Should employers be able to check your facebook page?

Set it to private. Done.

I believe you have mis-understood the definition of freedom here my friend. In a free society you can choose to die your hair purple, cover your body in tatoos and dress any way you please. What you fail to realize is all of these choices carry with them consequences, for while you are free to make these choices those around you are free to react and judge you based on them.

Mistake number two - "I don't know where you're from that all the people with dyed hair are cunts but the ones I know are nice." Maybe true - but the bottom-line is it doesn't matter. The truth about you is meaningless in this situation - what matters is perception. If you look like a 'gangster' people's perception will be your are a gangster.

I have been managing businesses for longer than you have been alive - would I hire someone with loads of tatoos, orange hair and wearing their pants down to their knees - no. Unless I am managing a crew of ditch-diggers (a position I am quite sure you would find beneath you) then appearance does matter. My employees are the embodiment of my business, customers will deal with my clerks or waitresses far more than they do me. If my customers are uneasy having some one who looks, talks or acts out of the norm all they have to do is judge my decision with their feet - they go some where else.

I have had a beard for forty years - that too was a choice and I have been judged (unfairly in my opinion) on several cases becasue of it, missed out on a few jobs I know of - it was a choice I made and I live with the results. Time to act like a man a realize their are consequences to your decisions.

Last "lets just agree that employers and jobs (not careers) are a bunch of bullshit that wastes years of your life for some tiny paycheck." How do you pay for the tattos, purple hair, etc. - not to mention rent, food and basic living expenses? By living at home and let your parents make the choices you rejected so they can support you?

"those around you are free to react and judge you based on them."
Well duh.

"The truth about you is meaningless in this situation - what matters is perception. If you look like a 'gangster' people's perception will be your are a gangster."
No argument there. -_-

"I have been managing businesses for longer than you have been alive"
If you said that to me in person I would hug you!
Really, thank you. I've been feeling old since my birthday in July and you just
made me feel soooo young! *hug*

"no. Unless I am managing a crew of ditch-diggers (a position I am quite sure you would find beneath you)"
Yeah that is a bit beneath me.

"then appearance does matter. My employees are the embodiment of my business-"
Yeah I got sick of this subject already. lol The first time I ever looked for a job it was a guard job and the employer gave me that same speech.

"I have had a beard for forty years - that too was a choice and I have been judged (unfairly in my opinion) on several cases because of it, missed out on a few jobs I know of - it was a choice I made and I live with the results. Time to act like a man a realize their are consequences to your decisions."
Are you saying I don't know that there's consequences to the things I do? I'm not that young. Give me some credit. Geez.

"How do you pay for the tattos, purple hair, etc. - not to mention rent, food and basic living expenses? By living at home and let your parents make the choices you rejected so they can support you?"
I live with two other people, roommates/friends. I write and do photography. (Plus something else I won't mention over the internet.)
Also, I have no tattoos at all. I don't even have dyed hair. All I have is hair that barely reaches my shoulders. And also I don't dress like some gangster or punk. I just dress like me. Shoes, Comfy jeans and a t-shirt.

On the issue of Facebook:

I don't think it's wrong for businesses to glean as much information about their workers as possible. They want someone reliable for hire so their business will thrive. If people are putting their information on Facebook for everyone, aren't businesses part of the ent



We got someone who understands the service industry here. All other arguments are invalid. It's all about the customer's perception.

Stereotyping will occur whether you think its right or not. Get use to it.



It seems you understand the importance of first impressions. So, we'll move onto another post you made:



When customer's go in for service, they aren't there to get to get friendly with the workers. They are there to receive service and to be treated with respect. When they see something disagreeable or something they believe is disrespectful, they will no longer want service from the said business. Therefore, managers avoid people who might send the wrong message.



Then be a man and live with it instead of complaining?

"Then be a man and live with it instead of complaining?"
I am a man and I do live with it. I live with a lot actually.
But I have the right to bitch about it if I want to.
To be honest none of this bullshit really concerns me. I work for myself and no one else.
I was only speaking on behalf of my friends who went through this type of thing, that's all.

I think what is posted on Facebook is up to the user, and that what they post should not have any bearing on job status unless it is obviously physically detrimental to said business. I have no problem with employers Googling things, because if you don't want people to find something, don't post it. It is up to the individual to take care of themselves.

Yes, there's nothing wrong with expecting your potential hires to have a sense of professionalism. If someone's still posting drunk pictures on Facebook for all the public to see, that same degree of sloppiness will probably be found in other areas as well.

These companies have to dig deep in their pockets to make full-time hires. I think they have every right to use publicly available information in their hiring decisions.

With that sort of attitude I don't see you getting to CEO level positions.

Also +Rep to Maven you speak truth and it pretty much sums up what employers are looking for aside from skills.

"With that sort of attitude I don't see you getting to CEO level positions."
I don't want to be a CEO. -_-

It sucks that this would happen..=(. I wouldnt want people I work with to ever check out things that have to do with private life. >=/.But isnt this like invading privacy anyway? =.=

As it has been said, if you openly post it on facebook without any privacy settings, it's all fair game.

Many companies have always did some sort of background check (some, like governmental contractors, more than others) because let's face it: You wouldn't want to hire a person you know nothing about.
Facebook is just a new, and rather convenient, way for employers to gather information.

And frankly, it's peoples own dammn fault for doing stupid shit and openly posting them on facebook. If the facebook material implies that the employee is by any means actually incapable of properly doing his/her job, or is rather untrustworthy, than company should fire him/her.

In a same way that a school can, or rather has to, fire a promiscuous teacher that has sex with students all time around (if there's evidence of course), so a company can fire an idiot, drunkard, etc. if facebook has supplied evidence for them being a potential harm point to the company.

Easiest solution? Don't make a dammned facebook profile.

Or better yet, don't post emberassing/stupid shit on it.

Or even better don't do that shit in the first place. But than again, expecting a rational behavior of most facebook users, is rather asking for a miracle...

yeah true anyone could check it but still....the people you work for going out of there way to make your life hell. =-=.

Sounds pretty normal nowadays actually.

It's not like people who have this problem are saints though. And not like CEO's don't have facebook either.

Again, once you spread your stupid shit public through facebook, you have no one to blame but yourself. It's not anymore "invading" than CEO's snuffing around offices looking for stuff that can discredit their company, team managers looking out for behavior of their peers.

How can it be an invasion of privacy when you're posting it for the public to see?

Jeez.

Don't post something that you wouldn't show to your Grandmother. :)

Summary:
Warning: If you put your information on the internet, people can see it.

It is unfair of your employer to judge you based on your personal life, but the fault lies partly with yourself, does it not?

You obviously don't get my point.
Let me put it simply with your attitude you wont get anywhere that pays you large wads of cash.

But I already have. lol
Look I only have an small "attitude" because I'm on the internet.
I like to vent, okay?
I'm a different person in real life.
I'm actually pretty nice once ya get to know me.

Lol yea everyone says that but I'll get off ya back now :p

Back on topic: If you're stupid enough to go posting your latest naked pics on facebook and have your profile on public then it's your own damn fault, the employer has every right to know who their employing.
Having someone do something stupid in the store's uniform is bad for a company's image.
Anyway it doesn't stop an employer from saying they've found someone else or they believe you don't meet their requirements instead of actually saying that they don't like your giant penis tattoo on your forehead or they found your Facebook page.

This issue has been the topic of heated debate here in Old Yurop, where the natives cling to idle fancies of "privacy", for eons and it leaves me at a personal impasse!

On one hand, I can hardly be compelled to feel any sympathy whatsoever for facebook users in the first place.
On the other hand, I have even less sympathy for either stalkers or corporations and don't think they should be allowed much of anything.
Chalking this one up as "no, they certainly should not" either way. Never mind that it can't be enforced - wasn't part of the question.

PS: the bill described in the article is hilariously German, and quite telling of the teutonic approach to the internet.