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Save The Personality And Sass For Happy Hour Not Your Boss

bossy-woman

Houston, we might have another Cisco Fatty on our hands!

I belong to a few online/email groups and came across an email from a young lady who’d gotten into some hot water because she tweeted about a potential job offer after snagging and acing the interview.

One problem.

She tweeted the company’s name and possibly that the person in the current position might be getting fired.

Yes, she said all of this on Twitter.  

Ouch.  *shudder*

Imagine her surprise when she got an email from the HR manager telling stating she was bothered by the applicant’s decision to tweet company information in Twitter.

First, if you know me then you know that I think companies are going a bit too far with checking on applicants using social networking sites like twitter and Facebook.

My second question was why did she tweet company businesses out to the Twitasphere like that?  I know we all have moments like these but I think what took me for a loop was the applicant’s intended response which in mine and other’s opinions was most unapologetic, and sounding like she was starving for a piece of humble pie.  

Having been out of work for close to a year, she needed this job to work out.  But she wanted to tell this HR manager that she had no contract with them for emplyment and did not plan to tone down her personality to suit them especially when she tweeted about the situation due to her excitement about the position, not because she had any ill intent in disclosing the good news (for her) albeit, company business.

Well, considering that they were planning to fire someone in order to vacate the position for her, that’s where things get sticky.  Any number of legal scenarios coud come up and Im sure this company just wanted to make sure they dotted all their Is and crossed all Ts before moving forward.

In the end she acquiesced and wrote a letter explaining that she was just so excited about the position and didnt think about the consequences of tweeting such sensitive information.

But let this be a lesson to all of you quarter lifers and even you social media types, save your personalty and sass for happy hour and get on the straight and narrow when it comes to your day job.

Here are a few tips to avoid the above situation:

  1. Use a separate email account for Twitter and Facebook, this is how your boss and other superiors will find you
  2. Remove your profile from public search results on Facebook
  3. Remove your picture from Facebook search results and don’t enable your profile to be tagged on Facebook
  4. Don’t put your picture on Twitter if you really want to Tweet with wreck-less abandon
  5. Don’t put any personally identifiable information about yourself on Twitter
  6. Don’t Tweet about your day job, EVAR. Period. End of story. Leaveitalone!
  7. Dont share information you aren’t comfy with your mother or boss knowing.  Twitter is a bit more open than Facebook unless your profile is locked/protected.  Say something RT worthy and watch is spread like swine flu
Take heed youngins!
  • Mosis16

    It's entirely possible that the company wasn't monitoring her specifically, but monitoring all of Twitter for mention of their company name. That's how PR departments are able to get to the person who says "Company X just ripped me off – don't buy there!!!" and make remunerations to stem negative publicity, and possibly generate some good publicity. This is just good business sense.

  • http://7waystomakeyourbosshappy.blogspot.com/ Make ur boss happy

    Companies shouldn't be checking social network sites…But if you suspect that they are then be careful what you post on your profile, especially if your personal information and photo is displayed. It was completely harmless for her to have posted about her interview… Not much people would take much consideration on focusing on her tweet anyways…

  • Sara

    It is so easy to find people these days on the internet. I think she was very foolish to mention the company name in her internet communications. I use a friends only livejournal and still don't mention the name of my company in it.

  • http://www.debtreliefexchange.com/ Joe

    Never tweet office matters.

  • http://wealthisgood.blogspot.com Meg

    In general I don't think it's a big deal this girl twittered about her interview and possible job offer on Twitter. First of all, unless she's famous odds are no one is reading her tweets except a few family members and friends – with whom she would presumably share the info anyway. She probably should have been less open about the fact that she suspected another person would be fired to make a position for her, but if the company is going to go around telling applicants that somebody is getting fired for their position, they can't be that upset if the news slips out. I assume they have cause to fire the old person with or without some potential new applicant spreading the word around.

  • http://www.mapgirl.net/mfc mapgirl

    I think the HR manager was perfectly within their rights to check out the person on social networking sites. Discretion matters. If this potential employee is going to blab about their interview without even bothering to veil the identity of her employer, what will she do with privileged, material information? I wouldn't want her working at the NSA, CIA or DoD, but perhaps I am very wary of outsized personalities and company secrets because I work in DC for federal clients and I have also worked in accounting for a publicly traded firm.

  • http://www.yieldingwealth.com Miranda

    I agree that companies might be going too far by snooping on social media sites. But, at the same time, they do want to know who you REALLY are. When I Tweet about a client, I don't identify that client. And I try to keep things (mostly) professional on my social media outlets. As a professional blogger, I don't like to be anonymous. I need people to find me :) I guess it just depends on the job you have.