Potential employers checking personal websites

[bbbrammer]

I am wondering what the community here at large feels about potential employers checking personal websites pre-employment. I can understand the background checks to see if you have a problem with the law, and I can even understand wanting to look at personal websites, but I don't agree with them requiring it.

I personally don't have a myspace page or anything like that mostly because I don't get the whole 'this is my diary lets show it to the world' kind of thing, but I really just don't have a use for it. I know a lot of people do, and that is their choice, but I don't think that employers should be able to go into those sites to look around for 'dirt' pre-employment. Some people say that if you don't have anything to hide it shouldn't be a problem, and it is true, but I feel that what is on your webpages that you use between friends really shouldn't have applications to work. It would be the same if they asked for copies of your phone conversations between friends and family. Or copies of your emails or letters.

Generally if you don't have anything incriminating on there then there isn't anything to worry about, but what if you like to just "shoot the shit" with friends, or you talk about that time you got drunk last year and an employer says "well, they talked about these things or they did this, so they are not mature or responsible enough for this job". My personal life and professional life are separate, so I don't believe that the fight I had with someone last week should be available to people everywhere as a consideration of whether or not I am employable.

Course these are just my personal opinions and I would like to hear from some of you on what you think.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I find nothing wrong with personal web sites as long as they don't violate the rules of your company

What I do have a problem with is when those websites cross the line into company bashing, revealing of company information, revealing of patient care situations etc.

I go by this rule of thumb - if you would not like it if someone posted the same thing about you that you post about them on a web site then you should keep your mouth shut.

Look at the following situations:

John Edwards campaign workers - anti-christian remarks got two of them in trouble - it more than likely ended their careers.

Another example: CHP is being sued for 20 million for pictures that somehow got posted to one of those rotten.com or whatever sites. A young woman in a fatality accident is seen - it's my understanding that these were really graphic. The family saw them and they got mad - rightfully so.

Other examples are those people who are looking for jobs and a prospective employer finds their blogs and read that they bashed their previous companies. Needless to say, they didn't get the job.

The internet is not anonymous by any means folks, what we do on the net can and will come back to bite you in the ARSE if you aren't careful. If someone wants to find information out about you they can, it's not that hard.

The only advice is, if you post something that you would not want made public then don't post.

I also believe that if you post something bad about your company in a blog or a private web site and you are found out then you should suffer the consequences. It's even worse when you are on a companies computer and you do it.

[MedicNorth]

Anything you put on your "personal" website is no longer personal. It is now in the public domain, and anyone, including prospective or present employers, can and will access it. It isn't a lot different than putting your diary up on the Jumbotron for all to read. If there is any information that a future or present employer (or the police, or the tax man) should not know, don't put it there!

I have never really understood the need to create these spaces anyway. It looks to me like essential electronic exhibitionism. I can see sharing things with friends, but the net is full of "not friends" too.

[Ridryder 911]

I feel there is nothing wrong for them to view or remark about them. If you are wearing their uniform or describe an association with their company, then you no longer are just representing yourself, rather you are representing them as well too. So don't post anything that would be distasteful, violate HIPPA, or could embarrass the company.

R/r 911

[Connie31079]

What about posting a TASTEFUL picture of yourself in your uniform, because you're proud of what you do and the company that you work for, and the company still gets mad, simply because you posted a picture of yourself in your uniform??

[Ridryder 911]

What about posting a TASTEFUL picture of yourself in your uniform, because you're proud of what you do and the company that you work for, and the company still gets mad, simply because you posted a picture of yourself in your uniform??

Time to find a service that will be proud of you!

R/r 911

[Chief1C]

Totally nude, wearing only your scope... hanging from.. anyhoo.

That would be a bad pic.

[Richard B the EMT]

Hypothetically, if the FDNY had a policy against posting FDNY rules and/or regulations on the internet, outside of their intranet (please note I said intranet, not internet), I would be in deep doggy doo-doo from a majority of my EMT City postings.

Note #1: To the best of my knowledge, the FDNY, and the FDNY EMS, has no such policy.

Note #2: I do get messages from EMS agencies containing FDNY EMS Operations Orders, with qualifiers on the cover e-mails saying "Not for general release", meaning I best not re-post such orders on sites like this one.

Note #3: I once posted the names of 3 lieutenants who had been reassigned, on a different message board. I then got reamed a new one by each of them in turn, as I was being casual where I should never have been posting such information in the first place. The information was supposed to have been strictly "in-house", and I had gone and made it public news. It is several years later, and it still hurts to sit, but at least I still have a job.