Personal and Professional Life

In some ways, our personal life and professional life may be difficult to separate online because they are entwined and the best representation of who we are online. Separating them is like impersonating someone else. As such, we have to be comfortable with what we share online, and not sharing things we will never say in front of the camera or behind closed doors. In the event we publish something negative in our personal social media accounts, it may have great impacts on our professional life.

In April 2015, Kaitlyn Walls, a single mother just got hired by a daycare center in the Colony, Tex. after searching for a job for months. You’ll think if she decides to publish something about her new employer, it would be her gratitude for being hired. However, at the end of her first day of work, she published the following on Facebook:

“I start my new job today,” she posted at the end of her first day last week. “But I absolutely hate working at a daycare. I just really hate being around a lot of kids.” (Holley, 2015).

Walls Facebook was interpreted as someone who not only wasn’t happy about her new job but disliked working around children. Her negative post became viral and shared within a local yard sale group, who tracked Walls and was attributed to as someone who hates working around kids. She was also attacked virtually and physically because of her 24 words Facebook post. Wall’s post eventually reached her employer, who contacted her and advised her not to attempt coming back to work. She was fired for publishing something of this nature in her Facebook personal account, and not weighing the consequences it will have in her professional life.

Although she tried to apologize for her post, it didn’t change her original post and her intentions. She lost her job and was perceived in a negative way by her community. It was quite a hard lesson learned, which might influence the hiring decisions of another employer in the daycare service industry. She posted on Facebook:

“Oh, man, I made a big mistake,” Walls wrote on Facebook afterward. “I’m so sad. I feel like a failure here looking at my daughter crying because I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to find a job because of my own stupidity.” (Holley, 2015).

Walls could have avoided posting this on her Facebook page if she didn’t apply for a job that she was going to hate. At the end of the day, you don’t apply for a job you going to hate because of your financial situation. Also, even if she hated the job, she didn’t have to publish it on her Facebook page. If she wanted to rant about her job, she could invest in buying a good journal, where she can express herself confidently.

Best practices for employee’s online behavior

Do not post any emotional content about your employer or the organization. In other words, if you are not responsible for managing your organization social media accounts, do not publish any online content about your organization. You may have a disclaimer on your blog or social media accounts stating that all opinions and views expressed are solely yours and not that of your employer.
Employees may think that they can post anything online so long as they are doing so during their break time or when they leave the office. People often believe that once they are done working, they are not accountable for what they post online even if it may be related to their employer. There is no safe haven once we post anything negative online. As per an organization’s social media policy, anything published by an employee online may determine the future of that employee. As such anything we post about our employer or business may lead to consequences ranging from being fired to losing most of our clients.
If you say something very negative that may become viral online, there are high chances this will get through to your employer and will immediately lead to your job termination. As such it is important to portray a responsible behavior online. If you are in doubt, when posting something online, restrain from doing so, and simply write it down in a paper journal. In so, doing you know your rant remains private. We may feel safe in our strong privacy setting that we think we can post anything online. However, even if the content is only visible to friends, we never can trust people in our social networks. Someone may share with other friends or simply do a screenshot, even after we must have deleted the content. A responsible online behavior can be turned into a business or job opportunity.
Although it is a good recommendation from employers to have their employees include a disclaimer on their social media profile, for example, Twitter, it is not guaranteed that the employee is fully protected in the event the employee post something negative about their employer. A disclaimer will state the following:

“Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.”

If an employee decides to post content online, which may affect the reputation of the employer, a disclaimer won’t protect this employee from getting fired or suspended.

Guidelines to separate personal life from professional life

You could have two accounts – personal and professional social media accounts. In so doing, you tend to be conscious of what content to publish in both accounts.
Weigh every word or image you post online; if in doubt or have a second thought restrain from publishing the content. What you are not able to tell your friends, family colleagues in person shouldn’t be shared online. Only post content that you are comfortable sharing online.
Avoid expressing your emotions online, and best reaching out to any negative comments on your social media post in a private mode or in person.

References

Holley, P. (2015, May 5). Day-care employee fired for Facebook post saying she hates ‘being around a lot of kids.’ The Washington Post. Retrieved From https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/04/day-care-employee-fired-for-facebook-post-noting-she-hates-being-around-a-lot-of-kids/?utm_term=.b10ad6bf7cc2