There is too much information available out there, it is overwhelming! Some of that information is private. We upload it to share it with friends and family, to remember good and fun times. However, it seems that privacy is no longer there. Everyone has access to information that should not concern them.
I find it upsetting to see that people are granted or denied jobs based on their pictures and profiles in facebook or myspace. I think that a line should be drawn between professional and personal lives. As long as a person is able to behave professionally in their jobs, what they do in their spare time or the past should not concern employers.
It is unbelievable that the past can haunt you for so long. A position should not be denied to a person because of their personal lives. A beer or a frat party should not determine whether I am capable of performing a job or not. Basing a decision on a profile could lead the employer to overlook more important details that affect the performance in the job more directly. It could lead to a company losing an extremely valuable person because of their past or private lives.
Therefore, I believe that it should be illegal to look up your personal information online. However, I find that more difficult to control, so we should at least clean up our profiles and even if there are bad things posted online, we should make sure that there are more positive things to counter balance it.
I believe that these new emerging companies who manage profiles are going to be very profitable in the future. We don’t have the time to find our negative information and I believe that we aren’t even sure of how to begin looking for it.
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3 comments:
I hope that this trend of employers looking up personal information online is not a growing trend; however, we need to be prepared for it by maiantaining a good online reputation. I agree that getting drunk and doing something crazy at a party does not make you an undesirable employee and should have no bearing on an employment decision, but we need to do what we can to keep our private life private by not posting incriminating pictures or information, just like we would not voluntarily send them into a newspaper.
I know that in principle we should not have to take these measures, but the reality is that we do in order to achieve certain objectives, such as getting a good job.
In regards to what we post on the internet about ourselves, whether it's what we write, photos, or videos, we are still posting to a public forum. It's okay if companies want to look, because we've made it available. What we put out there is similar to what they may find out about us if they go around asking people about us in a "word of mouth" manner.
What we do in our personal lives is separate from our professional lives, however, our behavior outside work does represent our values and even if those values are not ones we express while at work, they are still who we are. If i am openly racist outside of work, but I work at an international firm, that reflects on my character. That part of who I am affects the people around me, including my clients, and may very well be something that clashes strongly with company culture.
At the same time there are companies that encourage socializing over happy hour to pull in clients. In that case, I think it's safe to assume that drinking socially with friends is accepted by the employer.
I do agree that if we were once part of a fraternity and drank alcohol at parties, there should be some leeway in regards to how a company views an individual. Alcohol is very much a part of Americans, but unfortunately the alcohol culture of this country has a very bad image, one associated with drinking to achieve a certain mental state, lose all inhibitions, and have a good time.
daniela,
i had the same views you have about employers looking up your personal information when deciding to hire you. after we discussed it in class i have come to the conclusion that it is important for them to see what you are all about. in interviews you are not your true self, you try to be the person they want you to be. so we have only one option, be careful what information is available about us in the internet.
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