Islam Elsaman CIS 3750 Project

Islam Elsaman

Professor Gubernat

CIS 3750

Should Companies Monitor Employees and Future Employees’ Social Media Activity?

Monitoring Employees social media activity can be a very controversial topic. Some employees may think that this it’s a really bad idea, and is an invasion of privacy, while companies may think that it’s a good idea because it can protect the company’s image. I personally think that companies shouldn’t have the right to monitor your personal life or your activities on social media. I’ll be explaining why and will back up my explanations by articles that I have researched and by people’s responses to that question.

While it’s understandable for companies to worry about what they’re employees post on social media because, after all, it can be embarrassing for a business if one of its representatives posts offensive content or does something illegal via social media. Employers can even get into legal trouble for their workers’ actions. Advocates of the practice say that it’s necessary to protect companies’ reputations, confidential information, and is an inevitable byproduct of the Internet age. But the fact that companies need to keep tabs online to ensure that their employees refrain from inappropriate or illegal behavior shows that the company doesn’t trust their employees and may affect their productivity at the workplace and doesn’t really hold. When job candidates or employees know that they are being watched, they can restrict access to certain posts, set up dummy profiles to fool companies, or otherwise throw up smokescreens.

On the other hand, there is also the problem of bias. Americans today are arguably more socially and politically conscious than previous generations and actively use social media to share their thoughts, debate important topics, and fight for causes. In some cases, employers may even be supportive, but in other cases, there is a real danger of people being penalized for their personal views on things like politics, race, or religion. Even if a company itself is neutral, the subjective feelings of the person tasked with monitoring employees’ social media could easily lead to discrimination. Allowing workers to live their personal lives without intrusion, smart businesses can make a powerful statement; namely, that they accept them for who they are, treasure their professional contributions to the company, and want them to be happy and fulfilled outside as well as inside the office. This, in turn, would inspire loyalty and boost productivity in the workforce, and make those companies more profitable.

However, the number of people fired over social-media posts is rising, and many employers look closely at a job candidate’s online presence before making a decision. According to a 2013 survey from CareerBuilder, which helps corporations target and attract workers, 39% of employers dig into candidates on social sites, while 43% said they had found something that made them deep-six a candidate, such as posting inappropriate photos or information, or bad-mouthing a former boss. Also, According to Lewis Maltby, president of the National Work rights institute, believes it is not a good idea for companies to look at social media sites. A reason for not looking at an employee’s social media site is because they could be fired for something that is not related to work at all. It is unethical to fire someone based on personal preferences they have on social media. Another reason against looking at social media sites to find information about future employees is that a company could miss out on a good employee based on their personal preferences. Also, looking on someone’s social media site could cause a company to get in trouble. A company could learn that the person is disabled, and if they hire someone else they could be sued by that person for unfair consideration.

In addition, I recently called one of the employees of a company called Medialets, that I used to have an internship at. His name is Ahmed Neinae. I asked him if he thinks it’s a good idea for employees’ social media activities to be monitored by companies, and he replied to me and told me this. “I think companies should monitor employee’s social media activities only if they are posting or doing something illegal, but should never monitor their personal lives because this is private and they have the right to post what they want as long as they’re not on the clock.” I also called one of the employees I used to work with at a court house, in the IT department. His name Is Bernard. I asked him the same question and he told me this. ”I don’t think companies should monitor the social media activities of possible candidates that could work for the company, or monitor current employees’ social media activities too, because what they post doesn’t matter because they may have skills and experience that could help the company a lot despite their activities on social media. What they post on social media is totally private as long as they don’t do anything wrong in the workplace.”

With that being said, I believe that companies should not look at social media sites to find out personal information about a person they want to hire. I think a company could be missing out on qualified applicants by searching through all their posts. I do think it is good idea for companies to hire a professional company to look up information about future employees, but the professional company should only look up important information. The professional company should look up information about criminal records and other background information.

Citation:

Pursel, Bart. “IST 110: Introduction to Information Sciences and Technology.” IST 110 Introduction to Information Sciences and Technology, sites.psu.edu/ist110pursel/2015/10/20/is-it-a-good-idea-for-companies-to-look-at-social-media-sites-to-find-information-about-employees-and-future-employees/.

Kumar, s. “Employee Social Media Monitoring Is a Bad Idea.” Time, Time, time.com/3894276/social-media-monitoring-work/.

I chose this article because it talks about any damage that could be done to the company if they monitored employees’ social media which is pretty interesting.

http://time.com/3894276/social-media-monitoring-work/

Weber, John, et al. “Should Companies Monitor Their Employees’ Social Media?” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 22 Oct. 2014, www.wsj.com/articles/should-companies-monitor-their-employees-social-media-1399648685.