Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Why folks fret about becoming my Facebook friend

"The culture of this company suggests
that those who are friends with the company's Enemy No. 1, are not around for long."

-- Anonymous@4:41 p.m., commenting on why they're reluctant to join my Facebook friends network. (I'm also on LinkedIn and Twitter!)

13 comments:

  1. If you are that worried, set up privacy levels. It's kind of a no-brainer.

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  2. I like this tag line on your linked in: "national news media blogger"

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  3. I say screw it! I friended you. :-)

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  4. I've been your friend for awhile. But since only my friends can see my friends and I'm not friends with my bosses, it's not a problem.

    And honestly, even if they saw it, I'm not worried. They know I read the blog. They do too.

    However, I'd rather they not know I'm sometimes comment - or rather, what I comment. Thus, anonymous.

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  5. This just affirms why I hated working at USATODAY: The joint is/was nothing but a bad high school clique, all over again.

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  6. This just affirms why I hated working @ USATODAY: the joint is/was nothing but a bad high school clique, all over again.

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  7. odds are you'll outlast Gannett!

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  8. I think that's ridiculous. If you do a good job or not, don't think they will base getting rid of you whether or not you are a facebook friend of Jim. If you're that scared tell them you are a spy!

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  9. I know all of us liberal elitists already heard this on NPR, but if you missed Monday's All Tech Considered, story was "Employees Take To Cyberspace To Vent"

    http://tinyurl.com/bqknpb - listen to the audio version, the story doesn't cover everything. The example that was brought up was a number of employees who complained about their airline on facebook were punished for it.

    Any reason to avoid severance/unemployment costs!

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  10. I accepted your friend request. My department knows I read your blog -- in fact, 75% of them read it themselves. No statements one way or the other have been made at my TV station.

    However, I also remain Anonymous in your comments, for plausible deniability, and I think I've only ever used my work computer once to comment on an article of yours.

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  11. 2/12/2009 5:26 AM:

    I heard that too -- was secretly hoping Gannettblog would get a mention in the story (but I got out of my car before it ended anyway).

    signed, a former employee who is addicted to this blog.

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  12. Jim, has anyone who's accepted you as a friend on Facebook, or followed you on Twitter, ever had to deal with negative consequences at work as a result?

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  13. 5:30 pm: Not that I know of. But I'm kind of sure I would have heard about that by now.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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