself away from this keyboard and go out for a drink, or to a meeting, or a party, I meet more people and some of them become my friends.

For the last few years of my working life I was working alongside a UK police force which disciplined several of its officers for posting their identities and proclivities on Facebook.

[Moonrakers]

I never mix work and Facebook. Co-workers are never added.

Still, the internet is forever so I try not to trash anyone because you never know when it will come back to bite you.

You've never considered there's something fundamentally wrong if one feel the need to separate private and professional life simply because one fear to be caught when trashing someone...? This is a personality thing; a normal person doesn't have this need.

The more solid solution to this is not to be mindful of your speech (or writing), even though that's a admirable thing, but to change ones personality (if it's even possible is open for discussion) to the point where you no longer feel the urge to trash others on the internet. I have a huge collection of professional people on my FB page, I don't have the same problem as you do.

And to answer the original question; yes, I have fired one person for being a little to open minded on FB. In this case, he did exactly what you mentioned in your post. He "trashed" a customer, but the customer happened to be a friend of a friend and saw the whole thing. So you are correct, you never know when it will come back to bite you.

Ohhh, look at you.

Is it difficult being perfect?

[nocturn]

I never mix work and Facebook. Co-workers are never added.

Still, the internet is forever so I try not to trash anyone because you never know when it will come back to bite you.

You've never considered there's something fundamentally wrong if one feel the need to separate private and professional life simply because one fear to be caught when trashing someone...? This is a personality thing; a normal person doesn't have this need.

The more solid solution to this is not to be mindful of your speech (or writing), even though that's a admirable thing, but to change ones personality (if it's even possible is open for discussion) to the point where you no longer feel the urge to trash others on the internet. I have a huge collection of professional people on my FB page, I don't have the same problem as you do.

And to answer the original question; yes, I have fired one person for being a little to open minded on FB. In this case, he did exactly what you mentioned in your post. He "trashed" a customer, but the customer happened to be a friend of a friend and saw the whole thing. So you are correct, you never know when it will come back to bite you.

I never mix work and Facebook. Co-workers are never added.

Still, the internet is forever so I try not to trash anyone because you never know when it will come back to bite you.

You've never considered there's something fundamentally wrong if one feel the need to separate private and professional life simply because one fear to be caught when trashing someone...? This is a personality thing; a normal person doesn't have this need.

The more solid solution to this is not to be mindful of your speech (or writing), even though that's a admirable thing, but to change ones personality (if it's even possible is open for discussion) to the point where you no longer feel the urge to trash others on the internet. I have a huge collection of professional people on my FB page, I don't have the same problem as you do.

...

yet on here you are an utter prat. funny that.facebook is a marketing and networking tool. from that aspect it can be quite useful. why anyone would post their address, phone number and other details to facebook is beyond me.oddly enough most people dont think twice on feeding google every last detail of their existence. At least facebooks policies are somewhat transparent. I suspect Google's database make the nsa's information look trivial.

[onnut]

FB is great, I used to think it would be a bad idea to join and so didnt for ages, but last year I did and now all of my friends and family in the UK and other countries get to see updates of my little boy. so easy.

I do get annoyed with the stupid game requests and the I am going to bed now posts.

Jim needs 6 points to advance in mafia wars

jim needs help looking after his sheep

jim needs to get a <deleted> life!

[Forethat]

I never mix work and Facebook. Co-workers are never added.

Still, the internet is forever so I try not to trash anyone because you never know when it will come back to bite you.

You've never considered there's something fundamentally wrong if one feel the need to separate private and professional life simply because one fear to be caught when trashing someone...? This is a personality thing; a normal person doesn't have this need.

The more solid solution to this is not to be mindful of your speech (or writing), even though that's a admirable thing, but to change ones personality (if it's even possible is open for discussion) to the point where you no longer feel the urge to trash others on the internet. I have a huge collection of professional people on my FB page, I don't have the same problem as you do.

And to answer the original question; yes, I have fired one person for being a little to open minded on FB. In this case, he did exactly what you mentioned in your post. He "trashed" a customer, but the customer happened to be a friend of a friend and saw the whole thing. So you are correct, you never know when it will come back to bite you.

Ohhh, look at you.

Is it difficult being perfect?

Not really. I would say the urge to "trash" others on FB is a non-feature that applies to the majority of people. It's called "being normal".

[Forethat]

yet on here you are an utter prat.

well, you now what they say "everybody love's the one who points out when they are utter wrong and post lies, incomplete and otherwise incorrect information. If that is what is being referred to as being a prat (I reckon you meant "Pratt", but failed to spell it correctly) I guess you're spot on!

Edited November 14, 2010 by Forethat

[davidabraham]

I am the new user for this forum. but there is good topic to be discussed. there are many social sites are seeing but they all are not related advertisement and live chat. Face book is the One way where you can promote your websites, pages, chats, sharing notes.

David

[Tonto21]

No plans to start an account and can't stand the need for people to inform the world what they are doing.

i.e. 'just got up, took a crap and washed my hands. 6 people like this'.

And anyone who posts the kind of stuff that got this woman fired deserve to get fired the buffoon.

You need to create an account and try it for yourself before you bash it. I hated it to once, but with all my friends spread around the world I can't imagine life without it now.

I agree, I knocked the whole idea for a long time, my daughter kept giving grief about staying in touch. She kept sending an invite to join. So I did about 2 years ago. It's only as good as you make it, I've got mine locked down. I'm very selective who I allow on, and have no problem just cutting people adrift if they just don't respond to any mail, or....sorry, but keep sending crap to me.

I still find it very useful, but the day it starts taking me over....Sack it!

[nocturn]

To be honest, I would rather be on Facebook than TV. At least there i have vague hope of communicating with someone i have common interests.

[SomTumTiger]

People who are idiots are going to be idiots, regardless of the medium of expression. Before facebook, they were leaving bags of flaming dog shit on your lawn. Now they are doing it virtually.

[jonnyscot]

I recieved my new contract of employment a couple months back and it roughly states that no employee shall use any social networking site to either disclose company issues or make comments that may harm the profile of the company, doing so may result in written warning and/or dismissal, I've never noticed this before on my contract

,,,,,,, sent annonymously

[CheGuava]

I think a big point of debate in such cases is that the remarks are not overly malicious and no different from what people might say at a bar when having a Friday afternoon beer after work. Then some companies overreact and make trouble for an employee who was venting a bit on a site that is (mostly) *NOT* public but only shared among friends.

It's the blurry line between public and private that makes Facebook such an odd fish, both to users and to companies.

Think about it, there are very few cases where someone is deliberately slandering (or outing legitimate issues) on Facebook; after all it's much better to do that anonymously and then truly out on the entire internet.

So.. Sometimes the employee is being silly in using Facebook but just as often the company is being more silly in stifling common human emotions. Ultimately that may very well backfire to the company, too.