Employers asking applicants for Facebook, Twitter passwords

What exactly do the employers do with the passwords?

I mean, FB and Twitter are SOCIAL media -- can't the employers ask the employee, "what is your name on twitter and what is your FB account and you must friend me." I don't understand the password part.

 

They log in to see what is on your profile before you have a chance to delete crap.

 

Two things:

1) On topic of thread, that is bullshit to ask for the passwords. I have never heard that, but I have heard of employers bringing a laptop to the interview and asking interviewees to log in and display their pages for immediate viewing (in their presence). Somehow this seems less intrusive -- I don't find the information to be particularly "private" if 500 friends can see it anyway.

2) On the new sub-topic introduced, this ...

... is a terribly sad thing to see anyone criticize. First off, I don't take for a second the "put in your 40 hours whenever" line. Especially with smartphones, employers want you tethered to their schedule. There are seminars and action points in every workplace about how to reduce this impulse by managers, and yet it continues.

But my main point here is, the person resigned. The person did not slack off on the job. The person did not decide to blow off his/her duties and let them stack up on someone else. The person did not make any demands on the company that would have put him/her in a better position than other employees at the same level. The person simply made a choice -- and a damn fine one to anyone who has a sense of perspective about the world -- about what he or she values.

You are complaining about a person who is willing to forgo the money to spend more time with family. It is wrong in your view for a person to live a life that doesn't include a full-time job. Do you see how wrong that is?

 

Star Man:
I would rather you post on this mssg board than invest in any kind of firearms.
Hey, nobody gets out of this thing alive.
Sorry about your troubles.
But it's just like Vegas.
The house always wins.
Just roll with it.

 

Hell - bad enough they want to invade your privacy, but to allow them to invade the privacy of your FB friends?
I can understand something like this for a highly sensitive government position, but other than that..

 

To me, it's a lot like them asking to see my family scrapbooks or collections from my travels. That stuff isn't online anywhere.

If they want to look at what I've put out there for the public, fine. Google me and see what's there. You won't find much because I'm not on FB, though I'm on LinkedIn. But the stuff that's private, like my refrigerator magnets and cookie cutter collection, aren't on display for others to see, so why should those, or anything behind a social media site's locked area, be screened?

 

The working-class righties who get sucked in by the race/religion baiting and wind up being useful idiots for the Romneys and Santorums of the world are the ones who are tiresome.

 

Agreed. Starman may be tiresome, but he's also right. Until the number of jobs available exceeds the number of available people to fill them, the supply/demand scale tips toward the employers. And many will try to get away with just about anything.

 

Still lots of jobs that require a polygraph. Mostly in the public sector or with government contractors. Fair?

www.simplyhired.com/a/jobs/list/q-polygraph+required

What about drug tests?

www.simplyhired.com/a/jobs/list/q-drug+test+required

 

Before earning my newest gig, my employer did a background check, a drug test, a credit check and a driving record check. So why aren't these invasions of privacy and looking on your facebook account is?

Why is showing a potential employer the things I post to hundreds of people every day invasion of privacy and showing them things I tell no one (like my list of speeding tickets or credit card debt) just fine?

If I had to choose, I'd rather keep the things we've accepted as part of a job application private and let them have at my facebook account.

 

I can understand government jobs specific to certain security clearances requiring one. I'm less sanguine about contractors being made to use them just because they hold government contracts; and public service employees in the VA or school districts, etc., being required to take one without cause.

 

Because, with the exception of the credit check, all of the other checks can be seen as used for safety reasons. You don't want to be working next to a violent felon. The drug check may be used because the employer wants someone who obeys the law, and will be reliable at work. The driving check may be used if the use of a car is necessary for the job (which, for reporters, is quite often).

The credit check, I can see being used if it's a job that involves handling money. You want someone who can be trusted with the money. But otherwise, it's an invasion of privacy.

Looking at Facebook pages, though, is an invasion of privacy. What people do on their own time, as long as it's legal, is none of their employer's business.