Went back to work last night after being on vacation for a few days and noticed a new memo hanging up that had to be signed.
The memo was in regards to social networking (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, ect). It has now been put into effect that we are only "allowed" to check or update our social media sites on our "allotted" breaks (but not from company computers, of course). Also, the company reserves and will be taking advantage to read, read into, and frequently check our social networking outlets for "slandering or incriminating" statements. We also have to put up a disclaimer stating that our opinions do not reflect the opinions of the company if we list them on our social networking sites.
While I know that employers frequently check potential and current employees when they hear that something is being said about them online, and that anything we put on there can be used against us, I am still surprised by this. This level of "we know, we watch, and we want to own what you do online" is new to me. I've been told that some members of the administrative staff have been assigned to "watch" our Facebook accounts and report frequently on them.
This spurred me to do some heavy editing on my Facebook this morning including friends, employer information, and other things that have access to my account. While I know that I haven't said one thing about my work other than I'm going in or coming back from it, I'm not a fan of people getting paid to try and spy on me to get me in trouble either.
There is a back-story to what caused this memo, and I'll share it in a spoiler:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
I work in a hospital, if you didn't already know. A few weeks ago, a man died while having a routine procedure done in our endoscopy department. I don't know any more details than that, and I don't care to know. I wasn't there, I didn't know the guy, and it doesn't concern me. However, a nurse that works in another part of the hospital decided to post several details about what happened to the man on her Facebook wall. This information included how he died, what went wrong, and the names of the medical staff that were working on him. Needless to say, the administrative staff went berserk when they heard. I just think they went overboard with the "solution" to the problem.
