Headway — The Drag & Drop Theme For WordPress

Web 2.0 and the Workplace

jcheray | Apr 15, 2010 | 0 comments

It used to be that print media and television were the ways in which people could either make or break their career. In that I mean if you were doing something inappropriate on company time generally the chances of someone finding out about were not as good as they are now with the advent of Web 2.0.

Now if you even so much “tweet” people know about it in seconds compared to the day or two it took if you were caught on camera partying while you were supposed to be at work, but you called in sick cause the party was way more exciting than going to work. I remember hearing on “The Morning Show with Shawn Rock and Cory Dean” about how someone got fired because he spent too much time on Farmville on Facebook while on the clock. To me that is an extreme misuse of the company and the internet. As an independent blogger in an attempt to be more proactive and productive I have myself set a certain time frame for going to the game side of Facebook. I mean if you want to be taken seriously as a local blogger, local business people don’t care how many sheep you have on your farm or how many experience points you have on World of Warcraft unless those people are tech people. They care about your integrity and what you have done in respect to paying your dues to the professional community.

While tightening the belt on employees use of social media isn’t exactly the right thing to do there does have to be some guidelines. In today’s mobile world even if you restrict a persons PC access to the net there is still mobile access via there personal phone and they will use it anyway if you tell them not to.

So with that being said as your mom used to say, if you wouldn’t act that way at home don’t do it in public. If your trying to get a job make sure your profile is up to snuff and that you don’t have any profane images or you yourself aren’t doing anything that a potential employer would see and possibly pass you over due to what they saw. Don’t sling out massive amounts of profanity every time you post a status update. Like F this F that every other word that you type out.

At a luncheon I attended today Alissa Sheley brought up a point about how she conducts herself as a representative of jhp even when she isn’t at work. She says that she has turned down invites from family to go hang out at the local bar because she is still mindful of the image she projects outside of work.From my point of view as a mom first, blogger second I also have to care about my image not only in how I act as a parent but also how I look in the business world. With that being said I know some of you may say well what else is there I don’t want to be bored blah blah. I say find activities to get engaged with that nurture your spirit and mind and body.

There is also still some debate over social media policy in that it boils down to the question. Who owns the content that you post the company or you? On this score I say talk to a lawyer who specializes in corporate law. I am not a lawyer and I don’t give out legal advice.Also your company should seek legal advice in drafting a social media policy for your workplace.It is prudent and imperative to have one in place so there are no questions when an employee is brought to task on their behavior via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. I will say, that to protect myself I have an affiliate disclaimer and a privacy policy page here at Wildheart’s Web 2.0. I do need to put together a creative license document as well.

So be careful navigating the web and don’t do anything that can come back to haunt you. Common sense should be the norm not the exception.

A Big Thinker Spotted at the Luncheon