The question of how to deal with this was posed to a Globe and Mail career coach by someone whose boss was pressuring him to change his LinkedIn profile when he didn’t really want to. I was surprised by the answer to the question and would be interested in hearing what others think.
But first, some context: The employee in question had gone from being self-employed to a full-time employee of a company. He intended to continue consulting with non-corporate clients – with his employer’s knowledge and blessing – and didn’t want to confuse the roles. Basically, it sounds like he didn’t really want his online professional persona to list his new job above his history of self-employment (and his related expertise and reputation).
Fair enough, but should his new boss get a say in what he puts on his LinkedIn profile and when?
No way, José, was my first thought. It’s just like a resume. It just happens to live online and, regardless of the reason, no one gets to dictate what someone else puts on there. Not a boss, not a client, no one. (Okay, maybe your business partner would have a reason to complain if you represent the company as entirely your own, but let’s not quibble.)
But maybe that’s my fiercely independent streak talking. In any case, the career coach suggested several things in his response:
- Not to worry so much about other people’s perceptions of full-time employment vs. consulting. (Fair enough, but easy for him to say.)
- Be clear about how you want your work – current, past, potential future – represented. (Absolutely.)
- Ask why the new boss is so concerned about this. (That would be my first question.)
- Be open to compromising with the new boss. (I’m still not so sure about that.)
The other piece of advice was to think about consulting an employment lawyer about who owns your social and business networking profiles. Really? To be frank, this gives me the heebie jeebies. Within the confines of the terms of use for these sites, do we not own our own content and how we’re represented there? I must say, if a lawyer told me my employer had a right to dictate what’s on my LinkedIn profile, I’d probably just delete my account and be done with it.
Do you think your employer should have a say in what’s in your online professional profile?
Employers are trying to find more ways of asserting themselves into your personal life, or as I like to call it, skirting around employment law,or any other law for that matter. If there is a profit to be made in controlling your life, you better believe that employers are going to do it, until the law can sort it out in court, and that can take years!!!!
Posted by: D | 07/02/2012 at 02:51 AM
Yes - since the information is inextricably linked to his company, he has a right to know that the truth is represented 100%.
Consider the employee's reluctance - he wants to hide his promotion, by not listing his occupation honestly. If anyone knows his longevity at the company, they might chastise his boss for not offering him a better position [silently or on some social network or other], when in actual fact, that has already occurred. This could cause embarrassment for the boss amongst his peers, if they catch wind of the situation.
My questions are - why does the employee wish to act dishonestly and mislead people? What would his contacts say if they knew he was being dishonest? Is his boss having second thoguhts about trusting the employee now that he has displayed his dishonest way of thinking - openly!?
Extrapolate a bit further into common areas of life, and ask:
How would you feel if you became engaged, but she never wanted to wear the engagement ring?
How would you feel if your spouse did not want to let anybody know that the two of you had just become parents?
It's the same basic type of 'deception' [secret-keeping] that we as a society discourage amongst children for all kinds of important reasons. The only difference is, it is an adult keeping some secret, for some hidden agenda.
Posted by: DazedandAmazed | 07/02/2012 at 07:48 AM
His personal account.He can post what he wants and not post want he does not want to post.Too easy.
Posted by: Ej | 07/02/2012 at 11:47 AM
What about Facebook? If an employee is using the computer at work and posts a negative comment about their job and the employer can see it does he/she have the right to tell the person that kind of behavior will not be tolerated? Would it be considered insubordination?
Posted by: Paul | 07/02/2012 at 08:07 PM
First of all Paul...why the hell are you using Facebook at work? Aren't you supposed to be working? Your Facebook account is yours alone. Set your security settings correctly, and these issues will never be a problem. Mine is set to "Friends only"; not "Friends of friends" or "public"
Posted by: johncanadian | 07/06/2012 at 12:50 PM