Blurring the boundaries
Every week seems to bring a new story about a public servant going online to discredit themselves and the organisation they represent by making ill thought out comments on social networking sites.
From teachers maligning students and their parents on Facebook to a senior manager at a PCT telling people that she ‘bull****s’ for a living on Friends Reunited, each incident undermines trust in the practitioners themselves but also the organisations and professions that they represent.
There is undoubtedly added scrutiny on those holding publicly funded positions. While those working for privately owned companies are no doubt guilty of the same offences, media coverage is less likely to be of public interest, unless of course you are the CEO of a national concern – who could forget Gerald Ratner?
These stories highlight how social networking sites have further blurred the boundaries between work and play, encouraging people to reveal their outside work selves on a format which can be viewed by those with whom they have a professional relationship. And as the staff Christmas party can sometimes show - never the twain should meet.
Without a doubt, the majority of employees who have been caught out in this way will be regretful, ashamed, fearful for their career prospects and will probably never make the same mistake again.
Public reaction is divided. Some will be outraged by the thoughtless confessions of public servants, whose wages we pay, others will cringe at their foolishness but wonder how someone moaning about work – a regular occurrence at the pub - makes the national newspapers.
What is certain is that these revelations undermine public trust in the organisations concerned, confirming negative perceptions of people whose salaries they pay. Staff are an organisation’s greatest ambassadors and it is ever more important that this point is understood.
Obviously, we’re not condoning a state where the thought police are in control. However, all staff need to be aware of the worth of their opinions – which clearly increases with position – and need to be considerate and sensible about where they make their views heard.
Facebook, Twitter and Friends Reunited is not the pub. Thoughts shared here are not confined to a select group of friends – but are available to the world as an indelible record.
With the continuing popularity of these forms of communication, there is evidence that more needs to be done to brief staff on the reach and dangers of social networking and encourage responsibility and professionalism even in the home?
Or perhaps, as the definition of acceptable workplace conduct continues to be re-written (just think of the increasingly obsolete neck-tie) will Facebook confessions become the rule rather than the exception?