ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2007 > August > 13 > Entry
Friends with your boss?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Your boss sends you an invitation to be her “friend” on MySpace. Do you accept and invite her into your “cyber” world?
A place where you share photos, invite people to parties and update your inner circle on what’s new in your life? A refuge that allows you to actually escape from the pressures of the office? Or…do you ignore her invite and hope she will forget about it!? Actually, neither.
I posed this “workplace cyber” drama to a group of emerging managers in a recent leadership seminar. Opinion was unanimous that you need to tread carefully in this situation. The group suggested that you should have a conversation with your manager and politely but firmly refuse. For instance you could say, “Thanks for reaching out to me. I make it a policy not to mix my personal and business lives. However, I would be happy to have lunch or coffee if you would like to connect.”
Part of success in an organization is managing perceptions. Giving your boss access to the possible off color remarks of your friends or the photos from the latest bachelor party probably won’t help when raise time comes around.
What are your thoughts on this one? Have a healthy rapport with your boss or is it hard to draw the lines of professionalism with him/her?
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Gina
August 13, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this
Personally, as a supervisor and the person who reports to the owner, if anybody really that has much to hide, I do not want them working for me! I have myspace, as MANY others and most of my employees do as well. The only problem that results in myspace is knowing that they have been keeping up with their personal time on the clock!
By Katie
August 16, 2007 12:50 PM | Link to this
I don’t agree with Gina in the fact that myspace is a personal website that you are allowed to post the pictures of a bachelor party or whatnot from the other night. Just because you don’t want your boss seeing all of that doesn’t mean you have something to hide. It just means that you are conscious about keeping your personal life and work life separated. When they become intertwined, personal drama turns into work drama and no one wants that to happen.
By Job30339
August 20, 2007 9:39 AM | Link to this
NO WAY!! That is why I have my myspace profile on private… so that I can talk about my boss and my crazy coworkers.If my boss sent me a friend request I would hit the deny button and keep on moving….. My coworker has one of her bosses on her myspace page and I think it’s really disturbing….. She also has pictures of her other boss on her page as well…. I am pretty sure that the boss has no idea that her pictures are spread out everywhere for everyone to see.