Get Off Facebook And Do Some Work!

MySpace, Facebook and Bebo prove we all love pouring out the contents of our lives on a daily basis. Hell - I am doing it right now- writing to the masses and associating myself with this website!

As cathartic as it may feel to wash your dirty linen in public – how wise is it really? Let's look at the evidence:

According to the latest issue of Time, 12% of employers admit to consulting social networking sites for help when hiring new staff (I would like to emphasis the word ‘admit’) and 63% of those have declined the potential employees from findings such as false qualifications. It may be true that most people fib on their CVs – but to admit the truth on their MySpace page – come on brianiac!  Doesn’t take Columbo to run a simple web search on you!

Right, say that you manage to hold back on admitting all of your little white lies on your profile and blag yourself a job - perhaps you shouldn’t consider yourself safe from a savvy employer's eye. Recently an Argos employee was sacked for criticising the company on Facebook. The Sun reported that Tom Beech set up a thread entitled “I work at Argos and can’t wait to leave because it’s shit.” Well Beech got his wish, but it wasn’t Jim that fixed it for him - a disciplinary hearing later sacked him for gross misconduct. Serious stuff.

It isn’t just Argos that have discovered staffing problems through Facebook – oh no those nice 118 118 men have been at it too. Okay, perhaps they don’t all have impressive moustaches in common, but the staff at this directory enquiries line have a Facebook site dedicated to trading insults about their customers – apparently this bonds them together in a way facial hair just can’t reach. One member of the group claims he took customer numbers and wrote them on the walls of public toilets. Perhaps they could incorporate this idea into an advert sponsoring a Channel 4 programme? Oh hang on – that wasn’t the plan behind the PR machine that produced the now menacing phrase ‘Got your number!’ was it?

Even if you think you have all the bases covered and would never land yourself in it – what about your so-called friends? Suzanne from east London thought everything on her Facebook page was under control, especially when her boss applied to be her friend – she knew she would have to keep it clean to save Facebook, erm, face. She didn’t consider the unknown quantity that is a drunken wind-up merchant writing on her wall.

Suzanne says, ‘After an typical night out, a good friend of mine thought it would be funny to write that the night out wasn’t as innocent as I would like the world to believe. Phrases like ‘I heard he slid it in’ and ‘you dirty bitch’ where written all over my pristine page. He wrote it on Friday night but it wasn’t until Monday morning that I saw it, as did my boss and several clients and colleagues. Mortified isn’t the word!’

Work isn’t your only worry – we are talking social minefields people! What about the unplanned boozy night that ends up splattered all over your friend’s profiles – how do you explain that to the one person that wasn’t out that night? Hmm? And what about the unexplainable stranger that appears to have got very up close ‘n’ personal in a picture posted after your girl’s holiday on the Costa de Sol? ‘Honestly honey he’s gay!’ isn’t going to cut it when your fella spots it.

Or even worse, what if you are the one that spots a social faux-pas online – how are you supposed to move social networking issues onto a proper face-to-face conversation (not wall to wall)? ‘I know what you did you swine – I cyber stalked you!’ No so cool.

I would like to say it would all fade out sooner or later and no one will be left to incriminate themselves or each other – but I am not leaving until you leave! I am not the mug willing to miss out on the latest news feed!

Are you still there?