Social Media and Employers

I've heard it in the news lately that a growing number of employers are asking job applicants for their Facebook and Twitter passwords if they can't view their profiles.

It's highly unlikely that anyone I would ever work for would ask for such a thing, but my answer would be simple.

Give me your house keys.

Asking for FB passwords is a huge, egregious invasion of privacy. Employers are not allowed to ask for sexual orientation, race, religious beliefs. By poking around on FB they can find out everything and more. How many people have pictures on their pages where they have a drink in their hands? They may not have put them there, but someone did. How many people have posted that they don't want to go to work? Does that make them a bad employee? No. It makes them human. Sometimes people don't want to go to work for whatever reason. Many people go to work when they are sick because they are afraid to lose their jobs. And they post it on FB or Twitter.

FB profiles are not really an accurate reflection of a person. It is either someone they want to be, or someplace they can be more than they are. How many people portray their lives as something awesome when it's just ordinary? Most posts I see are completely inconsequential. "I had a cheese sandwich for lunch. Mmmm I like cheese." Is this kind of trivial stuff of any interest to an employer? I really can't imagine.

I would ask for the house keys of the HR person, the CEO, the company president, and others. I would tell them that I want to see if I would like the morals of the people I'm working for. I want to check under the bed in that shoe box. I want to see what is in box in the upper right hand corner of the top shelf of the closet. I'm figuring I will find sex toys and tranny porn. And probably some guns.

Would they say I have no right to that kind of a search of their privacy? Well, then, they have no right to see my social media. When they refused to give me their house keys I would get up and thank them for their time and leave.

I don't want to work for anyone that pries into their employee's lives in such a manner. It's work.