Mon 25 Jan 2010
Should Your Boss be Your Friend on Facebook?
Posted by Joan under Business , Career , Management , Social Media[8] Comments
Now that everyone and their cousin is on Facebook, you’ll probably run across this problem—what do you do if your boss asks to “friend” you?
Phil Gerbyshak tackles this timely issue on his blog, reminding us that navigating the friend/no friend waters can be tricky and loaded with unexpected hazards. His advice to not cross the personal/professional line is standard good business. Read the whole article here.
I wonder, though, if this isn’t a generational issue that some of us are on the “wrong” side of?
From what I hear, younger workers (and their often equally young bosses) don’t have the same views on keeping work and personal life separate as dinosaurs like me have. If you’re working in a hip, tech-oriented company and your whole department is all over social media, then connecting with everyone on Facebook is probably the modern equivelent of the water cooler—everyone who’s anyone drops by several times a day to keep up with the latest news. In that case, not joining in could brand you as an outsider, unfriendly, out of the loop, or just not a team player—any of which could mean death to your next promotion.
Regardless of your company culture, keep your Facebook (and Twitter) profiles clean, well-groomed and ready for public inspection at any time. Even if you do decide not to friend your boss, your info can easily get passed around by friends-of-friends and your boss could end up seeing something you’d rather she not know about.
I’m curious—what do you think about bosses and employees connecting on Facebook? Would you/do you do it, and why or why not?
My Facebook
January 31st, 2010 at 8:54 pm
It may be generational, but then using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkeIn are in many ways reflective of generational attitudes themselves.
I left a fuller comment over on Phil’s blog, but essentially I take a proactive view. There’s really no distinction between personal and professional online. My online activities will live long past my ability to control them and will be apparent (via search engines) to personal or professional connections without distinction. So, I need to keep that in mine online at all times.
I friend my bosses first. Keeps things simpler.
Rich
BlogRodent
January 31st, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Rich—It occurs to me that your bosses also might have personal lives they don’t want to share with their staff—how have they reacted to your request for “friending”? Again, possibly a generational thing, or maybe just personal preference. The most important thing is to remember that anything we do online will, as you say, live forever, and proceed accordingly. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Joan
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:31 am
Sometimes you have to careful like in this case – http://bit.ly/ctRc1q
February 18th, 2010 at 12:05 am
I guess it depends on the boss. If it works, I guess it’s fine. Many bosses are now friends with the workers.
February 18th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Louanne—You’re right, it does depend on the boss, and the whole work environment. There’s just so much potential for things to go badly that I think it’s safer to keep a wall between your personal life and your work life.
Thanks for writing!
March 9th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
There are bosses that don’t want to be “friends” with their workers both in real life and on social networking sites because they want to maintain a specific level of relationship with them. Others simply don’t want the idea of having their employees sneaking in to their private lives. – Jonha
April 28th, 2010 at 3:52 am
I don’t want to add my boss in facebook, but if he/she wants to be friend , I will try to add him/her for not getting any offend feelings.
April 28th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
My thoughts—if you’re afraid NOT to add your boss to your FB account for fear of offending, that seems to me a really good reason not to do it. You can ignore the request, and then later politely tell your boss that you appreciate the friend request but you prefer to keep your personal and professional lives seperate. Unless your boss is a total neanderthal, he/she will understand.