So imagine your supervisor calls you in for a job review and you're all excited because you know you've done a kick-butt job this year, and you're expecting a nice raise, and maybe even a promotion, and then all of a sudden, she's like, "And, by the way, can you give me your Facebook password?" Gulp! Amiright?
Well, two new bills introduced in Congress would make this kind of request illegal. Which it should be. I mean, seriously, what kind of Nosy Barker wants to get into your Facebook account? But, I have to be honest. If my boss asked for my Facebook password, I'd think it was out of line. I'd be all like, "This person has issues." But I'd hand it over. I'd do it with a laugh. Because she would be soooo bored.
Yeah, sorry, boss. I do spend some time on Facebook (mostly promoting my writing), but I hardly get on there and have, like, major life discussions. Maybe I've worked in the media for too long, but I feel like Facebook isn't that secure, and if I'm going to say anything on my wall, I might as well be shouting it in a crowded press conference. As for Facebook emailing, I'm pretty much the same way. Honestly, anyone who gets into my Facebook email would be like, "Yeah, I knew that."
One of the bills, The Password Protection Act, would also extend to private email, photo sharing sites, and any other information that resides on someone's privately-owned computer.
Can you believe there needs to be a law to keep employers from getting all up in your business? But this kind of Nosy Barker activity is becoming more common. I mean, first employers want you to work weekends, now they want to read your email? C'mon now.
That said, I don't think there's anything an employer would care about in my email. But ... you never know with people. Plus, that's kind of creepy. What if your male boss just wants to know who you're dating? And then he starts to stalk them or something? I don't know. Have you read the news lately? People do off-the-wall things.
But any boss who got into my Facebook? I don't think it would be worth their time.
Would you give your boss your Facebook password?
Image via MissusL/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Vacuum Your Rug
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
Comments 30
No. Not only is that an invasion of your own privacy, but it is also an invasion of any person that you corresponded with via private message. Your boss does not have your friends' permission to read their private messages to YOU.
As a side note to the author: I believe you may have meant to use the phrase nosy Parker as opposed the nosy barker.
Nope, I wouldn't do it. What's next? Give me your bank password so we can see what you're spending your paycheck on. Give me the password to any and all online message boards your are a member of.
No! I am there to do a job. If I am doing the job and meeting or exceeding expectations, what I have on my FB is none of their business.
Here's my question: Is the boss willing to give his/her password to all of the employees. If I'm opening up my account to you, you better be willing to open it up to me.
Uh, what part of "NO" did you not understand? What do they want next, to know what kind of underclothing I wear (or whether or not I do)?
The only person with access to my facebook or email account is my fiance' and that is because we share both our facebook and email instead of having individual acounts. Hell would freeze over before I'd ever give my password out to anyone else for ANY reason EVER, with the exception of aiding the police in an investigation of some sort.
I agree with the poster above who said not only is it an invasion of my privacy, but the privacy of whoever has emailed me via facebook. That is a very valid point that I had never thought of before.
If your boss has no legal rights to ask your sexual orientation/marriage status/children in an interview how is it in anyway legal for them to go on your facebook and look at it or even ask for someone's password? That has always bothered me.
I read a really good article on this subject a few weeks ago that pointed out that employers who ask for passwords or to "shoulder surf" someone's facebook are not just acting immorally, but opening themselves up to discrimination lawsuits. Suddenly, sexual orientation, parental status, or any number of things that employers cannot ask you about, are laid bare and that means if you are turned down for a job or promotion or fired, the company could face a lawsuit because it could have been from the personal information they forced you to share with them. I would not share my passwords with an employer, what's the line? People are entiled to their privacy, and deserve to have their private lives private.
What I do off the clock is my business... This social networking bullshit is getting to be ridiculous in the workplace.... I have Supervisors asking to add me as a friend and I refuse to. I have a business outside of work and it's in the Adult Novelty business... it would get me fired because they would say it's sexual harassment.... forget that... my business is my business...
Nope they would not get my password. I have nothing to hide but if I am willing to break a minor rules such as giving out my Facebook password, what kind of employee would that make me? Break one rule, why not break them all?