Social Networking and Employment – No
Employment discrimination, is becoming more and more of a problem. Employers are making it harder and harder for people to obtain Equal Opportunity Employment.Social Networking Sites on the Internet are just that, for Social Networking. They are not Job or Employment related sites like for example, Monster.com. When an employer is hiring someone to join their company, there is a standard application and resume process. There are certain question that can be asked and can't be asked on an application or within the interview process. What a person does on their own time off the clock is their own business and can't be grounds for whether or not they get hired for or fired from a job.
Social Networking sites, are full of nothing but drama and gossip and are commonly used for revenge on people if one person gets upset with another person they can easily start rumors, drama and gossip with the intent of making the other person look bad when in reality it only makes the person starting it look bad. This could not only make all parties involved look bad to their family and friends on the social networks, but it could also ruin the persons chances of obtaining employment, advancing within their current company, or could make them loose their current job all together.Most people feel that employers accessing their past, current, or potential employee's Social Networking sites is a violation of privacy. What a person does in their private life, is just that private. It has nothing to do with what they do or how they perform while on the job. The only exception to this should be if there is a direct threat posted on a Social Networking site stating a direct threat to a previous employer or employee and these types of threats need to be reported immediately to the proper authorities so that action can be taken to prevent the actual act from being carried out instead of just posted on the Social Networking site. If a person does post a direct threat onto a Social Networking site, it should be used as evidence that can be held up in court as a direct threat of violent behavior and there should be consequences for both posting the direct threat and even worse consequences if the threat is carried out. If the threat has caused only emotional distress to the victim the penalty should not be as sever as the penalty if the person has actually carried out the threat of violence.
