In our today's digital world, social media has become an integrated part of our personal and professional lives. Even as the boundaries between our offline and online personas get blurred, the pressing question that arises is: should employees be expected to submit their social media handles to their employers?
While many employers may argue that having access to employees social media handles is important for maintaining the organization's image and reputation,. With the high usage of social media, since employees are now unpaid brand ambassadors and their online behavior can have a positive or negative impact on the company, employers may believe they can reduce risks and maintain consistent brand representation by keeping an eye on their social media activity.
However, this raises a very important concerns about invasion of privacy. employees may feel that their personal online lives are being unfairly scrutinized and that their employer is overstepping their boundaries. we know that our social media profiles contains more of our personal information,our opinios, our beliefs , and it may not be very relevant to the employers professional life , So by demanding access to the social media handles of employees, the employees might feel its an invasion of their private life and freedom of expression
So, would I be want to submit my social media handles to my boss all in the name of being employed if demanded? Honestly, no. I believe that my personal online life is separate from my professional one and that my boss should definitely respect that choice to have it separate from work. So I understand the importance of keeping a professional online presence. I don't think that it is necessary that my employers should have access to my personal social media accounts because yes, they are personal and they should remain personal.
But let's say it is what is standing between me and my dream job. Well, that's another case; that is in fact a tougher question. While I would still be reluctant to share my personal social media handles, I might just consider creating a professional online presence specifically for work-related purposes. This would allow me to maintain a level of separation between my personal and professional online lives while still showing my professionalism and commitment to my boss. Like why will i want to give out my handles that have images of me doing silly things, Hehe, it will be too embarrassing for it to be revealed in a professional settings.
Also, i think that if employers have access to the social handles of their employees , this might cause discrimination, take for exam , you have a christain boss, or let me say an SU boss, imagine they request for the social handles and they see funny stuff on it, that would leave them to start thinking bout the employee in another manner and they might start acting somehow to the employeee.
So here's my stand on this: the decision to share my social media handles with my boss should be a personal one that I made with careful consideration of the potential risks and benefits. Employers also should be mindful of the importance of respecting their employees' privacy and boundaries and should think and consider other ways to which they can maintain their organization's online reputation without infringing upon their employees' personal online lives.
Posted Using INLEO
