1 of 28

Yes

Write now Print Email Article Invite a writer™ Add to Favorites Contact this writer

I believe that employers should be able to use MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and any other on-line sites as a basis for hiring employees, and, with some limitations, for firing them. On almost every job application form, there is a disclaimer that allows a potential employer to perform everything from a background check to a credit check to a full-out investigation. On-line checks are part of that investigation.

Let me give you an example of why an employer might want to do such an investigation. I know someone who has created a very effective on-line personae for herself, marketing her talents quite brilliantly, posting a professionally retouched portrait wherever she can, and twisting the details of her professional life so that she seems to be someone she is not. It doesn't take a lot of work to unravel her web of lies and to discover that her professional success is as much smoke and mirrors as the beautiful portrait on her web page. Unfortunately, like many liars, she doesn't have the greatest memory, and sometimes contradicts herself. Should I not, as a potential employer signing her to a freelance contract, have the right to find this out for myself before hiring her and potentially embarrassing my company? If I can easily find that information on-line, so can my customers.

For those who have no intent to defraud, online checks can be unfair. Many of us, especially in the early days of Usenet and other community-type networks, used our real names and freely gave identifying details of our lives. We can't put the genie back in the bottle. Although we resorted to screen names and became more discrete over the years, that information is still floating around in archives. People who are now in their twenties and hitting the job market were in many ways pioneers of social networking sites, and posted photos of high school and college antics that will forever be attached to their name. And even if the beer-guzzling Cancun pole dancer is now a mild-mannered accountant looking for a promotion and the crude Jackass wannabe has settled down and is applying for kindergarten teaching jobs, those pictures remain part of his or her digital heritage.

The ethics (and in some jurisdictions, the legality) of using the sites for checks on current employees is a bit murkier. Does an employer have the right to investigate an employee without his or her knowledge? Is an employee's outside life anyone's business? I guess this is a question of judgment. If you know

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

more options

hide

Add your voice

Know something about Should employers be allowed to use MySpace, YouTube and Facebook accounts as a basis for hiring or firing employees??
We want to hear your view. Write now!