On Facebook, your boss is a bit of a sticky situation — accepting a friend request even from a “cool” boss can be scary, due to concerns about inadvertent content leaks at best. But not accepting is an entirely different undesirable ball of wax at work.
A new survey of hundreds of users of Facebook and their boss experience on the site has revealed, however, that it seems most cave and accept a managerial Facebook request even if uncomfortable — and the concession isn’t always without consequences.
Data gathered in a survey of more than 800 participants in the Facebook boss research indicated that 80 percent of workers Facebook on the job, and 50 percent of survey participants believe that Facebook is not a good way to enhance workplace relationships — 16 percent even said they have “lost respect for co-workers because of things they posted on Facebook.”
Halley Bock is CEO and president of Fierce Inc., the firm that did the Facebook boss research. Bock explains that the likely best way forward is to allow employees to engage on social media freely for ideal conditions in the workplace:
Organizations should think very, very carefully about forbidding any communication or potential team-building tools in the office, whether it be Facebook, sports fantasy leagues or political conversations … Forward-thinking organizations should hold exploratory conversations with employees to gather diverse perspectives on using Facebook at work, and then establish clear guidelines which hold employees able to access the network appropriately.
The research spanned many fields, as well as tiers within the workplace, in examining the relationships of employees and bosses on Facebook.
I was friends with my boss on facebook, had no issues with it.
Some people don't think before they post….that's the real problem. If you think before you post, it shouldn't matter who your friends are.
I didn't become Facebook friends with bosses and coworkers til after I quit to have my baby. I liked it that way!
You should try our job Laura! With telecommuting and the ease of communication I am the boss and friended on Facebook with 50+ writers. Although it works better in in the journalism field since we already know ahead of time that our writers have their own "voices" and personalities.