Posted in seccion blog - Blog
During lunchtime a lot of different things can be discussed in the office. Starting with the delicious meals that your mother has been always preparing for you (and she still keeps doing it), the results of the recent football match or even have exciting debates analyzing all kinds of topical situations.
Today, somewhere between the first and the second sandwich one of my colleagues was telling us about the party he went to on Saturday night. He was so willing to share the news with the rest that he told us he was going to upload the photos on Facebook so that everyone could see him dancing on a bar. Another colleague made a comment, asking him if he thought it was wise to post these photos in a social network where they could be seen by one of the bosses or clients. There was a moment of silence in the kitchen. Nobody was chewing or moving. Everybody was waiting for something that was going to happen in an instant..and the silence exploded. Everybody was discussing, persisting in their opinions without taking notice of the fact that others were listening. The volume of voices and the temperature in the room was rising. The expressed ideas were hardly audible when one of the colleagues slammed the door and everybody stopped talking.
From this moment the discussion was recommenced, but with more respect towards the interlocutors. Some said that they were in favour of publishing whatever and wherever you wanted to, given that these are social networks where you can express yourself. The line between your professional and personal life is clearly established and that everything that you do out of your labour hours must be respected. On the other hand, there were those who pointed out that you are the same person in your workplace and in a meeting with friends. This is why you have to be very careful, even if we are talking about a social network. You never know who might see your profile, and what could be their judgement. This opinion is clearly expressed in all these news, where it is said that some people were fired because of certain photos or some comments made about their superiors. Few days ago there was a piece of news about an American congressman who had to resign from his position due to some photos where he appeared in an inappropriate way (http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/954976/0/dimite/congresista/contactos/).
Let us continue with the debate: Finally, I agreed with those who thought it was best to control the appearance of different profiles one might have in internet. In case of posting a photo where you do not look professionally, make sure that it could not be seen by those, who do not really need to see it. This, of course, would be the best option, but to be honest, each of us knows that nowadays, whether you like it or not, people can even find your account number, if they really want to, and finding some photos in a social network is way easier than that.
We did not discuss if it was right to fire a person for posting inappropriate photos or comments about their bosses in a social network. The topic of the discussion was based on the fact that this way you put at risk your image and professional credibility in front of the person that might see your profile (your boss, a client, a possible employer, a competitor or just a random internet surfer). Of course, both parties have the right to hold their opinion, but eventually we have to take one of the sides. Regarding the selection part, which is my primary occupation, we have always been looking for references in order to evaluate a candidate. That is why, it is possible that someone will call the companies that you worked for or just Google your name. You can not even imagine how many things are there in the cyberspace. This way, it is up to you to decide which grade of visibility should your profile have, as well as the image that you want to transmit to whoever might see you, because the person that sees your profile will not waste the time to think which part of your personality you are showing in every moment.
