Your personal life should not be a testament to your work ethic
By Jessica Berget, Opinions Editor
One of the first things they tell you when you’re on the job hunt is to not post anything inappropriate or unprofessional on your social media, but why? According to a CareerBuilder survey, 70 per cent of employers use social media accounts to screen potential employees, and over a third of employers have fired or reprimanded employees for posting inappropriate content on their social media accounts. To these employers, how you present yourself on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is an indicator of your work ethic and an accurate portrayal of how you are in real life. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Social media is a place for people to post about their personal and social lives. So, of course most of the time it is not going to be “professional.” It is not a place to be professional, it’s called social media for a reason. I can understand how some people are fired for posting racist, sexist, or hateful rhetoric on their social media accounts, as you probably wouldn’t want to work with someone who holds on to these toxic beliefs (I know I wouldn’t). However, if someone is posting pictures or content involving drinking, drugs, and partying, but they are punctual and hard-working, why should it matter?
What people do in their personal lives outside of their work environment has no relevance to how they are as workers unless it is somehow affecting how they work. On the same note, I also think it is ridiculous that some employers require their employees to do drug tests. It is an invasion of privacy and if it doesn’t affect their work ethic, it should not matter how people spend their time when they are off the clock.
Your Twitter account is not a resume, so employers need to stop acting like it is. How people present themselves on social media and in a professional work setting are two completely different things, and it is time to stop treating them the same.
