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SHOULD EMPLOYERS BE ALLOWED TO USE MYSPACE, YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS AS A BASIS FOR HIRING OR FIRING EMPLOYEES?

Yes, I believe it is the employer's prerogative to use these public sources of information to make a decision as to hire or fire an individual. When a person wishes to maintain his/her private life private, he/she should not allow accounts of it to be published in public sites such as the ones mentioned above. The moment private lives, activities, orientations, preferences, etc., become public domain these can be used to commend or doom an individual. It is advisable to live in accordance with what you preach in order to avoid unnecessary aggravation. For instance, an employee calls in sick and the employer happens to find out, just checking out the sites, that he participated in a wild orgy the night before and his "illness" is just a real heavy hangover. Don't you think this hands him (in a silver platter) a valid reason for firing him? On the more serious side, there are many jobs where one would find a conflict of interest with views expressed in these public sites by the individual in question. Once these are made public they can be read, acknowledged, and judged, not only by an employer but by anyone who happens to read them. We continuously fight for our rights but often neglect our responsibilities. We like to look "cool", we like to be interesting, we like to be accepted, we like to be "different", we like to scandalize, but we hate to be judged. An employer has the right to choose the best possible candidate to perform the job he is paying to get done. If, in his opinion, the information which appears in MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook pertaining to his employee or to the candidate applying for the job is relevant and wishes to consider it to make his judgment, he should be allowed to do so. Again, we are always defending our rights but turn our heads the other way when it comes to other people's rights. If we look at this source of information in a positive light, we will also find that many employers will find confirmation of the traits they are searching for in an individual to be hired and may also use the accounts as a basis for hiring employees. Think about it, it's FREE FOR ALL.

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