January 19, 2012

Is your Boss a Facebook Friend?

You will be thrown into the dilemma when your boss sends a friend request on Facebook? Will you accept it or deny?

It is a very difficult question to answer as it depends on the rapport you share with your boss. Facebook site is something where you would like to share your personal experiences with your family and friends and because of that, it is pretty difficult to accept your boss’ friend request and so you will think twice before accepting his or her request.


According to a recent Robert Half Workplace Survey, around 43 percent of those who were surveyed were of the opinion that they are not comfortable to accept their boss as a friend on the Facebook. About 26 percent of the respondents told that they use Facebook to connect with their colleagues. Nearly one-third of the respondents shared that it is critical to have colleagues as friends on Facebook who has their boss as their friend in their profile, reports Douglas Idugboe, Digital and New Media Marketing Strategist, Founder and Chief Editor of Smedio.

If at all you have just made up the mind to decline the friend request of your boss, think twice because in the future you may be put into trouble directly or indirectly by your boss for that reason. So, Douglas Idugboe has suggested you that, if you are aware of the implications and if you act according to that, there’s nothing wrong in accepting your boss as a Facebook friend. It can also be helpful in developing a friendly relationship with your boss at the workplace.



After you have decided to accept your boss’s friend request, there is no harm in having the photos of your family and friends. But make sure you keep your information on personal life to a limited extent in your profile. As your boss can access your login time on Facebook, make sure you won’t go online during the time of your working hours. You must also be careful while you are commenting something which is related to your workplace and to be in the safer side by avoiding negative comments about your workplace as it can put you in trouble. There are many examples where people got fired because of commenting wrong about their workplace. One such recent example was of Dawnmarie Souza, an emergency medical technician from American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc, got fired as she had abused her superior by using vulgar statements on Facebook.


So keeping all these pros and cons in mind you must be smart enough to decide whether to accept your boss’s friend request on Facebook or not..... Cheers !!!

2 comments:

Prachi said...

Arindam, agree with you. It has its advantsges as well as disadvantages
- Prachi

Prachi said...

Arindam, agree with you. It has its advantages as well as disadvantages.