Friending the boss

Feb 10 2009 by Print This Article

With so many people turning to Facebook to reconnect with old friends or stay in touch with family, the lines between work and social life can get blurred. But what do you do if you "friend" your boss? Anthony Balderrama has written an article on CNN.com discussing this very thing.

The first question you may want to ask if your boss sends you a friend request on Facebook is, are there things you don't want your boss to know.

As Balderrama writes, "you don't necessarily want to be your boss's virtual pal if you have something to hide. The obvious drawback to online friendship is that your profile is open to your list of friends, and that means the good and the bad of your online persona is fair game."

Remember that on Facebook your friends can see when you have made changes or updated your profile along with times when these occurred. If you are supposed to be working and you are updating your profile, your boss might able to do the math and determine exactly when you were goofing around instead of working.

If you do decide to make your boss your friend on Facebook or any social networking site, remember that you must now try to keep that interaction on a professional level. What you might write on a friends "wall" isn't what you might want to post on your boss'.

So deciding if you can keep such a line in your head may help determine if making your boss your "friend" is such a good idea from the start.

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