In today’s world we are connected to people in our lives through a variety of mediums. We have our traditional relationships, our work colleagues, our online friends, and then there is that gray area, where coworker crosses over to Facebook friend. You know it’s happened to you. You become work friends with someone and then suddenly they send you a friend request. Immediately your palms go sweaty and your mind runs rampant with a litany of questions. Did my best friend tag those birthday photos of me? Are my vacation photos public? Was that political joke I posted offensive? Shit, now my coworkers will know that I read the Onion in the middle of the work day! Or even worse, that I update my Facebook status throughout the day.
One work friend often leads to many more, and pretty soon half your company knows how you spent your weekend and what your drink of choice was during your trip to Mexico last summer. So the question is, how do you deal with this? One thing that I have found helpful is to create numerous groups on Facebook, limiting access to certain parts of my profile. For example, none of my coworkers ever need to see me in a bikini while on vacation, but I’m certainly happy to share photos of my newborn niece with the world.
What are some of your best practices when your Facebook world and professional life start to overlap?
Now that I am a stay at home mom, this hasn't been an issue in a long time. However, I can say when I was still working as a mental health counselor this constantly came up. Of course, I am careful with my privacy settings even now, so you have to be a friend to see just about anything on my profile. However, this did not stop clients from attempting to "friend" me on Facebook or ask if I was an active user. Not to mention wanting my home phone number (just in case), my address (so they can send me a thank you note), my email (so we can stay in touch)...the list goes on. It all comes down to boundaries. Just as counselors have to have professional boundaries with their clients, we all have to have boundaries with most of the people we interact with on a daily basis (even, gasp, family). I like Lyndsey's idea of having groups to sort who can see what. My other suggestion, clear out your friends list. I mean who really has 200 friends! I recently cut my friend list in half. Not only did it feel great, I didn't even notice they were gone.
ReplyDeleteI had the foresight or dumb luck to bumble into an industry that is for the most part not interested in social networking, and those that are behave worse than I do.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, it is becoming more and more common not only to have co-workers on Facebook, but also clients. Clients are a particularly prickly situation because it's a close knit industry and many of them are also actual friends as well.
Sorting friends (ahem, and family) into groups is a great compromise when the boundaries between business and friendship are blurry.
Ah, the joys of accepting or ignoring the "professional friend" onto your facebook page. In my line of work (teaching), it is a double-edged sword to actually have a facebook page. For one, the older students and sometimes the younger ones parents are able to find you and friend request you. On the other hand, it is a great way to keep parents and students up to date on classroom and school campus happenings.
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion:
Two facebooks, one for personal friends that don't care if you drank yourself silly the night before, or if you accidentally use profanity in a post, and another for the professional people that would like to be your friend.
Another general rule is to never use your full real name on your personal facebook because then those that are on your professional page will know that you have another one!!!
Being an elementary school teacher and in my late 20's means I'm one of the youngest members on staff and I am around the same age as of my student's parents which presents a special problem for me. I have my profile set to private so that nothing is visible to those who are not my friends and like Lyndsey I group who is able to see what on my profile. I have told parents that as long as their child is in my classroom I will not approve them as it crosses professional line for me and in many cases those invites are still sitting in my inbox and probably will never be responded to. As for co-workers I went out of my way to block some from even being able to find me as to avoid the whole sticky situation as a whole and others are my friends on facebook. I hardly have enough time to keep up with my personal facebook so I can't imagine managing an entirely separate one just for professional use but to each their own. The only lesson I have learned is that managing groups is a gift :)
ReplyDeleteI too am a big fan of "Lists". You can limit your profile so you share only the information you want to share :-)
ReplyDelete