The “Don’t Get Fired Because of the Internet” Survival Guide

Even though the economic tide is slowly turning back in our favor, it’s still a pretty rough world out there. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate in September was 9.8%, double the unemployment rate from before the recession. And that’s not including those who are considered “underemployed.” Yikes.

Considering the economic climate, it’s no surprise that those who are lucky enough to have a stable job are doing everything they can to keep it. Despite their best efforts, however, it still seems that not a week goes by where we don’t hear some story of an employee losing their job because of an errant Tweet or MySpace picture. So, in order to help protect the gainfully employed from self-sabotage, we’ve come up with this five-step employment survival guide for social media users.

1. Share with Care – Nowadays it’s common for employees to be friends with their superiors on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites. Even if your boss is also your buddy, however, you need to think long and hard about what you want to share with them. Pictures with the family over the holidays? Sure. Pictures with the old fraternity brothers at Mardi Gras? Not so much. While no privacy settings are perfect, you should still take the time to learn how they work. Facebook in particular has a fairly robust privacy system that allows you to specify exactly which of your friends can see which parts of your profile.
2. The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Pink Slip - Like baseball and apple pie, complaining about your job is an American pasttime. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor either. Heck, I’ll bet that even Bill Gates complains about his colleagues from time to time. Still, there’s a time and a place for everything. The time for job complaints is not during work hours and the place is in the privacy of your own home. If your boss was within earshot, would you whine about how underappreciated you are or how you’re thinking about a different job? Probably not (unless you really hate that regular paycheck). How is it any different if you’re posting your gripe on the Internet? Always assume that what you post online could make its way back to your boss. If you still think it’s worth the risk, you’re on your own.
3. Take a Sick Day When You’re Actually Sick - If you call off work because you’re sick, do it because you’re actually sick, not because you’re waiting in line for that new video game. If you feel that you have to lie about being sick, however, don’t post a message on Twitter or Facebook that wrecks your story. Remember, if you were really out with the flu, you wouldn’t be surfing the web, you’d be nursing a bowl of chicken soup. Nothing makes a boss madder than finding out they’re being scammed.
4. Don’t Play With Trolls - This one is tricky, because it’s usually done with good intentions. If someone is flaming your company in a forum or on a blog, you might feel like it’s your duty to defend yourself and your coworkers. Before you go and pick a fight with a troll, however, ask yourself this question: “Am I allowed to publicly talk on my company’s behalf?” If you don’t know the proper way to deal with crisis communications, you might end up making the company look worse by adding more fuel to the fire. Your better bet is to call your boss’s attention to the issue to so that you can work together on a strategic approach to the problem.
5. Protect Your Passwords – In the modern workplace, practically everything runs through the Internet. As efficient as this has made sharing information, however, it has also made security risks that much more dangerous. Think about it. You store important presentations and internal documents in your e-mails. You keep in touch with coworkers through instant messaging. If someone were to gain access to one of these accounts, they could unlock a wealth of sensitive information about your company (just ask Twitter). If you don’t take your cybersecurity seriously, your boss probably won’t take you seriously either.

For more tips on how to safely use social media, be sure to follow ReputationDefender on Twitter or become our Fan on Facebook.