Privacy is a thing that many people unwisely overlook when using social media. We often post pictures from our workplace, let people know our locations, share political opinions, and funny, sometimes even provocative memes, or bikini pictures, and we are doing all of this without hesitation. Little do we know that all these social media interactions easily end up on our employer’s, current or potential, desk, no matter how illegal it may be.
While it does sound scary, this is the reality of the working life of today. There are many discussions on the moral and legal perspective of this kind of research of the HR personnel but unfortunately, 54% of employer’s have found content on social media that caused them not to hire a candidate for an open role.
Provocative and inappropriate content upsets potential employers
To mention a few, employers are getting upset over provocative or inappropriate photographs, videos or information; information about a candidate drinking or using drugs; poor communication skills; an unprofessional screen name, or even too frequent posting. But how often is it okay to drink, or at least show it on your Instagram feed? What kinds of opinions are too provocative? How many posts a day is too much?
Unfortunately, there are no clear answers as the it depends on the person who looks through our profile, or at best, on the company policies that are often kept secret and known only by the company and its HR personnel.
Think twice when posting about work
Sometimes a harmless post can turn out to ruin one’s promising career within a company or even break laws, especially with the GDPR policies. Luckily, the checklist for these actions is easier to build than the one for your personal behavior. The key thing to bear in mind is to never, ever let the public know any business secrets, whether those are about your customers (current or potential), sales and finance, new products, or company protocols. Shortly: you should be on the safe side as long as you are not breaching confidentiality or posting material which could damage the business. And if unsure, ask the employer.
Golden rules for posting
All things considered, are the employers asking us to quit social media? Considering how worried they seem to be and how much we are judged based on the content they see, this would sound like an easy answer, but no. Most of the companies are not asking people to quit social media, excluding some secretive governmental agencies and other organizations where it is important that the personnel do not have a trackable social media presence.
So, now you may want to know what you should post on your personal accounts.
The answer is that there is no one correct answer. Often the employer’s personnel use their gut-feeling while illegally scrolling through our accounts, and therefore, it is impossible to say if your one-glass-of-wine-every-Friday-night post on Instagram prevents you from getting a job, or if the person thinks your bosom is showing too much, or if your inspirational quote was too provoking.
The golden rule should be to post things you would be ready to show and say to people in person. If you feel comfortable with them and stand with your own values, morals and ideologies, as well as with your clothing style, bikini pictures, quotes, and hashtags, and have no problem saying or showing them out loud, they are good to be posted as well.
