Is Your Boss Stalking You on Social Media?
I get you!
We are living in the social media era, by choice or not!
Earlier, we had to face our bosses only between 9–6, but, now, they are omnipresent 24*7.
Doesn’t matter if you use social media for yourself or not, you would be forced to join your team's Whatsapp group with hardly any right to deny.
And if you’re lucky to avoid the WhatApp group, you would be stalked on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. How many would you be able to avoid?
Not all of us have the option to reason over this with our leadership, do we?
I was faced with a similar situation once when my ex-boss brought in my personal LinkedIn presence in a professional conversation. I was pissed, he had no right to do that, no matter what the conversation was about.
That conversation was baseless that cropped up, but that day,
I didn’t have the opportunity to say much on it, since I was already trying to rectify the useless conversation that had erupted due to a colleague’s backbiting habits.
Also, I was unsure about what and how, since, I was new to the industry, so, I talked to my people who have been working in the corporate environment for years.
But, the intrusion in my privacy bothered me for days, and don’t try to tell me that I can’t have my privacy on social media.
I remember, vividly, when somebody told me that what my boss did was a clear violation of my privacy and in bigger organizations, one could face serious repercussions of similar behavior.
That day, I learned some very important lessons about life and moved on, well-prepared for the future.
However, I, realized that it wasn’t just about me, it’s about everyone who feels their privacy compromised at the workplace due to social media.
So, what is the solution?
If we cannot say no, cannot deny friend requests, cannot block the “boss”.
Then, what do we do?
There’s just one formula to work out this situation.
Know that, WE CAN.
We CAN say no, we CAN deny that friend request, we CAN unfriend them and we CAN call them out for trying to invade our privacy.
We sign to work for the organization, to fulfill our duties but we do NOT signup for being a part of their social media groups.
It is our choice to decide who would be a part of our digital world and who won’t.
No one gets a free pass just because they are your boss or colleague or teacher or whatever.
We are individuals before being someone’s employees.
