Social media can wreck your job (and improve your life)
I had to laugh when I read an article about the negative effects that social media can have on your career! I could not resist commenting.
The article states that social media, besides its positive effects, is “also becoming the latest way for people to get job offers rescinded, reprimanded at work and even fired.” 
The article even includes a list of “Top 10 Tweets to Get You Fired” and examples of firings for things said on Facebook pages.
First off, what the article says is TRUE!
Second off, I look at the phenomenon quite differently. (You expected that, didn’t you?)
The underlying assumption of the article is that YOU want to live your “real life” (time not spent working) in fear of consequences imposed by people who control your “work life” (an oxymoron), and who would love to control your “non-work life” as well!
Sorry, I choose NOT to live my life in fear. If that means not working for control freaks, so be it!
Control freaks can rise to the tops of corporations (and governments) by “unnatural selection” and personality cloning. It, frankly, bothers them that there are things that they can see, but cannot control. (Tides must drive them nuts! ) Such individuals are frightened by the lack of control and seek to extend their control to such things (e.g., your non-work life). I personally believe that such folks build highly-structured (defined corporate layers; rules and procedures) environments in which they feel more “comfortable,” and choose to spend a lot of time there (workaholism), rather than in the chaotic, (to them) unstructured “real world.” And guess what… they want to drag you in there with them. As an analogy with chemistry in the real world, such environments that do not incorporate a little chaos (for creativity) tend to “crytallize out” with everything in perfect order and NOTHING getting accomplished. Such environments die (I have outlived 60% of mine), but (like some crystallization that occurs on a geologic time scale) it can sometimes take a VERY long time.
So… don’t do stupid things on social media, especially if you work for a place where it matters, and you want to CONTINUE to work there. If you are reprimanded for comments that are trivial or NOT so stupid, you MAY not be the person who really has the PROBLEM! (Remember Mr. Incredible’s boss…?)
You might, however, want to think about the long-term impact of living in fear on your health, your family, and the rest of your life….
(I suggest reading the book, The Joy of Not Working: A book for the retired, unemployed, and overworked, by Ernie J. Zelinski, which I first discussed in this post.)
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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