Do employees and bosses really want to be “friends”?
10th July 2007 by Julie Freeman, ABC, APR
A new dilemma for employees–what to do when their boss invites them to become a “friend” on a social networking site like Facebook?
As an article in today’s Wall Street Journal describes the dilemma: “You’re caught between the career-limiting rejection of virtual friendship or career-limiting access to photos of yourself glassy-eyed at a party.”
And if an employee does accept the invitation, some strategies he could use to protect his dignity are also problematic. Employing privacy features could be perceived as a snub. And sanitizing the profile could be interpreted as hiding something.
As the article says, it used to be that employees were expected to keep their personal lives and their professional lives separate. When bosses ask their employees to become online friends, they are mixing up the two.
Is that a good idea?
July 12th, 2007 at 12:36 am
It is not a good idea to mix personal and professional lives. The problem is many people have not learned to carry over real-world common-sense, office etiquette, and professional behavior to the Internet.
I suggest that people whose careers can benefit from networking on sites such as Facebook or profession related forums keep a professional persona. As an outlet for fun and more socializing, participate in other website forums and social networking sites–and do not mix the, too. Be careful about how much information (especially personal information) that you provide on the internet, period. Too many people, reveal participation in other websites (IM address, webpages, photo sites) that makes it easy to figure out one’s identity, which renders a screen name useless.
People should designate specific sites and forums for business and others for pleasure or play.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Hi, Julie. Great to see you contributing!! I’ve seen something similar on LinkedIn, where a boss who has actually almost fired a certain person was also one of that person’s recommendations on the LinkedIn site. If someone - at any level - asks you for an endorsement or vote or whatever we want to call requests for recommendation or friendship, it’s almost churlish not to say OK. I wonder if it will lead to people having two personas — a public one for bosses and acquaintences, and a super-private one for true friends only. If so, that’s going to be hard to manage; I can hardly keep straight all my PINS and passwords, much less being a public persona and a private persona at the same time. - Amy
July 26th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I think it really depends on the relationship.
I’d happily be Facebook buddies with my current managers, but I would prefer to be boiled in hydrochloric acid than to have that kind of exposure to one of my more troublesome recent bosses.
Still, I’d hate to see this become some kind of a broad-brush taboo like office dating has become in some circles.
Mike Klein
The Hague, NL