Mar 9, 2009 11:00 pm US/Eastern
Friending The Boss On Facebook May Be A Bad Idea
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ―
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Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Facebook.com is a daily destination for millions of people. Now it's worming its way into the workplace -- and creating some sticky situations for employers and employees.
Can Facebook make you lose face at the office?
What are you doing right now? On Facebook, that's always the question to answer!
Facebook lets you give friends quick status updates, share photos, answer silly questions.
Your posts go straight to all your friends, and what your friends post goes straight to you, instantly.
But should your Facebook friends include your boss?
"Would I friend my boss? I probably would!" said one man.
"No! Absolutely not!" said a woman.
"Nah. Nuh uh," said another woman. "Not that type of friendship!"
Even a laid-back Web office like Yikes in Philadelphia treads carefully says co-owner Tracy Levesque.
"I like to keep things pretty professional," said Levesque. "So I will only friend employees who were my friend before they worked here, or if we have a pretty substantial friendship outside of work."
Lots of people know someone whose postings got them in hot water with the boss.
Christina Johnson said of one person she knew, "He just had his own personal gallery somewhere, and his bosses were like, anything of him drinking liquor would like look bad to his clients, so he would have gotten fired if he did it again."
Sometimes the problem isn't what you post. It's what your friends post.
When Michele Seidman went on vacation with friends, she posted pictures of all the fun.
"It could have been skewed as one person in particular was having too much fun," said Seidman.
"And I got a phone call, and he said, 'Michele, could you please take that picture down? All of my employees are on Facebook, and it's not an appropriate photograph.'"
Carole Weintraub is an HR representative and president of Beaumont Staffing.
"I'm not a big believer in Facebook because it's an overlap of personal life and professional life," said Weintraub.
She checked out some real-life Facebook posts, such as someone drinking coffee and wishing she was not at work. An employer can't like seeing that.
"No, I wouldn't think that they would," said Weintraub.
There's more. References like "pipe hitting" that could be misconstrued as drugs. Pictures of parties.
"These pictures are not helpful to anybody in any kind of a situation," said Weintraub.
The good news -- you can be Facebook friends with everyone, but use privacy settings to block some friends, such as your boss, from seeing parts of your Facebook page.
So use your head.
Facebook user Joseph Russell said, "If I wouldn't want one person to see it, I shouldn't be posting about it anyway.
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