Do Employee Facebook or MySpace “Friend Requests” Make You Uneasy?
If getting “friend requests” from employees on Facebook or MySpace makes you uncomfortable, you’re not alone. According to a survey of more than 1,000 companies nationwide commissioned by OfficeTeam, a national employee leasing company based in Menlo Park, of the top executives surveyed, 47 percent reported feeling “not very comfortable” or “not comfortable at all” being “friended” by their subordinates. Similarly, 48 percent of employees surveyed reported being equally uncomfortable receiving friend requests from their boss. On the flip side, more than half of the executives and employees surveyed expressed no discomfort regarding friend requests. Thus, while the survey shines little light on whether or not social networking is well received the workplace, it does make clear that social networking has definitely become a part of the workplace—for better or worse.
