Bosses nervous about becoming friends with staff on Facebook: survey

A survey of 1,000 bosses in the US has revealed that almost half are nervous about becoming “friends” with their staff on social networking site Facebook.\

The survey, conducted by HR firm Robert Half, found 48% of respondents were concerned about becoming friends with employers on Facebook, while 47% of managers said they were also nervous about becoming friends with their own superiors.

Andrew Brushfield, director of Robert Half in Australia, says that while the survey is from the US, the fact that there are four million Australian Facebook users indicates that the problem is a global one.

“While the majority of people use it for social networking, an increasing number of people are using it as a tool to engage in business-related activities including sales, marketing and networking,” he says.

“Some people have been caught out in what they have listed and posted onto Facebook and other social networking sites.”

Brushfield says the key to combating Facebook embarrassment is a clear, well-articulated company policy on social media, covering when social media sites can be used, what information can be shared and, if necessary, how colleagues should interact.

“It needs to be inline with the culture of the organisation and the size of the organisation has an influence on that culture. But you need to make sure it is a well-known policy among employees so there’s coverage and protection for everyone.”

As well as company-wide social media policy, Brushfield says managers need to be prepared to understand how they will respond personal situations, such as an employer who submits a friend request.

He says managers who use Facebook should familiarise themselves with privacy settings and create different friend lists to control how and with whom information is shared.

“You need to be very conscious of who you would like to view the information on your site.”

Here are some more tips from Brushfield on handling sticky Facebook situations:

• You are tagged in an embarrassing photo. Un-tag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends.
• You are ‘friended’ by someone you do not want to connect with. It might be best to accept friend requests from colleagues to avoid slighting them, but add them to a work list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively separate your job from your personal life.
• You are considering ‘friending’ your boss. It may seem like a natural extension of amiable office small talk, but think twice before proactively ‘friending’ your boss. It could become awkward for both of you.
• You want to join various groups. You should join groups that interest you. But if you have colleagues in your network and do not want them to see the groups you join, remember to adjust your application settings.
• You would like to be a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with colleagues or business contacts in your network.
• You love quizzes. Stop and think for a moment before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page, unless you want professional contacts to find out which movie character you most resemble or personal traits you would rather them not know.