The Oregon Senate just passed a bill that doesn’t raise as many eyebrows as what the bill seeks to prohibit. If made into law, House Bill 2645B would “prevent businesses from demanding passwords to Twitter and Facebook as conditions of employment,” according to KATU News.
It’s shocking to learn that it’s even legal to do so in the first place. As of today, when you apply for a job, not only do you have to cough up your Social Security number, your address, your criminal history and the other usuals, you can also be asked to provide your Facebook password.
Absurd.
Even more absurd is that Maryland is the only other state that bans prospective employers from doing this. In what universe is it OK? Before the explosion of social media—remember the good ol’ days?—we weren’t asked to bring a photo album with us to an interview, or our diaries or social calendars. That would have been laughable. But that’s essentially what this is.
What makes any employer think they have the right to that information? They don’t need to know I was at my sister’s graduation party before they can decide whether I can successfully sell a pair of shorts. Unless I was wearing a really ugly dress, of course.
There are so many things wrong with this issue that it’s hard to know where to start. One of the purposes of an application and interview process is to provide a level of anonymity and equality to all candidates, basing their eligibility for a job purely on merit and accomplishment.
Delving into potential candidates’ private lives and basing the decision to hire them on what they ate for dinner last night (or, more seriously, what religion they are) is unethical. And in the case of religion, it’s discriminatory.
If you think it’s all theoretical and that no one would actually ask you to do that, think again. According to the KATU report, “employers in Illinois have been sued for discriminating against applicants and employees for their use of lawful products, like cigarettes and alcohol.”
These aren’t isolated incidents, either. They’re just the ones who got caught. So if you get tagged taking a swig of something that’s not water, you’d better erase it before you turn in your job application.
What’s public is public, what’s private should be private. If you’re stupid enough to make your Facebook page public then that employer’s probably right not to hire you. It makes sense that employers should be able to access what everyone else can on the public forum—because, well, that’s the whole point. But giving them the right to anything that requires a login name and password shouldn’t even take a second thought. It’s just wrong.
Even if your page is squeaky clean, the power dynamic between employee and employer creates a situation that forces you to do something just to get a job. In other places, that’s called coercion.
If you were up for the job of your life and it was down to you and the guy with the tie gripping the black portfolio, and you were called in for one final interview—the result of which would be life-changing—and then the interviewer casually ended with, “And if you’d just leave your Twitter account information with the receptionist, that’d be great. We’ll be in touch”—what then?
You’d give it to them, right? You’d be stupid not to. If that was the difference between getting your dream job or not, you wouldn’t have much choice. No one should be put in that position.
If you’re going to work for the National Security Agency, they might need to know a thing or two (or gajillion) about you—that makes sense. But there are a scarce few jobs that actually need that kind of information.
What I do off the clock is nobody’s business and certainly says nothing about how I carry myself professionally. Take Dennis Rodman, for instance. You can say what you want about him, but he led the NBA in rebounds for seven years and has five championships under his belt. Bam!
There shouldn’t even need to be a bill to ensure social media privacy. But there is, and we should all feel pretty fortunate that we live in a state where it won’t be an issue much longer. The other 48 should probably get a move on and get a status update already!