How MySpace, FaceBook and Other Web Sites Can Ruin Your Career

MySpace, FaceBook, and other social networking Web sites provide a forum for people to meet each other and share new ideas. In theory, these sites are fun and harmless. In reality, these sites are public forums. Exposure of too much personal information can be detrimental not only to real life relationships and personal safety, but also to a person's career.

Even though use of MySpace and FaceBook may be done on an employee's own personal time using a personal computer, there are times when the use of such social networking sites can be harmful. For example, employees may not be entitled to an expectation of privacy regarding off the job conduct when such conduct impacts either work performance or an employer's business.

In the private employment sector, whether an employer can monitor off-duty conduct often depends on the employer being able to show a legitimate business purpose for the monitoring and that the behavior being monitored was connected in some way to the employee's job. Generally, employees are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy and to be free from wrongful intrusion into their private activities. However, this standard requires considering all the circumstances surrounding the employer's conduct. In particular, courts will examine how and why the employer took its actions.

Say for example an employee at a daycare posts sexually explicit content on a MySpace page. A parent at the daycare performs an internet for the employee on Google and finds the employees MySpace page. The parent is immediately concerned about the safety of his child and contacts the employer, who in turn views the content of the MySpace page and finds it objectionable. By this time, the parent has also contacted other parents, who are also enraged and contact the daycare demanding that something be done. Under the circumstances, the employer decides to terminate the employee for the content on her MySpace page.

Since MySpace, FaceBook, and other social networking sites are relatively new, this area of law is developing as we speak. However, employees should be cautious both about what they post and where they post it. Bear in mind that once something is posted, it may follow the you forever. Even if a posting or a picture is deleted, there is no guarantee that the content was not already viewed, printed, or copied and the damage done.

The internet is a public domain, and the contents of the internet and these social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook is accessible to almost anyone, including an employer. Before posting anything, you should consider how the posting reflects on you personally and whether it conveys the kind of image that will be acceptable in your chosen career or line of work, both now and in the future.