“of his downstairs arrangements”

LOL

Work aside,

Social media is public. Clue’s in the name. You have to realise that anything you post can be read by anyone (friends-locked posts aside, allegedly anyway). So how you choose to conduct yourself might later be picked up by a future prospective employer, your wife, your mother, the Daily Mail, a popular cycling forum, national television etc. For this reason alone, it’s a bad idea generally to tell someone to perform an act of auto-fornication.

I see posts from friends / acquaintances quite often that make wonder if they’ve actually thought through what they’re posting. I think we’re currently experiencing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to people getting caught out for saying ill-conceived or plain idiotic things. As social media gets bigger – and it will only get bigger – and as people’s histories get longer, it’s going to be commonplace.

Those videos on the Internet of you dunking your willy in someone’s pint might be hilarious when you’re 19; what happens when you’re a business director on your 40s and they resurface?

As an aside to all of you crying fool to those who use social media under their real name – I understand that it is against FB policy to have an account under a false name (and yes, I have read the ts and cs that was a fun day), and may even be a crime, depending on what you say and do.

This kind of thing must get difficult in academia, where people’s work kinda is their life, their career is based on their personal views to a certain extent.

Though we were talking twitter, and I don’t <connection terminated whilst I go and check twitter T&Cs before I incriminate myself>

I use a pseudonym because I was sick of random followers and friend requests from nobbers I’ve met once, or people I was at primary school with and folk from work who I don’t want knowing my business. The people I care about know who I am. It’s nothing to do with having something to hide.

Is it much different to me, a representative of Silverfish, telling one of you lot on here to F*ck Off?
I wouldn’t say so and if I did I would expect some fairly severe fall out.

Although I have been tempted many times 😉

i never understand why folks use their real names on social media… asking for trouble.

As an aside to all of you crying fool to those who use social media under their real name – I understand that it is against FB policy to have an account under a false name (and yes, I have read the ts and cs that was a fun day), and may even be a crime, depending on what you say and do.

This kind of thing must get difficult in academia, where people’s work kinda is their life, their career is based on their personal views to a certain extent.
This.
I regularly see the pages of a couple of people I work with on Fb, as ‘People you may know’, both in higher supervisory positions to me, there’s no way I’ll link up with either, or even take a look; one is my direct department supervisor, who I like as a person, and get on well with, but we’re not friends, and I keep well clear of any mention of where I work, or what I do on Fb, or Twitter; not difficult as I rarely post on Twitter anyway. I may be many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.
Anyone who posts inflammatory stuff on any social media, about their place of work or colleagues, unless they’re set on committing employment suicide or have a cast-iron escape plan, is a complete ****wit, and fully deserves the shitstorm that descends on them.

Those videos on the Internet of you dunking your willy in someone’s pint might be hilarious when you’re 19; what happens when you’re a business director on your 40s and they resurface?

http://xkcd.com/1370/

I was at a really interesting talk about this at work – I’ll see if I can find a link to the information it was based on.

Essentially it focussed on the number of employers that search social media before employing. It was lots. The most interesting thing was what would prevent you getting employed varied around the world. For example in the States poor behaviour and underage drinking would seriously effect your employment chances even when substantially older. In the UK the single biggest social media turn off for employers was the poor use of english.

Is it much different to me, a representative of Silverfish, telling one of you lot on here to F*ck Off?

But going back to my OP – if he had said this using a business account I would be in no doubt it would be an immediate disciplinary, but it was his *own* account and people should be allowed their own opinion and voice – he hasn’t said anything illegal, just rude (and to one of our peers).

Still undecided on how to deal with this but thank you for all the input so far.

What does your policy say?

There are several cases where people have gone to tribunal to contest dismissal.

The upshot was (from the layer who gave us a talk on this) was that you don’t need to name a company or even say, in your profile, who you work for. There was an example of someone who was dismissed for gross misconduct after ‘slagging off’ someone they worked with (there was a long rant I think, possibly some previous too). The ‘slagger’ didn’t say who they worked for or name the ‘slagee’. However, a large number of here facebook ‘friends’ worked for the company and could easily work out who the comments were directed at. I think the daft bint even had the ‘slagee’ as a facebook ‘friend’, which led to the complaint and ultimate dismissal. The tribunal found in favour of the company and upheld the dismissal. The reason was that it was blindingly obvious what she was talking about and was bringing the company into disrepute, not to mention bullying.

Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with saying you’ve had a crap day, but never go into specifics. Crucial here is always consider how other people could interpret your comments. Someone being terribly upset by something you’ve written has no defence in “well, that’s not how I intended it to sound”.

And remember, if you ain’t sure, it’s probably wiser to just not ‘post’ whatever you were going to say. Deleting afterwards is utterly pointless as others will probably have seen it anyway and the damage is done.

In the UK the single biggest social media turn off for employers was the poor use of english (sic).

See, all those irritating pedants that point out your grammar and spelling errors online are actually doing you a favour.

What does your policy say?

It says action can be taken but it isn’t clear whether or not it relates to using company accounts as opposed to personal ones.

We did not continue employing someone, at least partly because of this issue, when it came to the end of their initial trial period. As much because of what it said about them personally, as much as what they actually said.

It says action can be taken but it isn’t clear whether or not it relates to using company accounts as opposed to personal ones.

Then surely it’s both no?

Essentially it focussed on the number of employers that search social media before employing. It was lots.

And why wouldn’t you? I was googling prospective employees fifteen years ago, even back then it was eye-opening what you’d find. Ar a random example, one young lad had a proto-blog where he was bigging himself up as a master hacker and saying that it was his goal in life to crash big high-profile systems. Sure, we’ll give you a job looking after our server farm.

Still undecided on how to deal with this but thank you for all the input so far.

Is the tweeter a bit young and immature? I think an informal sit-down over a coffee, some advice on how to conduct himself, that there are consequences to all actions (especially stuff you write down on social media) and to have a think about what he’s about to write before actually writing it. Oh, and to man up and apologise to the guy he insulted (though it might be an idea to follow the timeline of the conversation to see what led to the outburst). We’ve all said things we regret at some stage, it’s just that for a lot of us here, they were never recorded electronically for posterity.

He may well thank you for it later in life. Second chances and all that.

I see stuff former work colleagues post on social media all the time. I’m thankful I only “knew” them in a work capacity and didn’t have to be exposed to what they were really thinking every day.

Is the tweeter a bit young and immature?

He has anger issues (that he has accepted himself ). I think a quiet word is the best way forward at this time.

I think a quiet word is the best way forward at this time.

Me too. No point in potentially ruining the guy’s prospects with disciplinary stuff yet.

He has anger issues (that he has accepted himself ).

Fairy nuff…maybe the quiet word will force some introspection on his behalf and change his behaviour in the future. Good on you for not going nuclear too quickly.

english (sic)

Damn you!

No point in potentially ruining the guy’s prospects with disciplinary stuff yet.

That very much depends if anyone complains about it officially really, but he does need to be told to wind his neck in

He has anger issues (that he has accepted himself ). I think a quiet word is the best way forward at this time

well when he tells you to **** off in person at work for interfering with his personal life then maybe then you can fire his ass lol

😆

My work has a policy where if you associate yourself with the company online (Facebbok, Twitter) everything you post or gets posted to your profile can be considered as representing the company.
If you bad mouth the company/collegues/industry (even if you don’t associate yourself with them online as an employer) you are going to get a meeting with HR if they find out..

Realistically if you have a linkedin profile it is likely this people can be linked to a Facebook or Twitter profile so whatever you say can be linked back to where you work…

One of the guy who used to come in to do inspections for us had a love/hate relationship with Facebook. He doesn’t have the ability not to argue especially after a drink. He now has a reputation in his company for this and it has stopped him moving off the shop floor when he would otherwise be one of the Global Region managers.

The guy needs to be told what is acceptable and what is not. It will be better for him and the company in the longer run.

you can bad mouth your work place so long as its true no matter what their policy is.

you can bad mouth your work place so long as its true no matter what their policy is.

Good luck with that.

iolo – Member

Good luck with that.

given that its UK law what exactly are they going to do

Talking of social media faux pas, this was posted by some ambulance chasers. Their Facebook page has an embarrassed apology on it…