Last week, at a local Java Meet Up on the topic of Ethics and Social Media, I learned about a new trend of employers asking applicants for their social media passwords (or peeks behind the privacy curtain of their social accounts) as part of the interview process.
According to Minnesota headhunter, Paul DeBettignies, this is thankfully something that happens infrequently (and, most of the instances he has heard of occurred on the West Coast) but it does bring up some interesting questions for social media users to consider.
For example, should employers ask applicants for this information, and, more importantly, what does it say about that company’s ethics and boundaries when they do?
I think we all agree that it’s becoming standard practice for potential employers to use the web (including social channels) to research applicants and, that the information they find online influences their hiring decisions. But, I feel that asking to see information that is not public-facing crosses a line.
Yes, nothing you put online is 100% private (for example, Mark Zuckerberg and Co. are tracking every morsel you tuck away on Facebook). But, should you choose to maintain a private Facebook Group, protect your tweets or establish a small G+ circle of friends — and have the info shared in those places be off-limits to the world at large — I think those limits should be respected by employers.
Asking you to show or give access to those protected accounts at an interview is like requesting that you show them photo albums of your kids or pull down your pants give them a look at your new tattoo. It’s inappropriate and irrelevant.
It’s also manipulative. We’re in a recession and many people are hungry for work, shifting a lot of the power balance in the hiring relationship to the employer. As DeBettignies points out, “employers know that if someone says, ‘no,’ they can move on to the next candidate.”
The double-edged sword of social privacy.
I do understand where employers are coming from on this issue. Before I started my consulting business back in 2001, I was a headhunter, myself. And once, while doing that job, I unknowingly placed a white supremacist in a job…at an ammunition factory.
Had I had the means to snoop around this person’s past on behalf of the employer, I would have. And if I had found a blog expressing his views on the white race or an unprotected Facebook page with pictures of him holding up signs with swastikas on them, I would likely have passed him over for the gig.
But none of that info was online then, and this person passed his criminal background check with flying colors, so he got the job. (And excelled at it, incidentally. He really liked guns. Go figure.) He worked at the factory for quite some time before his extracurricular activities came to light and led to his firing.
The lesson I learned from this experience is that people are really good at keeping secrets. Even if you have access to everything they post online or interview them for hours, you still won’t truly know a person. Ultimately, good hiring decisions come down to both a leap of faith and a feeling in your gut. And unfortunately, sometimes both can let you down.
Saying “No,” gracefully.
So, how should you handle it if you are asked for your social passwords or a peek at your private social accounts while at a job interview?
DeBettignies suggests that the answer depends on your skill set, industry, location and these questions…
- How bad do you want/need the job?
- How truly offended are you in being asked?
- Is there anything behind the curtain to worry about?
Ultimately, this is a gray area for both employers and employees to navigate. It’s going to take time to better define boundaries from both sides and clarify what “private” and “public” really mean and how we should draw the line between “personal” and “professional.”
I’m afraid that when it comes to social media and the employer/employee relationship, the creepy, confusing and compromising questions are just beginning.
My husband works in an industry that, for the most part, employs high school and college students. He talks about his colleagues checking out facebook/myspace/twitter of their potential employees and sometimes making a “no hire” decision based on what they find.
His theory, however, is that the students he hired 20 years ago did just as many stupid things as the students being hired today, he just didn’t have the pictures and status updates floating around to prove it. As long as they show up when they’re supposed to, are focused on their duties, and their extracurricular activities don’t interfere with their job, is it really his business if a 19 year old attended a party over the weekend where there was underage drinking? (Now, if they went to that party in uniform, came to work hung over, or got arrested at that party, that would be a different story!)
And when does not hiring someone based on what you find on FaceBook or read in a blog become discrimination? Do you not hire Sarah because she is very vocal on her Twitter account about being pro-choice and you know most of your clients are pro-life? Or what if you hear from a friend of a friend on FaceBook that Joe grows marijuana in his basement (although he’s never been charged or convicted)?
Of course, hiring someone to be an FBI agent is a little different than hiring an HR Manager for a 20-person company, too. So I suppose that comes in to play.
But to your question- asking for passwords is wrong. No gray area for me. I don’t want to work for someone who starts our relationship basically saying they don’t trust me.
Great insights. I agree that all of this is one big slippery slope. We’ve done some work for admissions departments at colleges and run into similar quandaries. If a recruiter sees a picture of a student doing something that maybe doesn’t match the values of the school (like your pro life/ pro choice example), does that mean that they should pass over the applicant? Tricky stuff. But I’m with you on the passwords thing. No way.
This goes so far beyond appropriate… I hope they continue to ask. That will help people weed out the employers who are going to be unethical, employee-abusive and an all-around pain in the neck.
If an employer is willing to invade your privacy BEFORE THEY’VE EVEN GIVEN YOU A JOB – just imagine what you’re in for once you’ve sealed the deal.
I agree. Says a lot about a company who would go there. This is such an enormous red flag, in my books.
I would like to think that an applicant could walk away from any job interview that made such requests. Given the economy, that may not always be so easy. The best way I can think of to shut down such a request is to consider (before the interview) the state’s laws regarding what sorts of questions are illegal to ask during an interview. For example, in some states it is illegal to ask an applicant’s age, marital status, family status, and religion (just to name a few), several of which are very basic account information listed on Facebook. By asking for access to such an account, the employer seems to be asking for answers to these questions…without really asking them.
My response to such a request would be (respectfully) that providing a password to my Facebook account would provide answers to questions that are illegal under the laws of the state. While I am interested in the opportunity to work for Company X, I would not want to do anything that would call into question the legality of my hiring process.
I would expect that such a response would shut down that request. Further, they may have already made an improper request, which means the employer should not be able to disqualify an applicant for failing to provide access to their accounts.
That’s an excellent suggestion and well-put. I agree, the question does put an employer in the territory of being privy to information that they should not have access to for legal purposes. Your suggestion kills both birds with one stone. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
It might also be relevant to point out to the hiring manager (or whoever asks that question) that any potential employee who would willingly hand over personal passwords in order to obtain a *possible* job offer exhibits a profound lack of good judgement — and is an employee that I would not hire precisely because that person has thereby demonstrated that s/he might just as easily hand over company passwords and privileged information to competitors and others.
Excellent point. I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right, the reverse is all really telling.
The questions about the employer/employee relationship are indeed JUST beginning. It’s amazing to me the possibilities of where this will take us.
Great blog post! Than you!
Monica
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