Although recent media focus has brought the issue of facebook, employers and privacy to the front page, most of us have known for a long time that employers (or potential employers) make it routine to check out (or even monitor) facebook profiles of employees or job candidates.
Facebook will continue to warn employers against employing this policy and politicians will condemn the practice. They may even pass a law or two against it (then use the publicity to raise campaign cash).
Is it intrusive? Yes. Is it ethical? Probably not. Is it going to go away anytime soon? Not likely.
Even if they make it illegal for employers to ask candidates/employees for their username and passwords, there is still won’t stop the problem.
My Experiences:
An agency I worked at had a big-name client that insisted being “friended” by every employee in our company. Many of the employees in turn created “fake” Facebook profiles. They used those to “friend” the client.
I once worked with a creative director who was looking to hire a junior art director. The way he would weed out candidates was if he liked a designer’s work, he’d then look them up on facebook and look around their profile before committing to interview them.
I remember being surprised at how many people (like myself) didn’t bother with their privacy settings.
I was in my local pet store and noticed the girl usually behind the counter wasn’t there like she always was on Saturday afternoons. I didn’t think much of it until another customer came in and asked where she was. The kid behind the counter explained that the girl posted a derogatory statement about the manager on facebook and the manager found it (or found out about it).
Some companies, particularly in the financial industry, don’t allow employees (at any level) to access facebook from their offices.
Possible Solutions
- Set up a professional facebook profile using a separate email account that employers can look at.
- Take down your facebook account before you start job hunting
- Keep it clean. Remove any material you think may show you in a bad light (pictures of you getting drunk, too sexy, etc.) and try not to post anything controversial (ie. anti-religious, political, etc.)
This goes for other social media as well. I know a guy in his 20s who posts youtube videos called “Drunk Movie Reviews.” It might seem like a funny thing to do (and some of it is), but is that really the kind of thing you would want a potential employer to be seeing online about you?
