Finally understand the Facebook no-no's

[raebabelvn, LVN]

I've been having a lot of problems with a co-worker lately, and when she requested to be my FB friend, I thought about it long and hard before I accepted. I'm a nice person, and I give people the benefit of the doubt the majority of the time. She had been a lil nicer to me, so I thought this might be her way of mending bridges.

Wrong.

I have a nasty cold. One of those ones that settles into your chest and hangs on for days. Two days ago, I slept all day, then attempted to keep my dinner plans I had made a week or so ago. I would've canceled but its for a younger girl that I mentor. I went to dinner, and I was miserable. Could barely breathe, and I was exhausted when I arrived home. Up until that point, I had been feeling ok and I was going to try working, but once I got home, I knew I couldn't manage a 10 hour shift. I called in. I posted a status about needing lots of breathing tx's and sleep, and I thanked the young girl for putting up with my miserably sick self while at dinner.

I received a call from my nursing supervisor the next morning. Basically, my co-worker knew I called out, and she saw this status. This status had nothing to do with work, and in my opinion, isn't even incriminating. She "misread" it and told my supervisor that I went out to dinner after I had called in. I had to explain to my supervisor that I had attempted to go out to dinner before I called in, but was so sick I left early. She was still angry and told me that "it didn't look good" and asked why I even went out to dinner. So, I explained that the plans had been made for a week, and it was with a younger girl I mentor. Its been a rough week between me getting sick and my gramma being in the hospital. I was just trying to fit promised time in with the girl. That seemed to shut her up a bit.

After that, I immediately deleted the co-worker. I never post anything about work, or closely related to work on my FB as I know what can happen. I have learned my lesson. Work and FB do NOT mix.

[2126]

I've completely deleted my account due to this. I don't want to know about other people and I don't want other people to know about my personal life either. Anyone who I need to stay in touch with, I stay in touch with through e-mail. Everyone else is not important. Just my :-)

[NJMike]

That's why I don't have a fb.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I know many nurses like your co-worker. There are so many petty tattle-tales in nursing. Hope you feel better.

[Belle Epoque]

It sucks learning the hard way, but at least you learned!

Your supervisor had no business asking "why you went out to dinner", nor do you have any obligation to "explain" when the plans were made or who you went to dinner with. Next thing you know we'll have to run every detail of our personal lives by our employers for approval. No way.

I would have simply deleted the status, deleted the "friend" and stated that I was simply too sick to come to work. Period. The end.

[caliotter3]

This is also why I have never bothered with FB. Two relatives and a third party have asked me to join, but I refuse to change my mind. I don't see the possibility for trouble to be worth it.

[BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN]

Lesson learned. I don't agree with posters who refuse to have a FB account, or deleting it bc of things like this. You just need to practice common sense. Although my page is private (including my statices that can only be read by friends), I post as if the whole world is wAtching (this includes my students, colleagues, bosses, my ex, my child and my parents). You just never know who can access it (ie, friends of friends).

FB is used in so many different ways; while some of my friends give hourly status updates, others never ever put a status up. Sometimes you need to resist the temptation of letting everyone know what you're up to.

[OCNRN63, RN]

I rarely ever post on FB to begin with, but I would never, under any circumstances, post if I had called off sick. If you're too sick to be at work, you're too sick to be on FB.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I try to always listen to my gut feelings when it comes to situations like this.

[elkpark]

I'm another of the folks who can't imagine why anyone would want to participate in FB and similar sites. I would no sooner participate in anything like that than I would post general information about my life on the bulletin board at my supermarket (in fact, I would be less concerned about posting info at the supermarket than I would be about posting it on the internet). I have no difficulty communicating with the people I care about directly via e-mail. I recognize I'm in the minority on this, but I don't have a problem with that.

[merlee]

I love my facebook account, have caught up with many, many people from high school, and the 'old' neighborhood.

Mostly talk about weather, movies, politics, and some you-tube fun.

It can be fun when used wisely; but that in itself means self-policing.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I like facebook for keeping in touch with classmates, friends and especially family (I've had more contact with extended family in the last year or so everyone's been on FB than I have in my life).

But I'm going to keep it separate from work- no employer info on FB, no coworker friend requests. I check my profile regularly to make sure I have the tightest privacy settings, and never post anything I wouldn't want my grandma (or my dad, or my great aunt, or my cousins, etc) to see.

[Flames9_RN, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Use FB all the time, but don't accept everyone to my friends list, nor do I post what I am doing on there!!!

[MtBpsy9609]

If you're too sick to be at work, you're too sick to be on FB.

Agree! Your co-workers are stuck working short due to the whole in the schedule your calling in created while you are obviously well enough to be posting on and reading facebook. I don't blame the co-worker or NM for asking you about this.