So, most of you know that your facebook can be viewed/monitored by employers. But I know a girl who got fired a few weeks ago because her boss used her email from her application TO FIND HER TUMBLR – where she had said some not nice things about her boss, job and coworkers.
And after some discussion, a worker who over heard the conversation for a Staffing Company confessed that they use your email to find you on several social networking sites (Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook being the first ones they check) and that they recommend it to employers as well.
You can prevent this on Tumblr by deselecting the “let people look me up by this address” box. It also helps to never tag your name, or have your full name on your blog if it’s also searchable by search engines.
It was just brought to my attention to post this because if your out on your blog, but not IRL, your employer could potentially out you to your coworkers, friends or family. Plus I also think it’s a huge violation of privacy, since some of these blogs are outlets from your everyday life. So protect yourself fellow bloggers 🙂
Pro tips:
Don’t use the same email for your work stuff (job search, your resume, etc) that you do for your personal life. Your professional email should be some logical derivative of your birth name or legal name. It should not be fandom oriented at all. Then, if your prospective boss searches your resume email, they don’t find your fandom stuff so quickly.
If your prospective boss is not going to approve of your fandom stuff period, you weren’t going to stay there long anyway. Own your hobbies. You don’t need to shove them in people’s faces, but own them. Be proud of them; put your tasteful artwork in your cubicle, talk to your co-workers about your shows. Don’t be ashamed of it, and you will get hired at a place that you don’t need to hide your tumblr.
If you MUST bitch about your work or your boss online, lock it up. Put it somewhere that only your non-work friends have access to, if you need their commiseration. Yes, you have the right to free speech, but they have the right to know you’re unhappy. Imagine how you feel when you accidentally stumble across someone badmouthing you online — they feel the same way.
If you put it in public, the public will see it. Things on the internet cannot be considered private unless you do the work to limit the number of people who can casually see it. So be aware of what you put out there, and be willing to own those things, and to accept the consequences if someone unexpected finds it.