Imagine being that kid in high school with perfect grades, perfect attendance, an excellent lineup of extra-curricular activities and a top-notch work history. You walk into an office with your new business attire and a sparkling smile, firmly shake the manager’s hand and completely ace your interview questions. You feel as if you’re on top of the world.
Then he requests your Facebook log in information.
According to CareerBuilder.com, 37 percent of hiring managers now use social networking sites to research their job applicants, and more than 65 percent of them use Facebook as their primary source for this sleuthing. Researchers found that out of the 2,000 plus hiring managers surveyed, 65 of them said they used social networking to see how prospective employees present themselves professionally, half used it to decide if the applicant would be a good fit with the company’s culture and 45 percent wanted to learn more about the applicants’ qualifications.
Logging into someone’s Facebook is not only an illegal invasion of privacy, but a breaking of trust between businesses and prospective employees.
The moment an employer gets access to a potential employee’s Facebook information, the line between work life and personal life is broken. Employers make it a point to tell employees to not bring their personal emotions to the workplace, so the fact that they are logging onto a profile that relays all of that information is hypocritical and unnecessary.
While it is a good idea to know how qualified an applicant is for a job, going onto a prospective employee’s Facebook goes against the standards of what the employer is allowed to ask. During an interview, employers are not allowed to ask prospective employees about their religion, marital status, sexual orientation or even nationality, but all of the answers to those questions are usually on a Facebook profile.
If someone doesn’t get hired as a result of an employer looking on his or her Facebook profile, the person is able to file a discrimination claim against that employer because of the personal information that is available.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University sent 4,183 fake resumes to companies around the country with online job openings. All of the resumes were the same except that the social media profile identified if the applicant was Christian, Muslim, straight or gay.
On a national average, there was not a statistically significant difference between the number of callbacks the “Muslim” candidates received versus the “Christian” ones. However, when the results were narrowed down to the most conservative states of the U.S., only 2 percent of the Muslim candidates were called back versus 17 percent of the Christians.
Not only are employers looking at profiles, but they are also requesting applicants to release their login information. According to Facebook’s statement of rights and responsibilities, it’s a violation to share a Facebook password because, “As a user, you shouldn’t be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job. As the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job.”
Considering that the unemployment rate is at 6.7 percent, which does not include the people who have given up the job search, employers should want to adhere to employees’ needs, not push them away with apparent distrust and lack of fairness or respect.
Here’s a bit of advice: respect the working class. When it comes down to it, businesses will soon figure out that citizens are not going to allow them to invade their personal liberties for long. Employers need employees just as much as individuals need to be employed, and that relationship can only develop if respect is brought back into the work place.
