Facebook almost cost me my job

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Hi AN family,

This topic has been discussed throughout many threads but I wanted to designate a single thread to this issue. I am a Facebook junkie just like many people from my generation.

I would never post anything patient related or anything that would breach HIPAA. I posted a very tongue-in-cheek status about the daily struggles of nursing (such as drug seeking patients, non-compliant patients, and the patients with a grand sense of entitlement to name a few).

It was meant to be sarcastic and humorous. Well, long story short, HR got a hold of it and almost fired me for it. They said it made me look like a cold, callous nurse and that doesn't sit well with their core values as a facility.

My point of this thread is to be extremely careful about what you post on the internet. My page was as private as it could be but they managed to view it through a "friend's" page.

Luckily, I was able to keep my job and learned a valuable lesson. Don't post work related ANYTHING on your social networking sites.

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Wow!!!! I think that is absolutely overboard that this situation even made its way to HR. If I were you, I'd really like to know who "leaked" that information. I do agree that this is a lesson learned, but I think people take facebook posts WAY too seriously. Good luck in the future!

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Specializes in Telemetry.

I think that no one should ever post anything about their job, especially if it's negative...! It does make yourself as well as, the company look bad!

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Specializes in Telemetry.

Save your rants for Allnurses :)

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I am sorry to hear that happened to you. Facebook is dangerous for all jobs, not just nursing.

Next time, just vent on here :)

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I think our world is corrupt now that literally everyone has facebook. not gonna lie, i'm a user of it too. But I do wish i wouldn't have ever signed up for it 5 years ago when it used to be just a 'college' network. Now i'm too far into it, and it's hard to let it go.. ahhh dumb! But honestly, right now I like this site allnurses wayyy more than facebook..haha. theres a lot of valuable info on this site and it's good to know that there are a lot of us going through the same thing, depending on different situations. I think that your job took it way out of hand too, really? you getting fired for that?? ridiculous. but anyway, at least now you know not to put anything like that on fb ever again. lesson learned.

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Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

Some cartoons from my powerpoint on social networking and image handling:

Picture1.jpg

Be secure

Picture2.jpg

Show restraint

Picture3.gif

Or else

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I let it go.

I used to be a user of facebook and now I'm not. It's not that difficult to do.

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Specializes in Psych, OB-GYN.
Save your rants for Allnurses :)

Before long, there might be the same stories from using this. This doesn't sit well with me, but I'm probably in the minority on this issue, so I'll just go back to my lurker corner.

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[color=#333333]when oh when will nurses learn. nothing, absolutely nothing, should be mentioned on fb re professional life.

[color=#333333]branding differentiates one provider from another and seeks to position them as the facility of choice. regardless of the fact that your post might be intended as humorous and tongue-in-cheek, if you, as author, can be connected to your place of employment, then the powers that be will not look kindly on it.

consider it lesson learned, which it appears you have. sounds like you have a pretty spot-on take on daily struggles of nursing. don't let it go to waste--- bring it over here :) :)

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

Yeah, I keep it pretty neutral and only post positive things about my job. If I have a bad day, I just say something like TGIF.

I work with this one nurse who has befriended a lot of people at work. She posted something horrible about our manager on another nurses page. Somebody (and I do know who) told the DNS what nurse x had posted. Nurse X was taken to HR and given a lecture, but kept her job. Now her facebook page is supposedly private. It was private before, so don't know the difference. Anyway, this nurse booted me and another nurse off her page. She thinks WE snitched! What she doesn't know is the person that turned her in is still her friend! I'm a bit peeved that my friend and I were the accused. :confused: Whatever...

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Specializes in LTC.

Never ever do I post about work on facebook. I have a couple of co-workers on there.

I save my rants(and oh boy are they rants). for on here. and I change some details a bit sometimes.

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