Personal habits and the workplace
If you use social media in your daily life, you’ve made choices about how you use it. Research shows we are constantly building and refining these habits based on who we socialize with and what technologies we’re using.
These choices will vary. For example, one person may check Facebook once every few days; another will respond to posts and messages more frequently and have alerts sent to their phones. The ways people use social media can often become ingrained making people less conscious of the choices they’re making.
Social media can be a powerful tool to build relationships and reputations. However, in the workplace, or when using social media to talk about work, you might need to use it differently than you would in other situations. Some actions you may take automatically may put the employer, or other employees, at risk.
Be on the safe side – it’s up to you
Consult the principles in these guidelines and be on the safe side – you are responsible for making informed choices. If you’d think twice before saying it to a colleague in the lineup at Tim Horton’s, think twice before posting it online. You wouldn’t announce to a crowd of people at a job fair that you think your boss is incompetent, so don’t do it on an online recruitment site like Glassdoor.
It’s up to you to consider whether you should refrain from posting or sharing something; whether it’s possible to present yourself in your social media interactions in a way that won’t result in people questioning whether you can do your job impartially; or whether you might be in a conflict of interest.
