So who else saw this article?
Employers ask job seekers for Facebook passwords
It made the rounds on facebook last week, and talks about how some employers are asking prospective employees to provide their facebook usernames and passwords during interviews.
To which I give a resounding What?!
I mean, seriously, bosses. That’s whack. (Or whacked if we want to get grammatically correct. But how grammatically correct is a girl required to be when she’s using words like whack/whacked?)
These are dangerous times we’re living in, friends. If potential employers are going to ask for our facebook information, I can only imagine what comes next…
[Cue scary music]
-Requests to review our cell phones…just to be certain we don’t cavort with terrorists. I’d maybe be okay with this if I wasn’t a text messaging typo queen. Well, and if my Fruit Ninja high score wasn’t so pitiful.
-Demands to look through our cupboards. You know, to make sure we’re healthy-types. I can already hear the ensuing conversation:
“Ms. Tagg, why do you have shortening in your cupboard that expired in 2001?”
“Oh, really? 2001? I thought it said 2007.”
“Um, yeah…don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
-Requests to see inside our sock drawers. Because you can tell a lot about a person by their socks. Straight-laced white and black? Colorful? Full-on quirky? Do you fold, roll or just thrown ’em all in?
-Instead of calling our job references, they’ll contact everyone in our Google+ circles. In fact, I now officially deem this worry my new reason for still not joining Google+. It’s a lot better than my my generic “not enough time” excuse.
And the ultimate test of a prospective female employee:
-The inside of our purses.
And honestly, I might be more willing to hand over my facebook password than that!
But seriously, what do you think about the whole “employers asking for job seekers’ facebook info” thing? Were you as flummoxed as me?
Comments 20
I do believe I would look for a job elsewhere. What can they see with a password that they couldn’t see without? It is beyond ridiculous.
Agreed! What’s sad is there are probably people desperate for a job who would basically have to comply. But man, if that’s what the employer is requiring solely in the interview, can you imagine what the working environment would be like? Micro-management at its height, I’m guessing…
No body gets my passwords – well, except Hubby but I do believe that was in the vows someplace…I fold my wild colored socks, and refuse to let my kids into my purse/bottomless pit or I may never see them again. So yeah, no ones seeing that either.
Thanks for the giggle this morning–goes great with coffee:)
Haha, glad it made you giggle. And that it complemented your coffee! 🙂
Is that for real? That’s an invasion of privacy and surely against some amendment…right?
If an employer asked me for my fb username (fine) but my password? Really? Wow.
I think facebook is actually fighting back against the practice and some states are enacting laws prohibiting public businesses from requesting facebook passwords. I heard it on NPR this morning. 🙂
Even though at the outset, my response was “ARE YOU SERIOUS?”, it really does bring up interesting conversation…because times have changed to the point that our online lives often are such a huge reflection of who we are…and yet, not. I mean, a person can be anything online. So, on the one hand, I get an employer caring about the online reputation a prospective employee brings to the company BUT on the other, it seems so totally illegal and unethical to request a facebook password!
Jess said exactly what I was thinking. No need to repeat it. 🙂
And yes, handing over my purse would be frightening, especially since I’m usually so organized. My purse tells a different story…
I actually had a lot more written about women’s purses and what employers might find…but then I decided I’d gone too far and did a little deleting. 🙂 But suffice it to say, that would be even more worrisome to me than an employer asking for my facebook password. Hehehe…
Not cool. Privacy is privacy. Going too far here.
~ Wendy
Amen!
Honestly, the whole thing reeks of power-trippy-ness to me.
I wonder what employer did this? As if they’d admit it now. And my socks? Don’t fold them or roll them together ’cause the dryer always eats at least one.
I know, those darn dryers!
It’s hard to believe that hiring requirements are coming to that place in this world. I hope it gets nipped in the bud. It’s stepping over the bounds into personal space. Can we never have anything all to ourselves anymore? Something is very wrong.
Love your cupboards and your sock drawers! I can relate big time.
My purse, yeah, scary. Nobody wants to see that! lol!
I agree, totally ridiculous!
And I’m with you…my purse is for my eyes only. 🙂
Yikes, Is that even legal?! Why can’t they just friend you and look at your profile that way? Sounds fishy to me…
I have no idea if it’s legal, but apparently it’s happening in some places. And aparently in some cases, if they don’t outright ask for the login info, they require that you “friend” the company human resources manager. Actually, the article also says some companies are asking people to sign contracts agreeing not to publicly disparage their place of employment on Facebook. I don’t know what to make of that, either…Craziness. 🙂
That’s funny! I heard something about it today…anyway, people need to think carefully about where they work and what they’ll allow in order to make money.
No kidding. Although, I feel sad that some people are probably so desperate for employment that they’d give over the information even if they didn’t want to. Sad…
So many people (not me, of course…) use the same password for multiple sites, this could really be a security issue. Who knows what they’d do with that information once they were done? And, I’d think there would be a better way to determine an employee’s worth than looking at their Timeline (or in their purse, or cupboards – I just got a cold chill typing that!)
Wow, I never even thought about that part of it, Melissa…you’re right, the security/privacy part of it goes beyond Facebook to all kinds of other sites.