So, most of you know that your facebook can be viewed/monitored by employers. But I know a girl who got fired a few weeks ago because her boss used her email from her application TO FIND HER TUMBLR – where she had said some not nice things about her boss, job and coworkers.
And after some discussion, a worker who over heard the conversation for a Staffing Company confessed that they use your email to find you on several social networking sites (Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook being the first ones they check) and that they recommend it to employers as well.
You can prevent this on Tumblr by deselecting the “let people look me up by this address” box. It also helps to never tag your name, or have your full name on your blog if it’s also searchable by search engines.
It was just brought to my attention to post this because if your out on your blog, but not IRL, your employer could potentially out you to your coworkers, friends or family. Plus I also think it’s a huge violation of privacy, since some of these blogs are outlets from your everyday life. So protect yourself fellow bloggers 🙂
I want to add to this that this is also true even if you don’t use your email address. A girl from my school—which, btw, does not hesitate to put you on academic probation with expulsion for the second offense of the vague charge of “unprofessionalism” of all things—was a member of the same rather… um… biting healthcare blog that I was a member of. She’d submitted a funny post there obviously critical of her school, so I went to her page… and there was her selfie. I saw her at school the next day, told her I’d stumbled across her Tumblr and warned her to at least take the selfie down… but if I’d been a teacher (like I will be next year…) and not a student? That alone could have sent her straight to the honor committee. Be careful, folks—you never know who’s out there.
#queue you!#tumblr reference#this is why I have a separate e-mail address for job appilcations and the likes#so no one at my job finds out about my online nickname#and gets the idea to search for me
What Momo says is a good idea.
Also don’t just skim over the privacy settings. Become familiar with them. Check on them occasionally to be aware of when they change.
Most companies are more inclined to check Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but it’s always a good idea to know where your own boundaries lie. What are you okay with people knowing? How much are you willing to let the lines blur between fandom, friends, family, and professional colleagues? What are the risks if they find out more than you intended? And then act accordingly when it comes to sharing (or not) personally identifying information.