HR Strange But True

Why Can’t We Be Friends … On Facebook?

Just like Vegas, what happens on the Internet stays on the Internet. Most people normally don’t take this into consideration when they post things to social media sites, like Facebook. But what happens if you were forced to be friends with your boss on social media sites? Would you be more considerate about what you post?

According to The Washington Post, a bill went through the Arkansas Senate that would reverse online privacy protections for employees. The bill would force employees to friend their bosses on Facebook or allow them to be followed on Twitter. It would also allow certain employers to have even more access to their employees’ accounts, especially religious organizations and ones that handle the supervision of children.

“What we’re trying to do is to just move that line back so that employers, if say an employee is making slanderous statements about their employer in social media, that the employer has the right to know that,” said Rep. Nate Bell. He also says that “We clearly don’t want people—employers—being able to access that bedroom information.”

However, this bill could oust victims of domestic abuse by helping employers identify them through their affiliation with online support groups on a social network. Facebook has also commented on this bill, saying,

“Any legislation that requires employees to give employers access to their private communication is problematic, but this bill goes even further by compelling minors to provide an adult employee or supervisor access to their social media accounts. As child safety advocates have noted, this could result in inappropriate contact between that adult employee and the minor, jeopardizing the safety not only of the minor, but also the friends with whom they were communicating.”

The good news, for employees that is, is that this bill has since died on the Senate committee floor, as of March 25, 2015. So employers, back away from your employees’ profiles. If they wanted to be friends with you, they wouldn’t have their profiles set to “private.”

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