Invasion of Privacy-- My Opinion
I'm hearing about it everywhere and reading about it everywhere. I'm getting tired of hearing about employers checking out people's facebooks and even "googling" prospective employees for the purpose of obtaining background information. What ever happened to simply looking at a person's GPA and resume and judging on factors that actually apply in a workplace setting? Why don't I think it matters if someone partied during college? Well, what exactly do these people think will happen if heaven forbid, they hire a person that frequented parties during their college career while still managing to maintain a stellar GPA? Perhaps they expect a scenario like this:
A company hires Jack, a Penn State graduate who majored in accounting, as their financial controller. Jack graduated with a 3.7 GPA, studied diligently throughout his 4 years at college and also attended parties every weekend. The company saw Jack's partying pictures on facebook but decided to disregard them and focus on his work ethic. What a huge mistake they made. For the first few months, Jack performed admirably at work. Then, one day, Jack decided to take the elevator instead of the stairs which he usually took every day for the purpose of exercise. People thought nothing of it until they realized that Jack had hauled a keg into the elevator. As he dragged the keg into his office, he yelled, "The keg is in my office, it's crunk time!" He then proceeded to turn his speakers up the highest they would go and blast "Living on a Prayer," by Bon Jovi. When his boss stormed angrily into his office, Jack explained that he just wanted to turn the workplace into a more collegiate atmosphere. "You should have looked at my facebook pictures more carefully," he sneered.
Or perhaps Lisa and Jen who both majored in crime law and justice and now work as partners in a law firm. Unfortunately, they never kicked the drinking habits that they both developed while partying at Penn State. One day, they had a case which held incredible importance to the firm. They got completely blackout drunk the night before the case and Jen passed out in Lisa's bathroom. They woke up and decided to pregame prior to the case. "Here's to Mens Rea!" Lisa exclaimed. "No!" Jen argued. "Here's to Actus Reas!" "Oh man," Lisa said. "Our bosses really shouldn't have ever hired us." "Yeah," Jen agreed. "Good thing we deleted our facebook pictures before we went on our interviews! Now let's take 2 more shots and head down to court."
Unless employers actually expect scenarios such as these two hypothetical, highly exaggerated, ridiculous situations to occur, why do they bother checking peoples' facebooks and searching for people on Internet search engines? I'd place a high wager that many of these employers themselves attended parties during their college careers. In fact, maybe some of them even went out to the bars on midnight on Saint Patricks Day, completely covered in green clothing. Now, these people are perfectly successful. I seriously have a lot of trouble understanding this concept. If someone has pictures of them drinking, but also has a 3.8 GPA, obviously the drinking has not had an effect on their success in classes at college.
I think I've made my point now. I'm going to go take a few Tequila slammers and stagger into class with my clothes giving off a stench of alcohol. After class I plan on shotgunning a few beers before writing a paper, because clearly if I have pictures of myself drinking at parties, then this is how employers will assume I behave on a daily basis. I better live up to their expectations!
A company hires Jack, a Penn State graduate who majored in accounting, as their financial controller. Jack graduated with a 3.7 GPA, studied diligently throughout his 4 years at college and also attended parties every weekend. The company saw Jack's partying pictures on facebook but decided to disregard them and focus on his work ethic. What a huge mistake they made. For the first few months, Jack performed admirably at work. Then, one day, Jack decided to take the elevator instead of the stairs which he usually took every day for the purpose of exercise. People thought nothing of it until they realized that Jack had hauled a keg into the elevator. As he dragged the keg into his office, he yelled, "The keg is in my office, it's crunk time!" He then proceeded to turn his speakers up the highest they would go and blast "Living on a Prayer," by Bon Jovi. When his boss stormed angrily into his office, Jack explained that he just wanted to turn the workplace into a more collegiate atmosphere. "You should have looked at my facebook pictures more carefully," he sneered.
Or perhaps Lisa and Jen who both majored in crime law and justice and now work as partners in a law firm. Unfortunately, they never kicked the drinking habits that they both developed while partying at Penn State. One day, they had a case which held incredible importance to the firm. They got completely blackout drunk the night before the case and Jen passed out in Lisa's bathroom. They woke up and decided to pregame prior to the case. "Here's to Mens Rea!" Lisa exclaimed. "No!" Jen argued. "Here's to Actus Reas!" "Oh man," Lisa said. "Our bosses really shouldn't have ever hired us." "Yeah," Jen agreed. "Good thing we deleted our facebook pictures before we went on our interviews! Now let's take 2 more shots and head down to court."
Unless employers actually expect scenarios such as these two hypothetical, highly exaggerated, ridiculous situations to occur, why do they bother checking peoples' facebooks and searching for people on Internet search engines? I'd place a high wager that many of these employers themselves attended parties during their college careers. In fact, maybe some of them even went out to the bars on midnight on Saint Patricks Day, completely covered in green clothing. Now, these people are perfectly successful. I seriously have a lot of trouble understanding this concept. If someone has pictures of them drinking, but also has a 3.8 GPA, obviously the drinking has not had an effect on their success in classes at college.
I think I've made my point now. I'm going to go take a few Tequila slammers and stagger into class with my clothes giving off a stench of alcohol. After class I plan on shotgunning a few beers before writing a paper, because clearly if I have pictures of myself drinking at parties, then this is how employers will assume I behave on a daily basis. I better live up to their expectations!
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