Social networking and employers have been in the news more recently as employers have begun to monitor the personal information of employees and prospective employees. Journal of Business Ethics published an article discussing employers’ use of social networking sites and the problems involved. “Employers Use of Social Networking Sites: A Socially Irresponsible Practice”, written by Leigh Clark and Sherry Roberts, delves into the growing trend of employers using social network sites to conduct background checks on potential employees and explains why it shouldn’t be done. Employers should not use social networks to monitor employees or potential employees.
Clark and Roberts do an excellent job of describing why employers should refrain from this practice. The article points out that social networks are designed to facilitate interaction between people on a personal level, not a business level. Internet communication has replaced face to face communication for a variety of reasons; however this type of communication should be afforded the same level of privacy as face to face, phone or traditional mail communication. A comparison is drawn between meeting a friend in a restaurant or bar and communicating via a social network. This comparison is very accurate as many people use social sites to keep up with friends rather than meeting in person. The writers point out that an employer would never send someone to a restaurant to eavesdrop on a personal conversation in an attempt to judge a person’s character; neither should an employer “eavesdrop” on a social site to gather information.
There are several reasons why employers should not use this method to judge employees or gauge the character of employees. There is no established proof that judgments made using information gathered this way has any relationship to one’s job performance. People have the right to a life separate from their work and looking at a person’s profile or page can be misleading. It would be like trying to judge the dynamics of a family by looking at a snapshot or two. Employees also need to be able to develop as people apart from their work environment. This improper usage by employers blurs the line between individual identity and employee.
The most overwhelming reason that employers need to refrain from this practice has to do with the social responsibility of the employer. Employers, as well as individuals, have a responsibility to conduct themselves in a way that is ethical and does no harm to society as a whole. Invading the privacy of an individual through a social network is damaging to that individual but also to society. “If a realm of personal privacy is not provided to this type of communication, society will forever lose the benefits that online communication provides” (Clark & Roberts, 2010). This quote sums up the whole idea. These types of communications need to be given the measure of protection that the user has a right to expect. If we, as a society, have to censor our own personal communications for fear of being judged, we then lose the effectiveness of that communication. We become cardboard cutouts interacting in a way that is wholly fake and utterly useless. While some maintain that anything that is put on the internet is fair game, I disagree. In the personal space that I have claimed as my social network, what I say, feel or think is not fair game. This information is placed there for a select group of people to see. For anyone to gain access to this information without the benefit of my permission is an invasion of my privacy. Clark and Roberts are correct, if we lose the ability to communicate in this manner in an honest way, we lose the ability to communicate in this manner completely. Anything less is pointless and employers should not be allowed to rob society of this valuable form of communication by rendering it useless.
References
Clark, L., & Roberts, S. (2010). Employer's use of social networking sites: a socially irresponsible practice. Journal of Business Ethics, Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.dml.regis.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&hid=12&sid=9231dca3-15e2-44b6-8d27-30650608821b%40sessionmgr10 doi: 10.1007