I’ve got all my work people walled off in their own group on FB. Things that go out to everyone, go out to everyone. Things I’m going to post that I don’t need work people to know about, which is pretty rare, I just exclude the whole group.
I do not send friend requests to co-workers, nor do I accept requests from co-workers. When a co-worker leaves the company and it is someone I want to stay in touch with then they get added to FB.
As for my own personal use of social media I cannot say I am completely sanitized there but I am relatively risk free. At my age, martial status, and being a father it isn’t like I would be posting/sharing “hot babe” photos or anything of a particular NSFW variety. In the past I’ve used social media to post/share political commentary but over the last few years I’ve mostly stopped that as well. I may like a political post of a friend but I normally would not share it to my own timeline. I lost one of my oldest friends over political arguments on FB a few years ago which is what prompted me to stop. A hard lesson to learn. So I don’t think there is anything that would really get me in trouble professionally outside of the occasional generic work rant.
For any professional friends or acquaintances I use LinkedIn and am safe there as I rarely actually post or share anything on LinkedIn. I’m like the worst LinkedIn user ever. Haha!
You’ve obviously have never borne the brunt of being the subject of office gossip. Filtering is merely a way of heading off such. Not that I lead a gossip-worthy personal life (I don’t), but you can never be sure who will twist something around to your detriment.
Not unless they are arguing about “most handsome manager”.
Generally depends on your job and how big of a company you work for.
But for the most part, YES.
I had FB friends from my job at the call center, because really, who cared? I just didn’t friend anyone in management. The people who did generally came to regret it, as I have two friends who were disciplined over things they said on FB. (Complaining about a client, I believe)
At my current job, I don’t accept or make friends requests of my co-workers.
I am facebook friends with a couple of people from my work - some still working with me and some who no longer work for the company. Facebook is a pretty filtered view of my life - mostly pictures of my dogs, shared stuff I find amusing, and posts about the positive events in my life. Not always entirely safe for work, but mostly.
I don’t add people to Facebook who I don’t feel like I can say whatever I want with. So I don’t add co-workers unless we’re friends outside of the office.
But it’s not even that. I had one of my coworkers take selfies of himself in the bathroom and post them to facebook. Since we were friends (this was a long time ago…and actually Myspace now that I think about it), it was pretty clear he was just hanging out in the bathroom to slack off. That’s one of those ‘don’t friend the manager’ situations.
What made me initially block my coworkers was when they posted photos of themselves in and around our workspace or they mentioned our employer by name (I don’t divulge who I work for on FB nor do I talk about what I do). When I was confronted as to why I’d unfollowed them, I mentioned this. The fact that they saw nothing wrong with it nearly knocked me over.
Our company has since been sold, and our new owners have a social media department. If you mention the company anywhere on social media, good or bad, the department will first flag you then monitor you. As a result none of my coworkers are posting anything save the occasional meme.
That reminds me: I had one less than brilliant coworker that called into work one day. He then proceeded to post pictures of himself drinking and having a good ol’ time at a party.
Nothing wrong with playing hooky every once in a great while. But it’s probably not a goop idea to post pics of yourself on FB when you do. Especially if you happen to be FB friends with your boss.
I’m not FB friends with many current coworkers, but I’m not against the idea and if one of them friended me I’d probably accept. But I post there as if anything I say could be accessed by anyone. Effectively this means pictures and comments about my kids being cute or pretty scenery from a hike. Most people wouldn’t care, but family likes to see that sort of thing.
My posts here are also circumspect, although not to the same degree. I don’t think I’ve said anything here that I’d be uncomfortable saying in real life. I’d prefer not to be outed with my real life identity, but wouldn’t consider it the worst thing ever if it happened. I don’t believe I have any meaningful distinction between my online and real life personas.
FB for me is mainly a cheap & easy way of touching base with family overseas and for sending out a general ‘all clear’ notice whenever a major earthquake hits. I’m friended with work contacts, and I know that it’s something a potential employer will check out, so I keep it politically neutral and work-safe. The drunken ranting and naked live feeds are kept to the accounts that don’t use a real name.
I did have one co-worker who claimed he was home sick for a week, but forgot he’d friended us when he started posting beach party photos.
I said “it depends”. While I worked at Blockbuster, I was Facebook friends with several of my co-workers, and I didn’t particularly have a problem being myself. (Which doesn’t mean half-naked ladies, anyway). But then, that’s a retail job. If I were working at an office, or for a law group or something like that, I’d be far more careful and guarded.
I avoid the question by avoiding Facebook for the most part; I have one of the most dull and rarely visited Facebooks identities out there. But I would avoid posting anything that I would not feel safe saying/sharing at work/church/family gathering/out in public. I’ve heard all the drama from friends and co-workers that started over some Facebook post and I just don’t need that in my life.
I largely avoid the issue by
a) not friending current colleagues on FB, and
b) not posting stupid bite-me-in-the-ass stuff anyway,
The first was challenged a couple months ago - I was on-site working with some of the project’s management, and the project manager ( whom I’ve known for years, and genuinely like) looked me up on FB while I was in the room, mentioned she’d found me, and sent me a friend request while saying right out loud that she was doing so. :smack:
So I was faced with not being able to plausibly deny noticing it (as I’m truly not that active on FB), and risking offending her by rejecting it.
I asked around, and per some people’s suggestions put her in a group that doesn’t see most of the little bit I do post.
A cautionary tale: Typo Knig had a colleague who was “sick”. A lot. Until the day she phoned in dead… then later that same day posted about having had a really great run that afternoon. Her team lead saw this and was about as pleased as you’d imagine. She didn’t get fired just over that but she wasn’t there much longer.
I use Linked In for my real name and for work people. My Facebook is in another name and nobody on my friends list from work or relatives. I’m very cautious about what I put online in my real name. Practically nothing besides my résumé.
Exactly this.
My previous job (at a cafe chain) actually used to put up the week’s timetables on Facebook, not in store. If you wanted to swap shifts with someone you weren’t going to work with before, Facebook bleedin’ messages was the only way, so everyone had to friend everyone, and actually communicate on it.
One of the most irritating things about it was that, because you were regularly messaging these people, and checking the group you were all members of, the Facebook algorithm assumed you were actually friends, so priotised co-workers’ posts over stuff actual friends posted.
I rarely post on there much, but I do use it to keep up with friends, especially overseas friends, not people I don’t really like and I’ll see tomorrow anyway.