Losing face in your job

Facebook claims to have 800 million members. In fact, I imagine that almost everyone who reads this article will have an account. With more than 900 million objects available for people to interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages) and over 70 language settings available on the site, it is easy to see why so many of us are involved. All you have to do is tear your eyes away from your own computer, glance around at the other screens in the library and you’ll be met with endless screens modeling the social networking site or, at the very least, a tab dedicated to it. Facebook is everywhere.

There is, however, constant worry that data contained on sites such as Facebook could come back to haunt us. The results of a recent YouGov survey revealed that 42% of British students admitted they were worried posts on social sites could harm their future employability. Over recent years it has become common to read about yet another “fired blogger” and increasingly, employers are admitting to researching candidates using Facebook. According to a survey carried out by CareerBuilder.co.uk, more than half of employers research potential job candidates on social networking sites.

For most users however, the idea of employers checking Facebook profiles is old news. We’ve been warned on countless occasions. And yes, I fully appreciate you can simply change your privacy settings to prevent your future boss delving through photos that are hardly résumé-enhancing. However, with ongoing alterations to the site’s format, privacy settings can be automatically altered back to the default setting without your knowledge; an option that provides minimal protection for the user. Not only this, but with friend lists having hit the hundreds and edging towards the thousands (obviously all extremely close and personal acquaintances, or perhaps we’re just too lazy to cull) the more people you know, the more your personal information is spread around, and the more at risk you are of your data falling into the wrong hands. Even when adjusted to a “friends-only” profile, your Facebook page could still be explored through the URL history on a work computer or simply not logging-out could enable access to your page from fellow colleagues or the powers that be.

Yet recently (in the US admittedly, but the idea is sure to make it across the Pond), employers are taking a new approach; by requesting both usernames and passwords to social networking sites as part of their job application process. An example of this was leaked in November of last year, when an application form for a North Carolinian police department asked candidates for a clerical position: “Do you have any web page accounts such as Facebook, Myspace etc…? If so list your username and password”. For many of us, our Facebook is as private and personal as a diary; a treasure trove of information and handing over our password, particularly when there is a new job at stake, is as intrusive as handing over our house keys.While the message of keeping scandalous pictures out of the public eye, or removed entirely should have sunk in by now, the idea of handing over passwords would enable potential employers to access both private and instant messages as well as personal statuses.

Even if your privacy settings are high, in providing your password, personal aspects of an online account might reveal information that you simply don’t want your employer to know about. Political views, family members, your favourite books, what you’re looking for in a sexual partner or past and current relationships are to name a few. Information concerning these characteristics, many would argue, is simply not their business. In most cases complete access to your account would enable employers to discover a great deal more than could be found out in a job interview, therefore, are Facebook members defacing their job prospects regardless of how private their settings are?