Hands Off My Social Media Password!

It's happened to more people than you think. Innocently, they post a picture or a status on their Facebook or Twitter page, and the next thing they know, their shot at that new job is dashed.

Like it or not, social media is here to stay, so the question is: Should an employer be allowed to access your personal social media accounts? From an employee's perspective, the obvious answer is, "No way! Why should a company get access to my personal account?"

After all, if you're just posting pictures of your friends and talking about the new place you ate at for lunch, what business is it of your employer what you talk about on Facebook and Twitter? Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

For one thing, an employer's reputation can be compromised if it turns out that one of their employees is a stripper, a recreational drug user, or even someone with unpopular political views. Where you work is a significant part of your life, and that means you're likely to say something about work at some point.

Fair or not, the employer has a stake in seeing whether the things you say about work are positive or negative.

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Recent Laws on Social Media

Recently, California and Illinois joined a number of other states in barring employers from requesting access to a job seeker or employee's social media account. In one instance, a teacher's aide was fired because a parent saw an inappropriate photo on the aide's Facebook page, and the aide refused to give up the password to her Facebook account when disciplinary measures were taken.

This sort of example highlights both the employer's interest in policing its employees' social media presence, and the employees' interest in maintaining privacy. These new laws explicitly prohibit employers from asking for passwords, requiring an employee to "friend" someone from human resources, or demanding that the worker delete their social media account as a condition of hiring or employment.

Most importantly, these laws prohibit employees from firing someone for failing to comply with such requests. Since that's where the employer has leverage, it's a significant blow to their cause. Overall, these developments suggest that the debate might be edging in favor of the worker over the employer, but even so, the employer continues to wield some influence.

For one thing, employers can still perform traditional background checks that include credit history, drug screening, criminal background, etc. They also can view any parts of an employee's online profile that is publicly available (i.e. that wouldn't require log-in credentials to access).

Finally, they are still able to monitor their employees' company email and any data stored on company computers. If an employer is motivated to keep tabs on an employee, they have options.

Clearly, the debate is far from over. Both employees and employers have valid arguments to support their point of view, and it will take time to see where the compromise is reached. Until then, be careful what you put online—your employer just might be watching.

  Laura Cisco

About the Guest Author:

Laura Cisco is a human resources professional who is very careful how she uses social media and advises the same of employees she hires. She contributes to HR resources on line, such as Best Online HR Degree Programs.