Social media offers a tantalizing opportunity for employers to gain some insight

Question

Social media offers a tantalizing opportunity for employers to gain some insight into the personal lives and preferences of their employees It is also a way to detect potential problems and weed out unattractive job applicants. It is fairly common for employers and head hunters to check out a candidate's background and qualifications on social media They are interested in seeing what a person's Facebook page reveals about his or her skills, personality, political leanings, recreational activi- ties, and so forth. Job candidates who have been indiscreet, who have posted inappropriate photos or sent provocative tweets, may find that good job opportunities are passing them by Some human resources (HR) specialists and consultants also con- tend that this monitoring of social media should continue even after worker has been hired. Advocates of such monitoring point to many examples of employees posting inappropriate material such as private or confidential information. Some hospital employees, for example, have been discovered discussing the sensitive details of a patient's medical history on their Facebook pages in direct violation of HIPAA. Others cite examples 6f how employees use Twitter or Facebook to put the company they work for in a bad light by making harmful and pejorative statements, often full of hyperbole. According to Nancy Flynn, "Strict monitoring allows employers to spot potential problems early land] get the information offline as quickly as possible."" 67 These consultants, therefore, argue that companies should monitor the social media sites of both their prospective and current employees There are many benefits of such monitoring both for employers and for employees, such as a tradeoff of privacy for the guarantee of greater job security. Other HR professionals disagree with this policy even if the trend among younger workers is to be more obliging. Cary Cooper, distinguished professor of organizational psychology and health at Lancaster University, regards this monitoring as "a plain case of trying to find out what employees are doing and thinking-clearly an intrusion o their private life. I see no HR justification for it whatsoever."68 Questions 1. Where do you stand on the issue of social media monitoring by employers? What should be the scope of such monitoring? Do you agree with Mr. Cooper's claim that there is no justification for this activity? 2. Do you agree with the research suggesting this monitoring wil intensify in the future

Explanation / Answer

I strongly disagree with the employers who monitor their employees on the social networking sites. This is purely an intrusion into one’s private life. The employees get paid for the service they do for the company, when they come out of the company, they should be able to live as a normal person with their own perspectives on life, so, their social media activities are part of their personal life. One of the most disgusting and harsh reality is that our employers have occupied our life 24*7. This brings out a fundamental question, are we humans or humanoids? I agree with Mr. Cooper that there is no justification for this activity. Let the corporate world understand that we are not their slaves and we have a life outside work and that shouldn’t be determined by the employers. Being on one’s social network page as a friend is different from acting like a security or moral police who follows one to find faults is not an ethical act. We are becoming slaves without being aware that we are becoming one. The harsh reality is that in the name of modernity and technology, we are selling even our personal life to the employers who as moral police in the digital era.

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