Employers asking for FB passwords

[ladymoreta]

Yeah, the password is my problem, too. I know that the Internet isn't private, but I keep my information restricted to friends only because I post a lot of pictures of my kids. I don't want my friends' HR department having access to my information. What I post has nothing to do with my friends' professional abilities.

So my problem isn't the potential employee - they can choose to give access or not. But their friends won't even know that strangers are viewing their profiles.

[MrsK]

Notwithstanding that their "off duty" behaviour may have nothing to do with their work, if I learn that my child's caregiver who will be alone with my child in your home is displaying morally objectionable behaviour in a public forum, I would not hire that person. High school and college-aged babysitters share a lot of themselves on FB. It's not just the fact that they may engage in objectionable behaviour, it's that they have the poor judgment to share that with the public. When it comes to people who are alone with my children, I think it is entirely reasonable to consider what a potential caregiver shares in a public forum. I don't see that as any different than "googling" them or taking something I read about them in a newspaper in consideration.

[Deebs]

I am FB friends with all of our babysitters also. the thing that I guess I find odd is the need for the password, not just access as a "friend.". Are these employers planning on deleting posts they find objectionable? My DH doesn't have my FB password because he can see everything I post. He doesn't need he ability to change my posts or information, and neither does my employer.

[ladymoreta]

Right - I agree with Deebs. Requiring them to add you as a friend provides that information without giving them access to your friends' private posts or the ability to modify your information without your consent.

[SuzySunshine]

Right - I agree with Deebs. Requiring them to add you as a friend provides that information without giving them access to your friends' private posts or the ability to modify your information without your consent.

Exactly my point too!!


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[MrsK]

I agree with that as well. It is over-stepping and paranoid on the employer's part but that should be common sense.

[GrayMatterWife]

Honestly, if I were on the hiring committee at a BigLaw firm (the most equivalent circumstance with which I have familiarity), I think I would stop at the question "Do you have a FB account?". If the answer is "yes," then they are off the list. I am paying you an obscene amount I money to be my bitch 24/7. You live and breathe my happiness and every whim. If you even know how to spell FB, that means you will be doing something else with your life than billing hours on my file.

Hahaha!

[GrayMatterWife]

Interestingly, FB is now threatening to sue employers who use their site for background check purposes. I think that is the far better legal attack on the use of FB for this purpose. Third-party misuse of FB could give rise to a legal claim by the truly damaged party: FB. They are not in the business of serving as a character check for employers.

[Mrs. MD, Esq.]

From an employer's point of view, merely friending an employee gives the employee the opportunity to specifically exclude that employer (I even think demanding an employee 'friend' their employee goes too far).

[DCJenn]

I've actually had to amend the new employee orientation to include "DO NOT 'FRIEND' YOUR CLIENTS". Seriously- we've been asked if it was OK. (obviously by the under 40 employee set) Hmmmm, do you want to have a mentally unstable drug addict knowing where you were last weekend? Our company also has a page and I refused to "like" it. I don't want them to have a whiff of anything that I do on my time.

and if a company asked me if I had a facebook account, (which everyone knows we all do because we're all checking it. It's the primary means of communication for the PTA, the neighborhood, etc. I check FB instead of checking email) I'd ask why they'd want to know. I wouldn't work for a company that wanted it.

and- slightly off topic but we've had to have the "please don't give your clients your cell phone number and please don't text your clients..." procedures written, too. Waiting for Board approval on those.

J.

[oceanchild]

My office forbids us from friending legislators.

[MarissaNicole]

If the employer has your password what is preventing them from collecting data and private info on your friends? When your friends added you they were not under the impression that a business or company would have access to what they posted. I would think your friends would have an argument/issue with THEIR privacy.


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[MrsSz]

Honestly, if I were on the hiring committee at a BigLaw firm (the most equivalent circumstance with which I have familiarity), I think I would stop at the question "Do you have a FB account?". If the answer is "yes," then they are off the list. I am paying you an obscene amount I money to be my bitch 24/7. You live and breathe my happiness and every whim. If you even know how to spell FB, that means you will be doing something else with your life than billing hours on my file.

Hahaha!

awesome.. literally laughed out loud..