Social Profiles Effects on Employment

Time and time again, people are denied or terminated from jobs based on inappropriate material found on their social media profiles. In current years, the issue of hiring/firing based on information found on social media devices such as MySpace, Twitter, or Facebook has been a hot topic. Many people believe that these factors should be overlooked when it comes to employment based on the idea that it makes the employee prejudiced and a violator of personal boundaries.

Although it may appear to be an act of discrimination, business owners should reserve the right to take any public information into consideration and employ people who they deem suitable to profit their business. Many people believe that boundaries should be drawn when it comes to hiring people based on what is displayed in their social profiles. In Agha “Bes” Zain’s article “Should Employers and Interviewers Check Your Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and other Social Profiles? he argues that it’s easy for an employer or interviewer to not hire or fire someone based on something they saw on their social profiles. Zain says, “Employers can use social profiles to make biased, prejudiced decisions that are unfair and discriminatory. ” He expands on his view, stating that what you do on your own time is your business and that some employers will hire or fire someone for their religious/political views or even their ethnicity.

Even though it may not be legal, Zain’s statement that not hiring someone for their religious/political views or their ethnicity is bad because it can negatively affect business; I disagree with Zain that as an employee what you do on your own time is your own business and it shouldn’t affect your employer’s decision to hire or fire a person. Not hiring or firing someone for their religious/political views or their ethnicity which is disclosed on a social profile is comprehendible in certain situations. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, one’s argument hat people do have the right to hire who they want is understandable; if a prospective or current employee’s views conflict with their business relationship the owner has every right to not want to work with them. Another issue that arises in the argument is whether or not a person’s profile page should be screened in the hiring process. In Zain’s opinion, a person’s social networking shouldn’t affect an employee or a job candidate. Zain states that “Employers should only care about something that affects the workplace or the job at hand. The argument is understandable that what you do on your own time is your own business, but why would an employer hire someone who has a picture on Facebook of themselves smoking weed and partying? For example, if an employer had two people competing for a job and they were both equally qualified, but the employer checked on Facebook and sees that one of the potential employees is smoking weed in a picture and the other potential employee doesn’t have anything on his Facebook, it is obvious that he would hire the one who was not smoking weed.

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Clearly an employer is going to want someone who does not participate in those kind of activities because they could potentially affect the workplace or the job at hand. Being able to check a little more background on potential employees should be acceptable for employers because it allows them to see which candidates are truly responsible and upstanding citizens. Everyone knows that employers will look at social profiles so one should be professional in their profile if they want to be taken seriously.

For example, if a person is working for a big company and badmouths a product or employer on a blog or social media page then of course they are going to get fired. Specifically, if an employee working for a big baseball bat company like Louisville Slugger compromised the selling capacity of their new bat by publically posting that it is not effective, then they should be held accountable for their actions.

Their statement could potentially affect the sale of the product and cost the company a lot of money, so it is obvious that the employee should be fired. Employers should reserve the right to protect their company from people employees that feel it is acceptable to publically trash their product. I think employers and interviewers should be able to look at your social profiles. If you think something could potentially affect your business life then it should not be posted online.

In some cases, a person’s religion, political views or ethnicity could affect business so it would make sense to not hire specific people in those cases. Employers and interviewers have every right to decide if they want to hire or fire a person based on what they saw on a social profile.

Works Cited

1. Zain, Agha “Bes”. “Should Employers and Interviewers Check Your MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, And Other Social Profiles? ” August 25, 2009. http://thereasoner. com/articles/should-employers-employers-check-myspace-facebook-social-profiles

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