ALT-1 Employers Allowed Myspace Youtube Facebook Accounts Basis Hiring Firing – No
It is a fact of life that everything you read in print is not necessarily the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Just pick up several newspapers covering a breaking story and notice the variations from paper to paper. It is also a fact that online a person can be anyone they choose to be, especially on a personal blog site. The person you are reading about in that MySpace blog is not necessarily the person you might greet at the grocery store the next morning.
An employer who hires a modestly dressed, professional individual does not need to know that the employee dresses in leather on Saturday nights and dances the night away at the local biker bar. As long as that employee shows up for work on time, produces excellent work, and carries them-self in a professional manner while at the workplace, what that employee does in his or her own time is of no concern to the employer.
Any information an employer needs concerning a prospective employee can be found in the credentials required during the hiring process. Any information the prospective employee wishes to extend beyond that required on the job application can be included in the resume. All other pertinent information can be revealed during the interview process. Finally, if the employer is satisfied with the first impression and wishes to know more, a background check can be implemented. These four informational avenues are more than appropriate to decide on a prospective employee's worthiness for a position. Anything more would be crossing the boundaries of privacy.
Should a glance into a person's personal blog space become part of the hiring process, one issue will most certainly surface that could destroy not only the opportunity that person may have at obtaining the desired job, but the opportunity the employer might have at obtaining a wonderful employee. Many individuals use blogs as a means of escapism. They "become" someone else in cyberspace. An elderly woman with grown children and numerous grandchildren might choose to become a sexy siren on MySpace, using pictures pirated from online ads or porn sites. The nerdy accountant still living with his parents might choose to be a street-smart, gun-toting drug lord that he admired in a movie. An employer reviewing this material online would most likely choose to pass this person by, choosing instead someone less qualified but certainly more 'suitable'.
If online blogs enter into the screening process for selecting job applicants, the end result will be forcing more and more people to blatantly lie about who they are and what they are about so as to hide their true identities from future career prospects. This will only defeat the whole purpose of viewing online blogs by employers. There are just some things the boss doesn't need to know.
