The boss wants to be your online buddy

The request seems innocent enough: Your boss wants you to add him to your MSN Messenger or Facebook. Put in that position, I'd do a double take, and wonder if I really want higher-ups perusing my online profile.

Everyone has a little bit of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in them, and often it is Mr Hyde who manifests online. Some, if not most, of my friends' social networking website profiles feature incriminating evidence of their wilder alter egos who surface on Friday nights.

We even tailor our nicknames in our instant messaging programs to reflect our feelings towards something or someone.

"If people put information about themselves up on social networking sites, then they can expect all manner of people to look at it, so they should consider carefully what they reveal before they publish," said Dr Jennifer Jarman, assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore (NUS).

Facebook does allow its members to tweak privacy controls so they won't reveal select information to certain contacts, but not everyone is so prudent in managing their personal information. Companies like Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs have banned Facebook. But on the other end of the spectrum, there's Serena Software. This month, the software developer introduced "Facebook Fridays", where its 800-strong global workforce is given one hour of personal time to surf the social networking site.

In fact, Serena president and chief executive Jeremy Burton is such a fan of the social networking site that he decided to make Facebook his company's intranet. He believes that colleagues who know each other on a personal level will work together better.

"We feel that company intranets today are limited. They only allow you to passively get information from employees," said Mr K C Yee, Serena Software's vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region.

"We believe it is more important to use an interactive arena where we can engage in two-way communication with our employees, partners, friends and families."

In the media industry, where networking and communication forms the bread and butter of their business, sites like Facebook are embraced with gusto. Staff from leading public relations firms and advertising agencies like Ogilvy, and Young and Rubicam have formed their own networks on social networking sites.

A survey of 500 Facebook users by IT security and control firm Sophos showed that 14.8 per cent of users admitted to being logged in to the site for the whole day, while 37.2 per cent accessed the site at work "once or twice" a day.

"People post personal information and images that express who they are, so it would be quite intrusive if employers insist that employees share their Facebook accounts for work purposes," said Ms Mylinh Cheung, spokesperson for HR firm Mercer in Singapore.

If knowledge is power, then it could be abused. More and more employers are trawling social networking sites like Friendster and Facebook for information on their potential employees, although the mole in this case would be the victim himself.

"If the employees prefer to keep their work and social networking activities personal and separate, they should be allowed to do so without fear of repercussions," said Ms Cheung. However, that is easier said than done, with most people telling Today that rejecting the request might hinder their career prospects. They'll accept the request, but will water down their online profiles.

"I gave my boss my MSN contact, but that also means he can find me on social networking sites," said an account executive at a major events company who declined to be named.

"If employees have concerns about employers requesting information other than what is normally requested on a resume, they should raise these concerns with the appropriate authorities," said Dr Jarman. Last I checked, my contract didn't say anything about me having to reveal my MSN or networking site profile to my superiors. Personally, it's not that I have anything against my colleagues, but what I do or who I am outside of work is nobody's business but my own.

"If the employer is not accepted as a 'friend', then he should not take it personally, but accept that the employee wishes to draw a boundary between work and personal life," said Ms Cheung. - TODAY/ym