Friend is sending FB requests to all ICU/ER nurses

Nurses General Nursing

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I have a friend/coworker that really wants to work in the ICU or the ER. She was thinking about looking up ALL the nurses at a hospital who work in any ICU or the ER and sending them a friend request on Facebook. This would mean sending hundreds of Facebook friend requests. She feels this may be a good way to network. I've told her that it is probably not a good idea. Nurses talk to each other, so they may pick up on her odd behavior, which could actually hurt her chances of ever landing one of these positions. Some may consider it to be stalking and report her to Facebook. Her account could be closed if she sends too many friend requests to people who don't know her or don't want her friend request. Her obsession with these positions and the people who work them is a bit excessive, really. Anyway, I haven't been able to convince her that this is a bad idea. I'm pretty sure she's already sent out Facebook requests to these people. What would you to say to someone like this?

Specializes in Psychiatry.

Say no more. Some people learn the hard way.

cleback

1,381 Posts

Maybe suggest searching for the manager on linkedin instead? Gently remind her Facebook is for friends and family, linkedin is for career networking.

Disclaimer is I don't know the "rules" for linkedin either but I hope it would be less creepy.

NurseSince2014

71 Posts

That's a good idea and one that I hadn't thought of, since I don't personally use LinkedIn. With that, she probably could get more information as to how to obtain some of the roles she is seeking than she ever would on Facebook. Having these people as Facebook friends would only give her access to personal information that she doesn't need to know. It seems likely that people would be more receptive to responding to request/answering questions on LinkedIn as well. Otherwise, by seeking friendship requests on Facebook, it just makes her appear obsessed with them for some reason.

ICU-BSN

54 Posts

Specializes in Trauma ICU.

If a random person sends me a FB request, I ignore it. That's likely to happen with many of the requests she sent out.

Why doesn't she go to these units in person and introduce herself to management? She could express interest in person, perhaps even ask for a shadow experience to learn more about it. I think that would go a lot farther towards her career goals than randomly friending people on FB.

KelRN215, BSN, RN

1 Article; 7,349 Posts

Specializes in Pedi.

Many people don't post their work information on facebook at all or don't update it when they change jobs. I took all my work information off facebook years ago, for example. And even if people post that they work for the hospital, most people probably don't publicly share which unit they work on. This is a bad plan that will in no way work out but I'd leave it alone. If anything, I would actually expect this plan to do more harm than good. People eventually will put 2 and 2 together and realize that they've all been friended by the same crazy person and will judge her as someone they don't want to work with. I would also ignore the friend request but if I heard someone at work mention they received the same request, would probably get into a discussion with them about it.

Facebook is not how you network. It's less creepy to connect with people on LinkedIn that you don't kow because the purpose of LinkedIn is for networking. I usually will accept connections on LinkedIn that I don't know personally if it's a recruiter or someone who seems like they could be in some way useful for me at some point in my career. A random person who just wants a job at my employer I wouldn't though.

pro-student

359 Posts

Wow, that's creepy as hell. What is she expecting? Since her resume isn't impressive enough to get any consideration, her FB stalking skills will?

K+MgSO4, BSN

1,753 Posts

Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

What does she think friending staff on the floors is going to achieve?

I, like many managers lock our FB down tight and don't accept stranger requests....

This screams irrational to me!

NurseSince2014

71 Posts

I honestly don't understand her thought process. I've never heard of anyone receiving a job based on who their Facebook friends are. How many of us have friends on Facebook that we don't truly interact with on a regular basis? Probably many of us. There's no way she can interact with all these people in a way that will convince others to hire her. I highly doubt that anyone would personally recommend anyone that they'd never met in person anyway. I do believe that this could possibly negatively affect her though, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who shares these thoughts.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN

5,879 Posts

I have a friend/coworker that really wants to work in the ICU or the ER. She was thinking about looking up ALL the nurses at a hospital who work in any ICU or the ER and sending them a friend request on Facebook. This would mean sending hundreds of Facebook friend requests. She feels this may be a good way to network. I've told her that it is probably not a good idea. Nurses talk to each other, so they may pick up on her odd behavior, which could actually hurt her chances of ever landing one of these positions. Some may consider it to be stalking and report her to Facebook. Her account could be closed if she sends too many friend requests to people who don't know her or don't want her friend request. Her obsession with these positions and the people who work them is a bit excessive, really. Anyway, I haven't been able to convince her that this is a bad idea. I'm pretty sure she's already sent out Facebook requests to these people. What would you to say to someone like this?

If she's already done it, what else is there to say?

KelRN215, BSN, RN

1 Article; 7,349 Posts

Specializes in Pedi.
I honestly don't understand her thought process. I've never heard of anyone receiving a job based on who their Facebook friends are. How many of us have friends on Facebook that we don't truly interact with on a regular basis? Probably many of us. There's no way she can interact with all these people in a way that will convince others to hire her. I highly doubt that anyone would personally recommend anyone that they'd never met in person anyway. I do believe that this could possibly negatively affect her though, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who shares these thoughts.

Of my 959 Facebook friends, I probably regularly interact with about 7 of them. No one is going to go out of their way to recommend a stranger for a job.

NurseSince2014

71 Posts

If she's already done it, what else is there to say?

Not much, really. However, I was thinking there was a chance that she hadn't sent a request out to absolutely everyone yet, so was wondering if there was a way to convince her not to do so. A few random friend requests, here and there, might simply seem like mistakes. It happens--I know I've accidently sent a friend request to someone I didn't know. However, if she sends out hundreds, then that's going to make her look bad, and she likely wouldn't even be able to defend herself by stating she accidently pushed the wrong button.

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