Heather Armstrong vented about her boss on her blog and got fired. She was totally within her right to exercise freedom of expression, but still she was fired for exercising that freedom in a digital form. (The irony: she may have been right about her boss, otherwise she might still be employed.)
How about the NYC public school teacher who recently blogged about her experience as a prostitute before she became an elementary school teacher? Mayor Bloomberg himself yanked her out of the classroom.
Take LinkedIn… if you are linked to your boss you may be limited in the amount of open digital networking you can do. Worse yet, human resource professionals regularly scout their employees LinkedIn pages. While the scouting may be innocent, can frequent updates to your profile trigger a call from HR with a pink slip? What if your boss or HR team Googles you – what will they find? Do you really want your HR exec following you on Twitter?
What I really don’t like is when companies go gung-ho about social media and insist that you identify yourself with the company digitally. Think about it… Is your current job your “identity”? Nothing is forever, right? If you should ever leave the company, can you de-twitter, un-link and dis-like your company? Probably not as easy as hitting the delete button, I suspect.
In a recent Wall Street Journal article the author explained the need for a positive electronic identity - an alter-ego, an elecronic Clark Kent for whom no mardi-gras, or jello shots videos exist. Creating a digital dossier that presents you in a positive light is fine for most of us – especially when you’re looking for a job and you need to convey a professional image. But I maintain that its virtually impossible to keep Superman separate from Clark Kent. Even the best superhero struggles to keep the two worlds separate (well, maybe except for Tony Stark, but he's different.)
In real life, its just not that easy. For example, let's say your latest Facebook post announces that you’re currently shopping your screenplay to Hollywood movie studios and you have a deal pending. That seems like an innocent post, but your current employer could take that as a signal that you’ll be leaving soon, or as an explanation for your extension’s recent increase in phone calls to the coast.
Clearly, I have a problem with the whole digital thing. I just can’t figure out how you can be your whole, authentic self online unless you are self-employed, independently wealthy or otherwise financially secure. But then again if you are wholly authentic, self-employed, independently wealthy and otherwise financially secure, should you really be posting your life’s details online?
As my Mom said when she found (and read) my diary when I was 14, don’t put anything in writing that you wouldn’t want anyone else to read.
