Don't let your worlds collide!

Strangely enough, my single most popular post on this blog has been career-oriented, and has about half of my site’s lifetime hits.

This brings me to today’s very straightforward topic…

SOCIAL NETWORKS!

Keep them separate.

That’s about it.

Long story short: I’ve had Facebook since 2004, added my boss and some other higher-ups a while after I got my salaried position, and then unfriended them six months later.

Why? Because there’s absolutely no need for me to be “friends” with them on a social site.

First, and most importantly, being Facebook friends with my boss forced me to continually worry about what I put on my site. If I was annoyed with work, I couldn’t put it in my status. If I friended one co-worker, I probably had to friend them all. Even how I described my job may or may not be eyebrow-raising to a superior. So, why worry about it at all? Delete!

Second of all, I see my coworkers at least five days a week, and usually more often. What the hell do we need to be cyberfriends for?

THE PRESCRIPTION: We now have work-based networks like LinkedIn. Keep different accounts for your “social” social networks and “work” social networks, so you don’t need to continually worry about which privacy settings are for whom, or, worse, you DON’T worry about it and end up making a major CLM (career-limiting move).

In the end, if you’re that obsessed with Facebook friending your boss, you’re probably not mature or socially savvy enough to move up the corporate ladder, anyway.