Shannon Whitley

One of the higher-ups in my organization has discovered social media, and last night I received an invitation to become his ‘friend.’  Did I have a choice? 

I could ignore the invite – “I just signed up for the service on a lark, but I don’t really use it.  What?  It says that I have 400 friends?  Well, um, those darn beta services never report the right numbers.  Must be a mistake.”

I could reject the invite, but rejecting my boss didn’t seem like a great career move.

I decided to accept, but with some quick housecleaning first.

In panic mode, I quickly checked my profile to see if there was anything that I might not want to share with my new friend.  Was I displaying a link to my resume?  Could I hide the fact that over half of my other friends were recruiters?  Does my current status say, “Actively Looking for Something Better to Come Along?”

To be clear, I’m actually very happy at work and I’m not looking for a new job.  That doesn’t mean I’ll always feel this way.  There have been times when I’ve posted my resume on a job board just to see if the water’s warm. 

There are ways to be discrete, but having a boss as a friend in a social network makes it a little more risky to fish for new opportunities.  I guess it’s time to look for a new place to drop my pole.

Technorati Tags: social media, social networks, career, boss