Don't Facebook friend your boss
2010-02-26 07:08
New York - It is a common fear among users of Facebook and other social media around the world - how to deal with a friend request from your boss or employee.
A survey released on Thursday found that 56% of Americans say it is irresponsible to be friends with a boss and 62% say it is wrong to be friends with an employee.
But 76% believe it is acceptable to be friends with a workplace peer, according to the survey of 1 000 people by Liberty Mutual's Responsibility Project.
"When the roles change what do you do then? Do you unfriend someone if they have now been promoted to be your boss or if you're now their boss?" asked researcher Kelly Holland.
At work
"We get into some really sticky situations there in terms of what people will think is responsible," she said.
When using social media at work, 73% say it is not appropriate to update your Facebook status, 82% say you should not upload photos, 72% believe tweeting is wrong and 79% say it is not acceptable to watch online videos.
Yet 66% say it is fine to check your personal e-mail while at work.
"When people focus on responsibility, they know what the responsible thing is to do but whether they are doing that in practice or not is a different story," said Holland.
Americans are split on whether companies should review the social media profiles of job candidates with 52% saying it is appropriate and 48% saying it is unacceptable.
Parents and kids
Social media can also lead to some difficult decisions when it comes to family and relationships. 60% of those polled say that it is "completely acceptable" to unfriend an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend.
More than 40% of parents believe it is irresponsible to post photos of children online. 31% monitor their children's Facebook accounts and almost 70% are friends with their children on Facebook or MySpace. But 72% limit the time their children spend on social media networks.
More than 80% of parents say that teachers should not interact with students online, but they are split when it comes to whether social media should be used as evidence to punish students' behaviour.
"The social media arena is incredibly complex in terms of responsibility," Holland said.
But despite the murkiness of social media responsibility, there is one area that nearly three-quarters of Americans agree on - they think it is "egotistical and a waste of time" to develop a Facebook page for a pet.
The poll was taken January 12-15.
