Should your boss have veto power over your Facebook profile?

Michael Scott would be the most annoying Facebook friend ever. But that's why Facebook invented "Limited Profile."

Social networking profiles are increasingly our faces to the world. That makes some employers a bit nervous. While we might think our obligations to the office end after COB (Close of Business), employers think of us as representing them 24-7. In America, we are what we do, right?

So, is what we put on Facebook and other sites just reflecting on us, or does it reflect on our employers too? We usually name them in the “Education and Work” section of our Facebook Info tab after all. According to a survey of 2,000 people conducted by Deloitte, employers say they have a right to see how we’re presenting ourselves online:

Of the 500 respondents with managerial job titles (vice president, CIO, partner, board member, etc.), 299, or 60%, agreed that businesses have a right to know how employees portray themselves or their companies on sites like Facebook and MySpace.

But 53% of employee respondents said their profiles are none of their employers’ business, and 61% said that they wouldn’t change what they were doing online even if their boss was monitoring their activities.

via Bosses and Workers Disagree on Social Network Privacy – Wall Street Journal.

Well, why do they need to see your Facebook profile? Because they might want to suggest you make changes to it, obviously. And if your boss adds you as a friend on Facebook, it’s socially awkward to to say no. But more than that, I actually like being friends with my bosses on Facebook. I’ve always worked in small offices and have been close enough to the big cheeses in the office that I wanted them as Facebook friends. That’s a whole another post though, about how social networking sites are changing the relationships between the Gen Yers and our 60+-year-old bosses.

Back to the topic at hand. Interestingly, the managers at the newspaper that published this article are among the 60% who want to get up in their employees’ social network business.  The Wall Street Journal sent guidelines around the newsroom earlier this week telling their employees who they can and can’t friend and what they can and can’t tweet.

My True/Slant colleague, Andreaitis, wrote about the WSJ’s draconian “rules of conduct” earlier this week. Check yourself on Twitter before you wreck yourself, says the WSJ. Here are some relevant excerpts:

* Consult your editor before “connecting” to or “friending” any reporting contacts who may need to be treated as confidential sources. Openly “friending” sources is akin to publicly publishing your Rolodex…

* Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter. Common sense should prevail, but if you are in doubt about the appropriateness of a Tweet or posting, discuss it with your editor before sending.

via UPDATED: New ‘WSJ’ Conduct Rules Target Twitter, Facebook.

Andreaitis wrote in response:

Um, really? Does the person who wrote these rules have anything other than a cursory knowledge of Twitter, Facebook and other social media? Did anyone raise a hand and say, “The point’s over here and you’re missing it”?

For an industry that is supposed to support free speech, inquiry, discourse, and — at its core — curiosity, I just don’t get how they don’t get it.

via andreaitis – de.tech.ting – WSJ Rules of Engagement – True/Slant.

Employers having the right to determine the nature of our social interactions, whether in the “real world,” or online through social networking sites, seems pretty absurd. I’m not big into privacy per se. But that’s the kind of private I believe in.

At the same time, employees have to be smart, and not do anything online that might get them fired. Cuz that certainly happens:

Some workers are aware that the wrong comment or photo can come back to haunt them, and 29% said the economy has prompted them to be more careful online. Seven percent said they knew of a co-worker who’d been let go because of “inappropriate behavior online” in the last six months, and 2% said that their Twitter, MySpace or Facebook page had kept them from getting a job.

via Bosses and Workers Disagree on Social Network Privacy – Digits – WSJ.

Remember that little is private in the online world. The big boss may come a-snooping. Or you might just want to friend your boss.

But self-regulation — not an employer’s handbook — should determine what’s on your Facebook page.

And if you and your boss decide to become “friends” online, well, that’s one reason that Facebook invented Limited Profile. Just as you wouldn’t tell your boss the full details of your tequila-soaked week in Cancun, make sure your settings are such that he or she doesn’t have access to the “Crazy Cinco Days in Cancun” Facebook photo album. Or maybe, for the sake of all your Facebook friends, just leave the Crazy behind in Cancun altogether.