{"id":246,"date":"2017-09-19T10:05:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T10:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogsource.theholidaytracker.co.uk\/?p=246"},"modified":"2017-10-03T08:01:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T08:01:23","slug":"friends-with-employees-on-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theholidaytracke-4xhy3odrd6.live-website.com\/2017\/09\/19\/friends-with-employees-on-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Be Friends with Employees on Facebook?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Photo by William Iven on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re the owner or MD of a business or a manager within the hierarchy, this question is something you\u2019ve probably pondered: should you be friends with employees on Facebook?<\/p>\n Rejecting or ignoring a friend request can be a difficult decision to make. You likely consider these people friends at work, maybe even socialise sometimes out of work. However, cementing that friendship on social media can bring a host of problems when you\u2019re back in the office together.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been working hard to build good rapport with your team, it can be tempting to make that online connection, but consider connecting with them on LinkedIn instead. LinkedIn is better suited for work connections as it\u2019s designed to be a professional platform and the users tend not to post intimate details like they do on Facebook.<\/p>\n If your business is a small business with a friendly family feel, then the close-knit nature might make it more difficult to reject a request, the last thing you want to do is offend employees. However, having a clear and consistent policy and being honest with your employees should help them understand that you\u2019re not snubbing them.<\/p>\n Some people post the details of their entire lives to Facebook, and that means you\u2019re likely to find out a whole lot more about your employees than you would at work. What they had for lunch, what they watch on TV, what their political persuasion is, and how much they had to drink at the weekend. Then if that employee is made redundant at some point or you are forced to start disciplinary proceedings, there\u2019s a chance they could claim they were being targeted for something that was shared on Facebook.<\/p>\n That might sound far-fetched, but employment lawyers are warning against this very thing: “online relations between boss and employee can trigger or exacerbate a host of legal claims, including harassment, discrimination or wrongful termination” the National Law Journal claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a newly promoted manager and you were friends with some of your peers on Facebook before the promotion, then this could leave you in a tricky situation. Do you retain that \u201cfriendship\u201d going forward, or risk damaging the working relationship by \u201cunfriending\u201d them? In this instance, you could consider making them Facebook Acquaintances \u2013 see the section below.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t feel comfortable rejecting or ignoring friend requests, then there are a few things you can do to minimise the negative impact.<\/p>\n You can hide the employee\u2019s posts. This keeps the relationship intact, but means you won\u2019t see any of their posts or photos in your Facebook feed.<\/p>\nLegal Issues<\/h3>\n
Promotions<\/h3>\n
Facebook Acquaintances<\/h3>\n