When Your Personal and Your Professional Life Collide Online

Facebook, the social networking phenomenon that has swept our society off its feet since 2004, is disturbing the natural balance between our career and social lives. Instead of following age-old traditions and keeping these two aspects of our lives separate from one another, Facebook is causing them to collide viciously. Users’ Facebook profiles can completely obliterate their chances of getting employed as well as continuing to be employed.

Some employers may not admit it, but they do check potential employees’ Facebook profiles to better understand whom they are hiring or they may browse their current employees’ profiles to check up on them. Jesse, a manager at a local coffee shop, says that she won’t necessarily check out an employee’s Facebook profile before she hires them, but if they show signs of fatigue at work, she would definitely do a quick snoop on Facebook to see if their social life is negatively affecting their job performance.

So, if your Facebook profile is a perfect example of what your grandmother would be ashamed to show her friends during bingo night, it would probably be a clever idea to delete those pictures before applying for a job. Although, can you really delete something completely once you’ve posted it on Facebook? The answer to that question is probably an uneasy “no.” With a little know-how, people can always find a way to resurrect assumed-to-be-deleted online photos or messages. Facebook is like a human dictionary for employers, so if they happen to come across an unpleasant image of you, your career could come to a sudden halt before it even begins.

The other obvious option is to make your profile private and limit your Facebook friends to those in your close social circle. I mean, do you really need to be Facebook friends with your boss?

Yet many teens don’t seem that worried about what they post on Facebook. Hayley, a grade 10 student at Lester B. Pearson High School in Calgary says, “I don’t think what I have on my Facebook profile would really concern my potential employers at all. Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with a friend or family member and I would definitely miss it if it ceased to exist.”

However, Vicky Driver, a career counsellor at Lester B. Pearson, cautions students to be wary of what they post on Facebook. She says, “I would definitely advise students to never post anything that they would want to delete later on in their future because it is nearly impossible to do so. Personally, I do not have a Facebook profile, nor do I ever want to get one because within my career, I have seen plenty of teens and adults alike not get hired because of their Facebook profile along with getting fired because of it.”

The personal and business aspects of your life should never clash, yet such is the case when you choose to make the events of your personal life readily available to just about anyone in your “social” group. Millions of people nowadays in North America have Internet access, and many of these people also have Facebook accounts. In the end, it is entirely up to you what you’re willing to risk by opening up your life and mind to society.