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Saving face - survey reveals many executives are hesitant to be 'friended' by business contacts on Facebook

Ref. PR-02120

Download PDF of media release >>

Singapore, 8 September 2009 – Thinking about ‘friending’ your boss on Facebook? You may want to reconsider. According to a recent US survey by global recruitment specialist Robert Half International, nearly half of the executives polled are uncomfortable with being ‘friended’ by the employees they manage (48 percent) or their bosses (47 percent).

Developed by Robert Half, the survey was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with 150 randomly selected senior executives at the top 1,000 largest companies in the United States.

Executives were asked, “How comfortable would you feel about being ‘friended’ by the following individuals on Facebook?” Their responses:

Commented Mr Tim Hird, Managing Director of Robert Half Singapore, “As more and more people around the world use social networking websites for personal and business purposes, the line between personal and professional life is increasingly blurring. While not everyone is comfortable using social networking sites such as Facebook to connect with professional contacts, it is wise to be prepared for these types of requests.”

Mr Hird advises employees on Facebook to familiarise themselves with privacy settings and create different friend lists to control how -- and with whom -- information is shared. “Individuals should classify their professional contacts into a ‘work’ list and limit what personal details this group can view,” he said.

Following are some tricky Facebook situations professionals commonly encounter, and tips on how to handle them:

• You are tagged in an embarrassing photo. Un-tag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends.
• You are ‘friended’ by someone you do not want to connect with. It might be best to accept friend requests from colleagues to avoid slighting them, but add them to a “work” list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively separate your job from your personal life.
• You are considering ‘friending’ your boss. It may seem like a natural extension of amiable office small talk, but think twice before proactively ‘friending’ your boss. It could become awkward for both of you.
• You want to join various groups. You should join groups that interest you. But if you have colleagues in your network and do not want them to see the groups you join, remember to adjust your application settings.
• You would like to be a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with colleagues or business contacts in your network.
• You love quizzes. Stop and think for a moment before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page -- unless you want professional contacts to find out which “Lost” character you most resemble or personal traits that you would rather them not know.

“Although the results are based on a US survey, the Facebook phenomenon and its accompanying side effects are global. In Singapore, there are already more than 500,000 people  who are Facebook members. While the majority uses it for social networking, an increasing number are using it as a tool to engage in business-related activities including sales, marketing and promotion, product research, recruitment, etc. There is a fine line to draw between friendliness and being too close for comfort. It is important that employees are educated on the code of conduct in social media in order to avoid misunderstandings or situations that could affect working relationships or one’s professionalism, and effectively utilise this medium in both the social and business contexts,” Mr Hird said.

-ENDS-