Please use some common sense on Facebook.

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I have many coworkers that are my friends on Facebook. The site has their picture, full name and place of work. They'll post negative comments about patients in general or criticize their place of employment. I realize someone can have their profile hidden; however, nothing is really hidden online. Why incriminate and play career suicide?

Has anyone else noticed this trend? Know anyone fired for facebook posts or comments?

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.

i belong to facebook because most of my dept are on it in a group.so i joined however we never talk about work.absolutely nothing work related ie staff pt families etc nothing .vacations our family holidays games etc.only.closest someone comes is i am on tonoc or on day3 thats it.i have a personal px perfectly "Pc" as my profile pic .don't see anything wrong with it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.

my daughter's friend was denied scholarship to college because of her facebook inappropriate content.

I dont post anything about patients, but I have posted about my job.

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The big problem with FB is that you have to use your full, real name. So I post next to nothing there (only joined almost by accident to see a friend's profile - and kind of regret joining). I would never dream of inviting coworkers, the hospital, or the hospital's CEO (yup - a friend of mine did that) :eek:

Posting on Allnurses is different - I do try to keep my identity as concealed as possible and would never dream of posting under my real name (or telling a coworker the name I use here).

FB is a dangerous game... never mind the wasted time! (OK, so I do spend a lot of time here :D)

DeLana

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I have my full name and pic on facebook; however, I don't have my place of employment listed. Yes, my profile is set to private; but, someone could easily hit the print button and turn a copy to HR or my boss. I keep subject matter very vanilla ice cream in nature.

My friend's friend posted that he was bored at work on his page. His pic, name and employer were listed. He was fired. I'm not saying every little comment can get you fired, but if a company is doing spring cleaning or you are a mediocre employee... it just may be that final nudge off the cliff.

Is it wrong to go out and have a few drinks with your friends? No, of course not. However, to a HR person who is thinking about hiring you. Well... what sort of first impression would you want to give? I'd say keep your profile hidden to non friends. I'd also recommend having your public profile picture something that your grandparents would be proud enough to place on their mantle.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

I have always kept my facebook and myspace (when I used too mainly use that one) private and I know every person on my friends list in some form or another. I don't trash people on it though regardless and I don't have crazy pics up, shoot my son and grandpa are on my friends list. LOL

Another dumb mistake people make is they use their same email for resumes or job prospects that they use on myspace or facebook, so all someone has to do is search the email. I mean someone in HR can search your name but if all your info is private their is no way for them to know they have the right Jane Doe to get any dirt on you. But they can search your email and pull your account right up.

When I was looking at prospective now and then babysitters I was looking on CL (I know I know I must not care about my kids to look on craigslist) anyway, I did extensive searches on any possiblities before I set up interviews. Many times I ran the emails in facebook and myspace and found public accounts with all kinds of great information that made me be sure NOT to contact them for an interview.

My favorite was this very young attractive girl with some very "wild" photos, and the best part of all was her occupation was listed as "homewrecker". Yea I crossed her off the list of potentials, she kept emailing me asking me if I was still looking for child care and kept telling me how great and responisible she was and what a homebody she was and wasn't the typical 20 year old college girl. Her myspace suggested otherwise LOL

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Specializes in Med Surg.

We've had at least one CNA suspended recently for her postings on Facebook. We also have had a couple of nurses fired for their comments about patients, families, hospital policies, etc.

I also had a classmate who was fired from a job before even starting it over comments he posted indicating he wasn't all that thrilled about the job and was only going to stay there long enough to get experience and move on. You know that employers understand that people will use them as a stepping stone but they don't want to read about it.

One of these days maybe people will figure out that these sites are VERY public and employers are not as dumb as some would like them to be.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I go by one rule: never post anything one wouldn't want one's boss, kids, or pastor to read, because all of mine are on there!! :lol2:

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I have always kept my facebook and myspace (when I used too mainly use that one) private and I know every person on my friends list in some form or another. I don't trash people on it though regardless and I don't have crazy pics up, shoot my son and grandpa are on my friends list. LOL

Another dumb mistake people make is they use their same email for resumes or job prospects that they use on myspace or facebook, so all someone has to do is search the email. I mean someone in HR can search your name but if all your info is private their is no way for them to know they have the right Jane Doe to get any dirt on you. But they can search your email and pull your account right up.

When I was looking at prospective now and then babysitters I was looking on CL (I know I know I must not care about my kids to look on craigslist) anyway, I did extensive searches on any possiblities before I set up interviews. Many times I ran the emails in facebook and myspace and found public accounts with all kinds of great information that made me be sure NOT to contact them for an interview.

My favorite was this very young attractive girl with some very "wild" photos, and the best part of all was her occupation was listed as "homewrecker". Yea I crossed her off the list of potentials, she kept emailing me asking me if I was still looking for child care and kept telling me how great and responisible she was and what a homebody she was and wasn't the typical 20 year old college girl. Her myspace suggested otherwise LOL

Heh, this is all correct.

The problem with facebook is people get too dumb and friend literally everyone who asks. People laugh at my list because it has a smaller number of people on it, but I know them all in real life and consider them friends! I still don't post dumb crap on there, but at the same time, my profile is hidden, you can't find me by my name, and I never use the email address I normally use for job related stuff.

Other than that, I think people need to stop worrying so much. Make your stuff private, only friend people you literally know in reali life and you should be ok.

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.
I realize someone can have their profile hidden; however, nothing is really hidden online. Why incriminate and play career suicide?

All it takes is for someone to take a screenshot of the person's Facebook/MySpace page and send it to management and the person's career can be over.

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see next post...

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We had one girl that would post things with a little too much info about patients. Someone ratted her out to management. I'm not sure that she got in trouble but we got emails and warnings stating that violating hippa is a termination offense.

Even if you "think" they are your friends you never know who will rat you out!

Maybe the colleague just thought enough about the importance of patients' privacy that she chose that route to address the issue, rather than confront the poster personally. I can understand, and would not consider that 'ratting' someone out. Patient privacy is paramount to ethical nursing. If you don't consider it that way, check out your nursing code of practice, wherever you live and work. :twocents:

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You also have to remember that if you respond to someones post...all of their friends can see it. Even if they are not your friend. It really isn't just all about personal information, stupid comments and putting down your workplace, those "partying pictures" all could do damage to your career!

:up: In addition to using common sense for all the professional reasons, see this CNN site that shows you how to tighten up your privacy settings. There is no reason why 'all their friends can see it' when you make changes or write postings; you just have to know how to make the privacy settings work for you.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/12/fixing.your.facebook/index.html

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