Employers' Background Investigation (i.e. social media)

[Guest 1152923]

I have an interview Monday with a potential employer and am hoping that they extend an offer.  In anticipation of a background investigation, I am considering suspending my AN and social media accounts.  I try to maintain a degree of anonymity and have never written anything super controversial or outing former employers, but some of my post on AN, although truthful, are less than flattering.  Because all my accounts are tied to an email which can be traced back to me, what do you recommend?

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

Do you think that an employer can access that level of information from your AN account I.e. get into "morelostthanfound" and associate that with an email address?

[Davey Do]

If suspending your social media accounts increases your feeling of comfortability, by all means, do so, MLTF.

However, if I were considering this, I'd label myself as being on this side of paranoid. But I've always been one to live on the edge and push the envelope.

We currently have certain freedoms which allow us things like free speech within the bounds of appropriateness. I know those boundaries and am relatively comfortable with who I am, so I'm not going to cave in and kowtow due to perceived fears.

1 minute ago, Jedrnurse said:

Do you think that an employer can access that level of information from your AN account I.e. get into "morelostthanfound" and associate that with an email address?

Yes, based on empirical evidence, an employer can access your AN account and use what is posted as grounds for termination

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

9 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

Yes, based on empirical evidence, an employer can access your AN account and use what is posted as grounds for termination

I don't know a lot about the intricacies of this- is it essentially hacking?

[Davey Do]

10 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

I don't know a lot about the intricacies of this- is it essentially hacking?

No.

By merely entering a username in the search option, for example, submitted posts will pop up.

I just entered my username in the search option, and tried it again with "morelostthanfound", and an array of threads and posts that contained our usernames popped up.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

12 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

No.

By merely entering a username in the search option, for example, submitted posts will pop up.

I just entered my username in the search option, and tried it again with "morelostthanfound", and an array of threads and posts that contained our usernames popped up.

Oh, I get that. I just don't understand how that traces back to a person's "real" name and email identity.

[Davey Do]

Just now, Jedrnurse said:

Oh, I get that. I just don't understand how that traces back to a person's "real" name and email identity.

An example: Work with nurses, tell them you're a member of AN & your username, and one of them informs HR. HR  looks up your posts, makes copies, and uses them as evidence that you breached confidentiality. Or in MLTF's case "truthful, but less than flattering posts".

I don't know about the email thing.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

4 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

An example: Work with nurses, tell them you're a member of AN & your username, and one of them informs HR. HR  looks up your posts, makes copies, and uses them as evidence that you breached confidentiality. Or in MLTF's case "truthful, but less than flattering posts".

I don't know about the email thing.

Ah, that's the piece I was missing. It's good then that not a soul around me knows what AN even is...

If anyone ever should ask, I'll tell them my username is "Goodandfaithfulemployee"

[Davey Do]

If it wasn't AN, it would have been whatever else HR could trump up.

 I have documentation from governmental and legal authorities that state there was no evidence the reason for termination was justified.

If they're out to get you, they will, which, again, sounds just a little like this side of paranoid.

[LovingLife123]

I don’t think they can access your AN account through your email.  I don’t think they delve that deep.

I recently had a background check done for a job.  I received a copy of it.  None of my social media was in it.  
 

It was actually a pretty extensive background check.  

[Emergent, RN]

I advise to either suspend, or do a thorough cleanup. Your facebook looks pretty benign to me. 

[klone, MSN, RN]

5 hours ago, LovingLife123 said:

I don’t think they can access your AN account through your email.  I don’t think they delve that deep.

I recently had a background check done for a job.  I received a copy of it.  None of my social media was in it.  
 

It was actually a pretty extensive background check.  

That's different. Hiring managers can and do search people's names on social media and dig around in their profiles, completely outside of the formal background check.

When I applied for a director job, the CNO/hiring supervisor mentioned a news article I was in in a newspaper half the country away. She found it by googling my name.