Just a reminder to watch what you say!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

I have a page on a social network site. Mentioned that I had a bad night, for three nights. Recently, I got called into my boss's office. There were COPIES of my page sitting on the desk. I was told to watch what I say, because by saying I had a bad night, it was bad for the company image. Then I was told that my page would be monitered closely for the next few months:mad: I went home and immediately upped my privacy settings to and took down my place of employment. I felt completely violated.

Just want to gently remind everyone, be very careful what you put up on websites. I don't drink, smoke or get high. I never post any inappropriate pictures. If I can get called out for posting that I had a bad night, it can happen to anyone. Oh, the world we live in....

Specializes in CVICU.

No kidding. That's ridiculous. I can understand being in trouble for publicly badmouthing a place of employment or putting out patient information, but everyone has a bad night or a few and it doesn't reflect badly on the place of employment. That's just life. If every day at work was fantastic, they wouldn't call it work, they'd call it a hobby.

On the flip side, I have only a vague "Employed at a mid-sized rural hospital somewhere in Illinois" on my FB, nowhere have I put the actual name of my employer, specifically because of stories like this one!

ETA: Why did my post show up first? I posted after WDM!

Sounds like your boss really needs to get a life.

Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

An important wake up call for each of us. Thanks for sharing.

Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

I was off work, on FMLA for a DVT last year. After being stuck at home on my butt for a week I posted on FB one day that I "finally got out of the house for a bit today". Got a call from the boss who asked if I really was sick enough to be on FMLA - umm, yeah. I hobbled my butt to the lab for a PT/INR and hobbled back in the house - whoooppee, having a good time now.

By the way, my privacy settings are very secure. The boss couldn't have read it but I think my friends/coworkers were casually talking about me and the boss overheard/misunderstood the conversation.

Specializes in Cardiology.

As a general rule of thumb in a world where all of our informtion is readily available on the internet, I never put any information about my place of employment up or even go into to much informtion about my life. This is simply because I once worked for an employer that actually one employee whose sole purpose was to search social networking sites to see what information it's employees were putting up. I knew of several people that were fired because of compaints against customers, bosses, or some other company policy. I also know that they especially monitored people that were out for things like FMLA, worker's comp, or things of that nature to see if you were doing anything that might contradict what you were out for. Such as if you went the gym but had a bad back. Becareful with what you post because you never see who is watching. I personally would not post anything not even as simple as a bad day at work on my page. NOTHING!

Specializes in Peds, School Nurse, clinical instructor.

good lesson learned....

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Happy Fourth of July.........! for we are now living within a policed state....:(

Specializes in Oncology, radiology, ICU.

I was told that we could be fired for even writing that we had a bad day on any site. It was even sent out in a hospital email not to post anything negative on any social website we belonged to. I think it's wrong that you can't post that you had a bad day or anything negative, I can understand not posting something like "my patients really sucked today" or "xyz hospital really sucks" but just saying "man today was not a good day" doesn't imply that it was work you are complaining about. Maybe it was a bad day because my dog puked all over my new shoes or I had a massive fight with my husband. I think i's more of a way to fire someone for asinine reasons.

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

I don't even post what nursing school I went to let alone where I work. You should be able to say you had a bad day at work though. Maybe you didn't feel good or something. My FB is pretty boring because I'm so paranoid. Wouldn't it be cool if you could check the hits on your FB and see who has actually looked at it?

Specializes in FNP.

First, cease and desist the self absorbed over sharing. Then, use some discretion. Before you know it, your problems related to social networking sites will have disappeared.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I work at a school. A few months ago, we had a drill that went wrong. It was nothing tragic, just a few people inconvenienced. One staffer posted about it on her facebook page, during the drill. One of her co-workers printed up the comment and went to her boss about it. Another Facebook comment led a parent to go to the school, wanting to talk to her boss.

I have a Facebook page, but 95% of the content is set to "Friends Only," and I never post about work.

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