Oops, fired again…social media and your career (and Buddhism?)
By Wes | September 4th, 2009
A policeman in Bozeman Montana was recently forced to resign for an offhanded comment on his facebook page suggesting “there should be a law saying police can take people to jail for being stupid.” Frankly I agree, and possibly would add voluntary sterilization as well. Crap- now I’ll never be able to get new job. Bozeman has had its run ins with social media in the past though. As Adam Ostrow’s post in Mashable illustrates, Bozeman is not the only city or town or employer struggling to come to terms with practice and policy around social media. From the NFL to the US Military, employers and intsitutions are having a hard time figuring out this whole thing. Bozeman Montana, the employer, was embroiled in controversy earlier this year when new policies for hiring city employees required job applicants to divulge their user names and passwords for any and all social media sites or chat rooms they belonged to. Several other examples of employees being fired for work and non-work related comments on social media sites have been reported on over the past while. A CNN blog cites a “Top 10 Tweets to Get You Fired” list where prospective employees lost a job opportunity for tweeting something stupid, or in fact lost their current job from doing the same. Facebook has also been a vehicle for early job dismissal, and in a controversial way at times.
In fact another Mashable article states that 8% of US compnies have fired an employee for Facebook comments. So whatever you do- keep your negative comments to yourself-OR join a group like Protocols in New York City. To quote an article by Allen Salkin of the NY Times the concept of Protocols is as such:
“…held every two weeks since September 2008 in a small private penthouse in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood, (Protocols) is hosted by five news media types who each invite two guests. The idea, according to a host, Michael Malice, an author and blogger, is to let invitees talk fearlessly in the present.”
A radical new idea in our modern times, be present, here, now, focus on what you are doing or just let the moment be. Not everything we do has to be chronicled on Facebook, Twitter or every other site and app for posterity or nostalgia’s sake. And though it may seem revolutionary and daring, it is in fact an ancient and quite well known approach to using your time. It is a core tenet of Buddhism.
So next time you want to tweet about how stupid your boss or coworker is, or vent on Facebook about how boring and useless your job is just sit back, take a deep breath and ask yourself “What would Buddha do?”
Tags: Buddhism, CNN, Facebook, Facebook firing, Protocols, Social Media, Tweets to get you fired
