Why you shouldn’t add your boss as a Facebook friend
By Dave Parrack
It’s easy to lose track of who you’ve added as a friend on Facebook or any of the other numerous social networking sites on the Web. This normally doesn’t matter too much but when you’ve friended your boss and then criticize them in the harshest terms it can quickly become a problem.
Social media can be used to acquire gainful employment in this Internet-obsessed age. If you find yourself unemployed then you may be able to get a job simply by knowing the right people. Or you could even find a company actively seeking employees on your favorite social networking site, although asking for applications via text message is a pretty rare move.
However, the flip side of this trend is causing people to lose their jobs. In February, a 16-year-old girl in her first job was fired after making comments about how simple and boring her job was. Despite not mentioning the name of the company, she was hauled into her boss’s office and let go over the comments. In March, a prison officer was caught befriending criminals through his Facebook profile and was consequently dismissed from his job for gross misconduct.
Now, Applicant brings news of another case where Facebook activity has lead to someone losing their job. An unnamed female updated her Facebook profile with a rant about her boss, calling him a “pervvy [sic] wanker” who is “always making me do shit stuff just to piss me off!” Although that may be a fair assessment of the boss in question, the girl gave this opinion after obviously forgetting she had added her boss as a friend.
The boss responded by admitting he was gay, which clearly means he’s less likely to display pervy behavior towards a female. He then went on to remind the girl she hadn’t quite completed her six-month probation before firing her on the spot. Which adds up to quite a bad day at the office by anyone’s standards.
There’s an important lesson here for everyone: be careful who you add as a friend on social networks and be careful what you say on them too. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter et al work by connecting us all together. But that sometimes means connections are made which you will later come to regret.
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