Social media isn't going away. But the rules of what to post, how much to reveal and who should be held accountable are ever-changing. Public vs. private on Facebook, blogs, etc., is a hot issue and there are no clear answers. Especially in the workplace.
An interesting article in the Hartford Courant by William Wier explores this topic:
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-facebook-workplace-policies-20100817,0,1908742.story
Should a superintendent lose his job because he wrote on Facebook about advising an administrator to retire or get fired, then ended the entry with a smiley face icon? He's been placed on leave, with the possibility of getting fired. At minimum, his action was tasteless and inconsiderate. I think he needs his hands (or should I say fingers) slapped, since he is a position of authority and showed poor judgement. Especially on his first day! What was the guy thinking? But I'm not sure it's a deal breaker in terms of losing a job. I'd love to see your comments ...
Some companies, the article noted, are trying to establish "policies" about what employees can and can't
post on-line. Pretty impossible to enforce and maybe an infringement of first amendment rights??? There's a lot to think about. The lines will continue to be blurry on what's appropriate for some time. It makes me wonder if discretion is a thing of the past.
This reminds me of a personal aside regarding the younger generation: They don't mind revealing all. Their rules are different than someone of my, shall we say, life experience. Last summer, when we told our children we were getting a divorce, my 15-year-old son posted that info on his Facebook page and I was mortified. We hadn't even told everyone in our extended families. Yet his network of 400+ "friends" already knew. He didn't give this a second thought. It was important to him at that moment, and he posted it. That's what they do.
What was interesting was how quickly we became old news. He got a few comments of sympathy and then the stream moved on to other topics. I was actually a bit insulted! A life-changing event displaced by an update of a teen's mundane afternoon activities. It didn't seem right. I expected the news to create more than a ripple.
Which brings me back to the superintendent. We just can't predict what kind of impact a post/blog/tweet, etc., will have. Once you push the button, it's out there. I think that we have to rely on our own moral compass to determine what's right and always remember the following before sending our words into cyberspace, which I'll quote from Wier's article describing Facebook: "It's not your family or six guys around a table. People mistake it for an intimate forum ... a variety of people are consuming this, and they're not all your drinking buddies."
I'll conclude with some advice I recently saw on a website for a weekly newspaper: "Please post responsibly."
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