Facebook, MySpace may get you fired

This archived article was written by: Caitlin Wright

More and more, employers are turning to web pages to narrow down the applicants for a job. In John Murawski’s article, Stray Remarks Can Hurt Job Searches,
“When people go into a job interview, they think long and hard how they’re going to answer questions and what they put on their resume,” said Patti Bartis, a Raleigh employment lawyer. “You should also care about what you put out in the public domain about yourself.” Isn’t free speech protected? “Private employers don’t have any obligation to protect free speech,” Bartis said.
Margarita Bauza writes “Pablo Malavenda, associate dean of students at Purdue University, said he prefers Facebook over MySpace and LinkedIn — a business-oriented social site — as a place to network and look for work. Facebook, he said, is well organized and visually clean. It gives users the opportunity to post things about themselves such as the movies they watch, the books they read and quotes they find meaningful. ‘If you realize that people are out there on Facebook, especially employers or grad school admissions, you have the ability to create a really dynamic and powerful image,’ he said.”
“Clean up your online image. Edit your MySpace and Facebook pages to remove anything that might seem offensive. Google yourself and get rid of things that could turn off employers. Young job seekers tend to think employers don’t look them up on the Internet. Recruiters say they check everyone out. It’s a free background check.”
Recently a University of Texas offensive lineman, Buck Burnette, was thrown off of the football team because of something he had posted on his facebook profile.
“I was communicating on Facebook during the election coverage and I made a terrible decision to post a text message that I received regarding the outcome of the election,” Burnette said in a statement to the American- Statesman.
“The message contained a racial slur. That lack of judgment on my part has had devastating consequences. Those that know me understand that this is not a true reflection of my character. I sincerely apologize to everyone that I have offended. I have had the opportunity to apologize to my teammates and coaches and have received support from many of them in return.”
Suzanne Halliburton and Alan Trubow stated in their article, Dismissed Longhorn apologizes for use of racial slur, that, “According to those who saw Burnette’s page on the social-networking Web site Facebook, Burnette updated his status shortly after Obama was elected president Tuesday night and wrote that hunters should now gather because of who would be in the White House. The comments, which initially were intended only for his friends on Facebook, quickly spread on the internet.”
MySpace, Facebook and many other networkings have become popular in the last couple of years. According to SIRS Researcher, “It all happened remarkably quickly. The first social networking websites were born just three years ago, aimed at providing online forums where friends could connect. A year later, online social networking was a fully-fledged phenomenon. Today it is the face of the Internet. Social networking websites have evolved from something to visit in your spare time to an integral part of daily life that many today cannot imagine living without.
“If you’re unconvinced, take a look at the numbers. Friendster, one of the pioneers of online social networking, now has more than 30 million members. Bebo, launched only last July, has 25 million members and is the number one social networking site in the UK. Then there is the mother of all networking sites, MySpace. Purchased last July by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for $580 million, MySpace has just registered its 100 millionth member. In July it was ranked number-one website among U.S. Internet users, receiving more hits in a one-week period than even Google. These figures suggest that online social networking cannot be dismissed as a passing trend. Socialization, rather than information, has emerged as the primary use of the internet.”
Facebook and other such public web profiles are increasingly becoming a way for employers to decide whom they want working for them. An employer isn’t very likely to hire someone who writes on their page that they go out and get stoned every Friday night. It’s just not going to happen. So if you don’t want people to see it, don’t put yourself in a position where they will.