If getting “friend requests” from employees on Facebook or MySpace makes you uncomfortable, you’re not alone.
According to a survey of more than 1,000 companies nationwide commissioned by OfficeTeam, a national employee leasing company based in Menlo Park, of the top executives surveyed, 47 percent reported feeling “not very comfortable” or “not comfortable at all” being “friended” by their subordinates.
Similarly, 48 percent of employees surveyed reported being equally uncomfortable receiving friend requests from their boss. On the flip side, more than half of the executives and employees surveyed expressed no discomfort regarding friend requests. Thus, while the survey shines little light on whether or not social networking is well received the workplace, it does make clear that social networking has definitely become a part of the workplace—for better or worse.
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As new technologies blur the line between the personal and the professional, employers must be mindful of both the professional and legal standards related to social networking. For example, some employees may feel pressured to accept friend requests from bosses, even though employees would prefer to keep their Facebook or MySpace pages private, or may feel like the request is intended to keep tabs on the employee’s personal activities.
A boss who accepts friend requests from, or sends requests to, some employees but not others can be viewed as playing favorites. If the employees all belong to one racial, religious, or gender group, the friend requests could be used later as evidence of bias.
The key to avoiding legal and professional problems related to social networking is to have a clear policy in place that sets out the company’s rules for when social networking and the workplace intersect.