Finally understand the Facebook no-no's

Nurses Relations

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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.

Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

If you can post on fb you can go to work.

What? Seriously? I'm posting on all nurses and facebook and I'm unable to work, the details of my illness are private, but i will say that I CAN put a laptop on my lap and still type and read. If not for the enjoyment of FB, AN, and an occasional game of Wii, I would be going stir crazy about now. BTW, co-workers are not part of my facebook account. I like my co workers, but business and pleasure do not mix in my opinion! For those who choose to keep co workers on their face book more power to ya. But I for one do not feel like I should "self police" myself! I type and post what I want!!!

Merry Christmas every one!

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Good grief. I could be sick with the flu and have a temp of 101 and I could still post on FB. I wouldn't go to work and spread it all around to my coworkers.

Why would you even want to be posting on FB if you're that sick? :confused:

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.

Agree.

Specializes in School LVN, Peds HH.

I've been reading the thread to my fiancé as we're traveling for Christmas and he felt the need to respond.

"I can see where these people are coming from. I mean posting on FB is the same as running a mile!"

Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

You can lie in bed with a laptop... I guess we can't watch tv or talk on the phone if we are sick, either. :rolleyes:

Why would you even want to be posting on FB if you're that sick? :confused:

There were times when I was far too sick to go to work but not so sick as to be completely bedridden. Stomach flu is a good example... need to be near my porcelain throne but no business being at work when potentially contagious. Sometimes internet access is the only contact with the outside world!

Specializes in Oncology.

I think there is this ever-increasing need for most people (myself included) to "update" with statuses on our lives in order to justify things sometimes. For example, if I tell a classmate that I don't feel well, or can't come to a family function because of work commitment, then I am likely to mention it on Facebook. I don't really know why I do this except that I really don't want someone to think I'm lying to them, and whether or not I believe it, a lot of people do think that if you're on the computer, you must not be that sick.

I honestly believe that sometimes you just need a mental health day, and those should be justified as long as you are not exceeding your facility's attendance policies. I wholeheartedly believe that your sick days, PTO, whatever it is should be your own business. If your facility requires doctor's notes, then you're aware of that and can make the proper arrangements to obtain such when calling out. Otherwise you shouldn't be berated about your callouts until it becomes a discipline issue (and everyone knows the difference). In my experience, it seems that managers play favorites when it comes to attendance policies. I've worked with employees that should have been fired 5 points ago, but were still around because the manager liked them. Yet there might be an employee the manager doesn't like that's late a couple of times and they are on their final warning.

Regardless, I think Facebook should always be used with caution. My privacy settings are strict.

And I also don't have a profile on here for the same reason.

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
There were times when I was far too sick to go to work but not so sick as to be completely bedridden. Stomach flu is a good example... need to be near my porcelain throne but no business being at work when potentially contagious. Sometimes internet access is the only contact with the outside world!

Again...if you are barfing your brains out, why would you want to be posting? I don't get it. :confused:

Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
Why would you even want to be posting on FB if you're that sick? :confused:

I've posted on FB to communicate with family when I've been sick, I could pick up the telephone instead or shoot over an email but sometimes its easier to make a quick post on facebook. Oh, I wasn't barfing at that particular moment which I'm sure my computer was happy about. JK. I don't see why its such a big deal, unless of course one might have tattling coworker to try and blow it out of proportion. I just have close friends and family on my face book so I don't worry about it anyway.

Furthermore, I've even gone to WebMD to check out certain s/s or to learn more about medication my doctor may have put me on. Just because I'm sick doesn't mean I can't have my laptop. I like to sleep a lot when I'm sick but I can't just totally shut myself off from every thing.

My thoughts........Just don't have coworkers as friends on face book. Its no one's business but our own as to what we choose to do when we're sick!

Specializes in Medical Surgical Orthopedic.

I've called in sick before and spent all night on the internet (facebook) playing games. And if my supervisor wanted to pay me to go in and sit on the internet all night in my pajamas, I would have. That's very different from handling the needs of 6+ patients.

Why would you even want to be posting on FB if you're that sick? :confused:

Does it matter? I'm sure there are things that I do when sick but conscious enough to be bored that you wouldn't find interesting and vice versa. I'm not sure what else there is to "get" here.

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

I guess not.

Then again, I know no one will ever be able to tag me for spending a sick day on FB. ;)

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