Soshul Meeja

[Smudger105e]

I have noticed a few posts on these forums over the years in which posters make no secret that they work for a particular TOC/FOC and there is little or no effort to disguise their name or place of work.

At my previous place of work (I left at the end of March but would still not criticise my previous employer) there was an instance of one individual posting something on facebook, and as a result one member of staff was dimissed (reinstated on appeal) and a further eight were given final written warnings. The posting was not related to the employer, but they all had the Company as their employer on their home page, and the company considered their action as bringing the Company into disrepute.

May I remind everybody that this is a public forum, and you should think very carefully before posting anything that could link you with your employer.

Also, whever Steve Wright in the Afternoon says 'Social Media' he seems incapable of not saying it as 'soshul meeja'

 

[merlodlliw]

In the old days it was written on the staff W/C wall.I was interested to learn several large Companies have agencies, who scan the web for comments about them,Face book is one site I would never use,too many people assassinating others they have never met, but I agree be careful what you put up.

 

[LowLevel]

I drop the odd red herring in about where I work just to be sure - you can never be too careful!

 

[Oswyntail]

....
May I remind everybody that this is a public forum, and you should think very carefully before posting anything that could link you with your employer.....

Indeed - though I would leave out the bit about your employer. Sites like this give you the comfortable feeling that you are chatting with friends in your front room. In reality, you should feel as if you are in a hall full of thousands of strangers, silent except for you, and you are shouting what you are writing at the top of your voice, and it is all being recorded.

 

[GB]

Providing you keep quiet about saying anything negative about your employer or give away company secrets you won't have a problem. Simple.

 

[Smudger105e]

Providing you keep quiet about saying anything negative about your employer or give away company secrets you won't have a problem. Simple.

Not quite true, that statement!!

 

[najaB]

Providing you keep quiet about saying anything negative about your employer or give away company secrets you won't have a problem. Simple.

I know of two instances where people have gotten in trouble because they identified their employer in their social media profiles, and then posted controversial statements about non work-related issues (e.g. homophobic statements). While it smacks a bit of being done in by the 'thought police', the employers were obligated to act in order to protect their brand reputations.

If the people involved hadn't made it clear where they worked, they would still be employed there. This is something that is made clear to all new recruits where I work.

 

[jopsuk]

Most of those on here that identify where they work are very sensible posters, and I would bet are known about at work.

 

[Bayum]

I've always been careful of who I have on my Facebook and what I post on my account. This was even before I trained as a teacher. It surprises me that people don't expect this to happen; especially if you list your place of work/employer, or are in a professional capacity or job of professional standing.

 

[ASharpe]

I make no great secret about who exactly I am online, any interested stalker to easily link up my accounts.

But I do follow a few rules:

Online isn't the pub, it's not close friends and it's all recorded. What would you stand up and say at a conference full of strangers.

Facebook is for friends, not colleagues. (For a while I had my old boss's wife but not him.) If you really good friends with a colleague - you see them 5 days a week and facebook should be superfluous. Get Linkedin if you must.

Keep Facebook protected so you get to a approve all those drunken photos before the tag causes you to link to them. Also block your mother from viewing anything, she just thinks I don't use it any more (could also be applied to other people).

I must add though, that I don't work on the railways, and am very much the type of person who just forgets about work completely when not actually at my desk or in a lab.

 

[TheKnightWho]

I guess people could work things out about me from what I post on here, but I definitely try to keep my various online profiles as separate as I can from one another. That being said, it's mostly split between here, various places that don't require a login to post, Facebook and uni-related things, so there's very little reason for any of those to overlap except for the last two.

I'm definitely not one for being paranoid when I'm online, but I think it's extremely important to have different spheres of interaction when you're online and to make sure they overlap as little as possible. It's a good way of making sure no-one who wanted to do a bit of snooping can find everything out about you, whilst not forcing yourself to restrict your online activities because you're worried someone might be able to track you down.