This is an opinion piece.
There is a disturbing trend that has started in the past few years where employers are asking for job applicant’s Facebook passwords.
I know the job market is bad, and I’m sure if I didn’t have a company, and was looking for a job, I might take a different stance on this particular scenario.
But I don’t, so here’s what I think…
Who the F do you think you are?!
In what world is it even close to acceptable to ask for this?
- You don’t get to tap someone’s phone.
- You don’t get to look through someone’s personal files on their computer.
- You don’t get a spare set of keys to their house.
- You can’t even ask about sexual orientation, religion, politic affiliations or someone’s family life.
- You can’t have the combination to their safe.
- Or their mother’s maiden name.
- Or any other PRIVATE information.
There is absolutely NO reason in the world why a company should need this kind of access. NONE. For those companies that are considering this, ask yourselves how many quality relationships begin with distrust?
Here’s what is actually acceptable
Employers can see what everyone else can, search what we have made publicly available. Beyond that is none of their business and has absolutely NOTHING to do with any position. The reason that these networks have privacy settings is to control who sees what. Circumventing that is unethical and in some cases, against the terms of service.
Government, Military, etc
Any position where sharing poses a liability is at serious risk as it is, getting a FB password will be unlikely to prevent anything, it simply signals distrust.
Furthermore, unless employers are also asking for Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, new MySpace, old MySpace, Bebo, Path, Instagram, Flickr, and all of the other sites listed here, while monitoring incoming and outgoing web traffic from the home computer and mobile devices, then it’s probably not going to do a damn thing.
The world has changed
The Social Business prepares for this new world, it doesn’t fight it. The Social Business opens its doors to the benefits of social media, and it doesn’t do so at the expense of its people.
The world has changed, yet some still cling to an old model. Trust your people, set expectations, and give them guidance.