Seductive photos on Facebook cause problems at work

Should you be able to post whatever you want on your personal Facebook page? That's turning out to be a VERY loaded question. Some employers strongly believe what you post on Facebook (or any other social network) reflects on you as an employee. I think they're right.

The latest controversy hit City Hall in Sunrise, Florida. Sarah Hannah, the assistant city manager, has attracted some attention after posting boudoir photos of herself on Facebook. A city spokeswomen had this to say in an article in the SunSentinel: "Unless someone's activities involved their position with the city, we consider it to be a personal matter. It's not something we care to comment on."

Officially, the city has no policy guidelines on what employees can post online. Of course, after the existence of the photos were made public, it appears Sarah Hannah did some damage control. The images were no longer available to the general public. Newly-elected Mayor Mike Ryan said he was not too concerned. "We have bigger issues in our city to worry about."

Most employers have huge financial and management concerns, much more pressing issues than what their workerbees are doing on Facebook. But there is some reason for their concern. I recently spoke to an advertising agency owner. Her account executive have agency clients as Facebook friends. Recently, she sat her staff down for a talk. Some of her staff were posting Facebook status updates such as "Had a blast at Joe's Bar last night. 5 for 1 beer" or "Headed to Capital Grille for steak and cocktails."  Clearly, that's not very comforting to a client waiting for his new ad campaign to be completed.

Where has common sense gone in this digital age?  Whatever you do for a living, use some discretion before putting up pictures on Facebook that might cause embarrassment. We all know by now that regardless of privacy settings, posting on line is like sharing with the world. Do you think people forget that or is it that they don't care? Should you be reprimanded at work for what you post on your personal Facebook page, or do you feel it's off limits?

 

 

 

Comments

[LadyBug]

It depends on the position, the level of one's visibility in the workplace, and how much is being exposed via Facebook, Twitter, etc. Just like dress code and other behavioral policies, employers should address social media usage along with the other topics during orientation. Although things like this are common sense, some people need to be reminded that discretion is key when it comes to social media.

[I am Spartacus]

my company recently announced that we are not permitted to mention where we work on social or professional networking sites.
Yet they want us to be proud of where we work.......just dont mention it? Obviously corporations dont know yet how to deal with the new age of networking and socializing.

There is the thought of if your to control my personal life 24/7 I should be duly compensated for this.

You cant treat your low paid hourly workers in the same fashion with the same expectations as your executive management team. Corporations need to figure this out and determine your expectation of the non-exec employee and what their dictated silence is worth.

[Cindy Goodman]

You bring up a great point. Should hourly workers be held to the same standards on social media sites as executives? That's worthy of debate. I say executives should be held to higher standards but it depends on whether a lower paid worker are publicly and loudly representing your company on professional social networking sites.