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I tried to post this yesterday when I was having some computer problems. I can't find my post by searching, but forgive me if I'm double posting.

 

My boss was talking about how I was chosen for this job. The selection process was down to me and a younger woman. As part of his decision making, my boss checked our names on Facebook. He couldn't find me (I have a very low key presence under a pseudonym) but the other woman's page contained graphic descriptions of her spending every weekend falling over drunk in the gutter.

 

It's not that my boss is puritanical - he drinks and undoubtedly has been drunk in his time - but he wanted an employee who had some common sense. Getting in that state and then telling the world all about it didn't strike him as showing the kind of discretion and responsibility that he was looking for. I got the job.

 

Tell your children....

 

Laura

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

If I want to get drunk on Friday night so what. If I can pull myself together and never bring it to the office then so what.

 

What's next?

 

I mean if you have some high profile job, sure you don't want to make an *ss of yourself all around town. But really I wouldn't want an employer checking up on me in my personal time.

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

If I want to get drunk on Friday night so what. If I can pull myself together and never bring it to the office then so what.

 

What's next?

 

I mean if you have some high profile job, sure you don't want to make an *ss of yourself all around town. But really I wouldn't want an employer checking up on me in my personal time.

 

BUT...would you post it on Facebook??? AND, if you did post it, wouldn't you have your privacy settings on high??

 

If you (plural, not personal) hang your bloomers on the line....everyone will see them...that is not an invasion of privacy...that is stupidity.

 

Faithe

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

If I want to get drunk on Friday night so what. If I can pull myself together and never bring it to the office then so what.

 

What's next?

 

He wasn't objecting to her drinking - he decided that her Facebook habits showed a lack of discretion and might be a clue to her character.

 

Laura

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BUT...would you post it on Facebook??? AND, if you did post it, wouldn't you have your privacy settings on high??

 

If you (plural, not personal) hang your bloomers on the line....everyone will see them...that is not an invasion of privacy...that is stupidity.

 

Faithe

 

 

:iagree:

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

If I want to get drunk on Friday night so what. If I can pull myself together and never bring it to the office then so what.

 

What's next?

 

I mean if you have some high profile job, sure you don't want to make an *ss of yourself all around town. But really I wouldn't want an employer checking up on me in my personal time.

 

It's not personal privacy if it's online.

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BUT...would you post it on Facebook??? AND, if you did post it, wouldn't you have your privacy settings on high??

 

If you (plural, not personal) hang your bloomers on the line....everyone will see them...that is not an invasion of privacy...that is stupidity.

 

Faithe

 

:iagree:

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

But if you're posting about it on your Facebook account and you don't have your privacy settings on high, then your boss is not infringing on your personal privacy. Your boss is just typing your name in the box and seeing what you're choosing to share with the world.

 

Jobs are scarce and it's harder and harder to fire someone, even for just cause, in our litigious society. If I were hiring someone, I would want to find out as much as I could about him or her before I made the commitment.

 

Is it any different than googling your child's tutor or martial arts instructor or babysitter?

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

If I want to get drunk on Friday night so what. If I can pull myself together and never bring it to the office then so what.

.

 

But bragging publicly about it?

Sure, the employee has the right to drink and get drunk. But if somebody feels the need to post about it for the world to see, that is an indication about this person's judgment.

 

The employer should not have the right to see my private facebook posts that I post for my friends and should not be allowed to demand my password - but if I post it public, he is entitled to reading it. (And if she wanted to not post it publicly, but was too stupid to figure out the privacy settings, I can see why he would not want to hire her either)

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

If I want to get drunk on Friday night so what. If I can pull myself together and never bring it to the office then so what.

 

What's next?

 

I mean if you have some high profile job, sure you don't want to make an *ss of yourself all around town. But really I wouldn't want an employer checking up on me in my personal time.

Well, I think that's just it: employers would like to think you have the good sense to not broadcast your "personal" life in public. And when you post something on the internet, it is absolutely no longer your "personal life" but worldwide public information.

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I don't think this is unusual. DH is doing the hiring for his company right now (I have posted about the agony of this before!), and he has done quick google searches for some of the applicants. He does not generally look at someone's facebook page, but if a quick google search pulls up unsavory info, it definitely plays into his decision making process. He tries to be very careful about this, though, as we're not clear on the legalities of this. It feels like a muddy area (anyone who can shed light on this, please do).

 

One applicant had a webpage with *very* odd monologues posted, obviously in his (messy) home, and clearly expressing some strange, extreme ideas. That was a red flag that this candidate would likely not put up a good front with clients.

 

Another candidate had an arrest history that raised a lot of eyebrows. No convictions, as it was very fresh, but it shed light on the candidate's reason for desperately trying to relocate to another state.

 

Neither of these candidates were well qualified for the jobs, so it really made no difference to the hiring process, but I could see it tipping the balance between two similarly qualified candidates.

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Also true story. I was looking for a therapist to work with my daughter. I came across one with excellent qualifications (though she was young and had little true experience). Her cost for parents was $80 per hour. Her cost for the school would be $1,000 a day. (Her fees are typical of her qualifications).

 

I was considering and had decided to set up an interview with her. I googled her name (since therapists usually have volunteer work and such - it gives me an indication of their personality).

 

I found her myspace account which showed her in very skimpy clothing (she was very large busted) along with comments about how she dressed the way she did to get big tips when she worked and free drinks at the bar. Her comments about grad school included the fact that she was hungover for her morning classes and had pic after pic of a bathtub full of ice and beer.

 

I didn't hire her and neither did our school system. I thought she lacked good judgment and saw nothing about volunteer work or concern for children. She even publicly stated that she entered the field for the "dollahs".

 

She's welcome to post what she wants online. I'm welcome to hire the person I want to hire.

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That's why my profile is set to be so private that all anyone (other than my friends) sees when they look at my profile is just my name, and nothing else about me, and I always use a non-descript profile picture (not a picture of me) so that if someone tries to search for me in FB they don't know if it is me or not. If you try to google me, nothing shows up. ;)

 

If you go to your profile, you can click a button and you can see what your profile looks to the public, and make adjustments as necessary to make it more private. When I was doing mine, one thing showed up...the date we added our cat to our family. LOL I went back and changed that to be private.

Edited by somo_chickenlady
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He wasn't objecting to her drinking - he decided that her Facebook habits showed a lack of discretion and might be a clue to her character.

 

Laura

 

I would feel the same way. Your down time is your down time, but if you have no discretion and make a regular fool of yourself and openly share it/brag about it I would not want you as an employee either. I would not want someone who had no discretion in the office making a fool out of the company name kwim.

 

If you don't want people in your private life, don't post about it on facebook. And if you want to share with like minded friends than have your privacy settings such that only those likeminded friends can see your posts on your page.

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Noone I am friends with is on Facebook with public settings. Mine are private but even if they weren't, I don't wear skimpy clothing, get drunk, express strange opinions or anything. I wouldn't want employers reading because for all I know, they may not like my hobbies (totally innocent but you never know who hates gardeners:lol:) or somebody might not like my political party or my denomination or whatever.

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If you (plural, not personal) hang your bloomers on the line....everyone will see them...that is not an invasion of privacy...that is stupidity.

 

Exactly. It's not some kind of protected right to have Facebook at all. And, if you do choose to participate in the service AND choose to get falling-down drunk every weekend AND choose to post about it AND choose not to lock down your privacy settings . . . that is hardly the fault of a potential employer.

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WHo posts on FB publicly? :confused:

 

I must be clueless because I thought you had to be friends with someone.

 

Unless you set your privacy settings specifically that only friends can see your profile EVERYONE can see it. The default is a public profile. I know many people who have and still have public profiles.

 

I have 1 friend that her profile is semi private, meaning friends and friends of friends can see and post on it. But she has it set that anyone can subscribe to her page so you do not have to be a friend to see everything she posts. Until last week I didn't even know about that setting until strange men started subscribing to my page. That feature is now gone on my page. So anyone can see your page even if you have it set to friends only by subscribing rather than friending you. Anyway back to that friend. Her whole page is about intactivism, and anti vax. If I post to her page my family etc can see those posts and reply as well. I have been told by family members that they would not hire someone who had a page like that because they come across as a fanatical nut job even if they would be hard workers, and nice people, no one wants to hire kooky people.

 

So yeah even if you think your page is protected it may not be depending on what features you have turned on. And if ou use it to post about your wild weekends, or fanatical tirades it can cost you a good job.

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Well huh. I didn't know you could actually do that. It seems so stupid I don't know why anyone would.

 

I have heard of companies demanding to see your FB and I thought that's what you meant. THAT is horrible IMO. But no one has to agree with it. I just like my privacy. But yeah, making it public is odd.

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Another word of caution, I took a sociology class last year in college, and the professor told our class that he took another class of his on a "field trip" to local police department, and the officer who did the hiring, mentioned that as part of the interview process, they require the candidate to provide their log-on credentials for their Facebook.

 

Another time, this same professor, mentioned he has spoken to employers who would simply just hack Facebook to get the desired information.

 

Nothing on the internet is safe. Particularly on Facebook. I refused to "friend" any co-workers or supervisors when I worked before, and I would certainly continue the same practices...

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The other side of this coin:

 

My friend is the assistant to a top CEO in a financial company/bank (I can't remember who she works for). We were talking about something similar like this. However she also said that if you have no social media presence out there, you are considered too old.

 

My CV mentions my IT background, including my moderating experience.

 

Laura

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The other side of this coin:

 

My friend is the assistant to a top CEO in a financial company/bank (I can't remember who she works for). We were talking about something similar like this. However she also said that if you have no social media presence out there, you are considered too old.

 

It becomes about being responsible in what you post and realizing what you put out there on facebook is no different than what you put out there walking down the street or into a business.

 

I tell my kids that everything they do will either polish or tarnish your name, whether irl or online, be mindful of what you post, and the company you keep because you will be judged for it just as much as you will be judged for what you say and do in person.

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WHo posts on FB publicly? :confused:

 

I must be clueless because I thought you had to be friends with someone.

 

It depends on how you set up and use your account.

 

It's a little tougher to find nowadays, but you can set your account so that all of your posts, by default, can be seen by everyone or just by your friends. You can also block specific people from seeing your account at all. And every single time you post a new status, you have the option of limiting who sees it . . . or not.

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Unfortunately, this new tactic of checking up on people online can backfire. My abusive xh has created NUMEROUS fake profiles in both my name and my dh's name, on FB and other sites. He steals real photos whenever he can, and he knows just enough info to make it look real.

 

I seriously worry about what will happen to me if I'm looking for a job where they check up on me online. Will I have to disclose that I was married to an abusive, emotionally disturbed man for the rest of my life?!? :( I worry enough that some of our girl scout parents will google me for whatever reason and find this stuff.

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Yeah, I don't see facebook as being a private place. It's more like putting a sign out in your front yard.

 

I was very hesitant to use facebook, and now I am on there with a pseudonym. My brother posted some personal stuff (nothing gross, just family stuff) and I asked him to make it more private (friends only) as I didn't want all of my (11) friends to see it.

 

I am very careful about what I post, and therefore my facebook personality tends to be extremely drab.

 

But what about being tagged in someone else's photos? I'm not sure how that works - whether I could control the privacy settings on those.

 

But yeah, people should have enough sense not to let it all hang out if they don't want everyone to see it.

Edited by SKL
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WHo posts on FB publicly? :confused:

 

I must be clueless because I thought you had to be friends with someone.

 

Tons of people actually.

 

I'm am always checking out friends of friends to see and even people from high school that I don't really want to friend but would like to see pics of. So many people have there stuff public. I'm always amazed at people who will have their posts set as private, but there pictures are all available for me to snoop through.

 

I find more out about people I barely know this way.

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Another word of caution, I took a sociology class last year in college, and the professor told our class that he took another class of his on a "field trip" to local police department, and the officer who did the hiring, mentioned that as part of the interview process, they require the candidate to provide their log-on credentials for their Facebook.

 

Another time, this same professor, mentioned he has spoken to employers who would simply just hack Facebook to get the desired information.

 

Nothing on the internet is safe. Particularly on Facebook. I refused to "friend" any co-workers or supervisors when I worked before, and I would certainly continue the same practices...

 

I know of a man who was applying to work in the jail of our local police department. During the interview process, they brought him to a computer and asked him to log into his Facebook page. So even if he'd set his profile to private, they interviewer could still see it. It also doesn't give the interviewee a chance to clean up his profile first.

 

Personally, I find this an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, it is probably a very effective way to screen out people with poor judgement.

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I think it SUCKS that employers can infringe on your personal privacy.

 

If I want to get drunk on Friday night so what. If I can pull myself together and never bring it to the office then so what.

 

What's next?

 

I mean if you have some high profile job, sure you don't want to make an *ss of yourself all around town. But really I wouldn't want an employer checking up on me in my personal time.

 

 

And you show up at work with alcohol on your breath (even from the night before and aren't even actually drunk), you will be fired on the spot. No matter what you think, getting drunk and working do not mix.

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Not only warn your children of this, warn your husbands! I see some of my friends DH's post some political/social/ect stuff all the time on FB. It's just not smart, you may have an HR person in the future who can see your "likes" or even your page and disagree with you.

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And you show up at work with alcohol on your breath (even from the night before and aren't even actually drunk), you will be fired on the spot. No matter what you think, getting drunk and working do not mix.

 

Where did I say anything about showing up with alcohol on your breathe :confused::confused:

 

I don't think you read anything I followed up with

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Yeah, I don't see facebook as being a private place. It's more like putting a sign out in your front yard.

 

I was very hesitant to use facebook, and now I am on there with a pseudonym. My brother posted some personal stuff (nothing gross, just family stuff) and I asked him to make it more private (friends only) as I didn't want all of my (11) friends to see it.

 

I am very careful about what I post, and therefore my facebook personality tends to be extremely drab.

 

But what about being tagged in someone else's photos? I'm not sure how that works - whether I could control the privacy settings on those.

 

But yeah, people should have enough sense not to let it all hang out if they don't want everyone to see it.

 

Under Privacy Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and click on "edit settings." You can turn on the review feature so that anytime you're tagged in a post, you get to look at it and decide whether or not it shows up in your timeline. You can also turn off the feature that suggests your name in tags when people upload photos.

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I know of a man who was applying to work in the jail of our local police department. During the interview process, they brought him to a computer and asked him to log into his Facebook page. So even if he'd set his profile to private, they interviewer could still see it. It also doesn't give the interviewee a chance to clean up his profile first.

 

Personally, I find this an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, it is probably a very effective way to screen out people with poor judgement.

 

:iagree: I think it is ridiculous that people make choices about who to hire etc based on facebook. Where would that end? Would you refuse to hire someone with a different political opinion than you? religious opinion? sexual orientation? And so on and so forth. Checking people online makes it very easy (too easy) for people to discriminate based on their personal likes and dislikes.

 

No matter how you spin it it is a violation of a person's right to refuse them employment etc on grounds of those issues. Who's to say that what the person posted on FB about her parting was terrible or over the line? That is a very subjective decision on the boss's part. Where one person would not be bothered by an indication that someone goes out on the weekend, another may be bothered.

 

I do believe that it is a violation of privacy. We have privacy settings on this forum, on blogs, and on twitter and Facebook because people need to respect other people's right to speech. Posting online is in the realm of freedom of speech.

 

Great that the OP got a job, but the other person may have been just as qualified regardless of what she chose to share online.

 

I also think it is wrong that police would force anyone to log onto a Facebook account. Again "poor judgement" would be very subjective under those circumstances.

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It becomes about being responsible in what you post and realizing what you put out there on facebook is no different than what you put out there walking down the street or into a business.

 

I tell my kids that everything they do will either polish or tarnish your name, whether irl or online, be mindful of what you post, and the company you keep because you will be judged for it just as much as you will be judged for what you say and do in person.

 

My CV mentions my IT background, including my moderating experience.

 

Laura

 

Okay I'm not sure how either of these are responses to my post.

 

I'm saying companies are using the social media to determine if you are too old and out of the loop for them to want to deal with.

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I have never been able to view anyone's personal posts unless I am friends with them. All you see is a basic page with their name, their profile picture, a few things telling about them (sex, where they live, where they went to school, etc).

 

Somebody probably mentioned this; but if this is so, it is because everyone you've tried has had their privacy settings set like that. Mine is open because I don't have anyone friended and the page is really set up for me to have one at all and for my children's birth parents to have contact with me if they wish (only the father wishes). I post a few pics and other random stuff (the drowning thing, that we bought the Magic Schoolbus set, etc). If I used facebook otherwise (had anyone friended, put information I don't care to be public, etc), I would have stricter privacy settings.

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Who's to say that what the person posted on FB about her parting was terrible or over the line? That is a very subjective decision on the boss's part. Where one person would not be bothered by an indication that someone goes out on the weekend, another may be bothered.

 

He felt that posting about it in this way (photographs of her lying in the gutter, etc.) showed poor judgement. As I said, he drinks and (I suspect) drinks hard. He has to think, however, about the company's image. If someone is that indiscreet then that could affect the company.

 

Hiring a person is subjective. It's bound to be. This is a three-person office - do you think he didn't exclude others during the process because he just didn't feel that he wanted to spend time with them?

 

Laura

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He felt that posting about it in this way (photographs of her lying in the gutter, etc.) showed poor judgement. As I said, he drinks and (I suspect) drinks hard. He has to think, however, about the company's image. If someone is that indiscreet then that could affect the company.

 

Hiring a person is subjective. It's bound to be. This is a three-person office - do you think he didn't exclude others during the process because he just didn't feel that he wanted to spend time with them?

 

Laura

 

Regardless of your personal situation with your employment, I still do NOT agree with online profiling when making decisions about other people.

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