Question

You’ve just graduated from college and have been offered your first “real” job at StuffMart! The HR department asks you to come in to fill out paperwork, authorize a background check, etc. You arrive to find a stack of papers and forms and start completing them when you come across a form entitled “Social Media Policies." Much to your surprise, the form contains blanks for you to fill in your login ID and passwords for all social media sites that you use (like Twitter and Facebook). The form explains that as an employee of StuffMart, you authorize the company to monitor your social media, authorize the company to have access to your login/passwords, and expressly agree that you will not post any negative or derogatory statements about StuffMart or its employees on any social media site.

1. Discuss the ethical traps StuffMart should consider before implementing this policy.

Answer 1

Here, organization StuffMart should not demand for any personal information like Login Id and password of candidates social media channel like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc, as taking personal information or interfering to such personal Information could hamper people’ s individual right, further, organization should not interfere on personal activities of each people and they should not evaluate someone based on personal activities of such people.

However, Organization could update their privacy and confidentiality statement that could restrict employees to share any internal business information to social media sites and to the public, further, Organization could take agreement from each employee regarding not doing any kind of social harm or not falling into any disputes through attacking someone, or doing unethical works, as a result organizational purpose could be disturbed.

Hence, I can agree that I will not post any negative or derogatory statement about staff Mart or its employees considering that organization maintain fairness in their act and maintain integrity, accept suggestion, concerns and manage communication effectively. However, I am not agreed to share my credentials like Login ID and Password to company, as these are my personal Information. Staff Mart can’t ask for any personal Information on any ground.