In the interconnected world of today, it seems like people have two different lives and this is because of the popularity of social medias. A lot of social media platforms have been created, with even more emerging every dat.
On Social medias, people feel so comfortable saying a lot of things even things they can't say in real life because it has become a safe space for people to share how they feel and express their opinions without fear of judgement.
The practice of submitting social media handles to an employer is not something I am comfortable with, however, if it is the only thing standing between me and my dream job, that is like leaving me with options of "True or True," so yes, I will submit that just to secure my job.
Insisting that employees submit their social media handle is, in my opinion, an invasion of privacy and this seems like asking too much. Employers already requested for CVs to be submitted which gives them an insight into the employee's work experience, background and qualifications which I think should be enough. There should be a clear boundary between someone's work-life and personal life, if there's any aspect you really wants to know as the employer, it's mostly the work-life as you have no business with the employee's private life. Blurring this professional and personal life, making the employee feel every of his or her action is under scrutiny could be discomforting and not necessary if I am asked.
Just like I said in the beginning of the post, people live entirely different lives online compared to reality, hence, taking employee's social media handle might lead to misinterpretation of character when you take into consideration everything the person posts as they are not always the correct reflection of who someone is.
For instance, someone who loves posting memes could easily be described as someone who's not serious, whereas it's entirely different thing in reality. This creates fear in the employee's mind as they will always be in a quest to live an ideal life suitable for the employer but not their lives, thinking of it alone is already exhausting.
On the contrary, no one would love to see his or her company he spent almost his entire life savings build go down the drain because of an employee's scandal over the social media. In the age where a single viral post is enough to spoil the whole company's reputation, everyone is threading with caution, hence the request of social media handles to ensure every of their employee represents the value and image the company portrays they have.
However, even with good intentions, this approach has its flaws. This is because no rational person will ever submit his or her social media handle that might deny him or her their chances of landing their dream jobs when they have something to hide and not as if it costs anything to create a new one.... So in a way for me, it solves nothing.
Picture Is Mine
Trust is always the cornerstone when it comes to human to human interaction and would render the request of social media handles unnecessary but if that's the price to pay to land my dream job , I will do it moreover, it's not as if there's anything to hide but deep down, I would love a world were professionalism alone is valued.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day 👍