Articles Tagged With what not to do online

What Not to Do Online Part III

July 30th, 2010 by Sarah Ward
What Not to Do Online? Lie about your reason for taking time off, like Kevin Colvin did. Busted!

It’s important to be careful about our dealings with social media, particularly in matters concerning employment. If you don’t value your job anymore, here’s some great ways to lose it by misusing the internet.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #7: Slack At Work

We get that the Facebook game, FarmVille, is addictive with over 82 million players throughout the world. There’s a time and a place for play, however, and on the company’s clock is not one of them. Several Bularian City Council members were caught on Farmville during a meeting and were lectured about wasting company time. One politician, Dimitar Kerin, just couldn’t kick the habit and lost his place on the committee.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #8: Lie About Time Off

If you need to take time off work, don’t lie about what it’s for. Back in 2007, a bank intern for Anglo Irish Bank, Kevin Colvin, asked for time off to go to New York for a “family emergency” and then was busted by an incriminating photo uploaded to Facebook from a Halloween party he ditched work to attend. Even if you do everything you can to fabricate the perfect story, you never know who will tag you in a photo on Facebook during your personal “emergency” and bring it all tumbling down.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #9: Tweet About Job Offers

Conner Riley, also known as @theconnor, tweeted about getting a job offer: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” Shortly thereafter, she received a reply from Tim Levad with Cisco Alert, saying, “Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.” All it takes is one errant thought to tweet yourself out of a job. Better to play job offer cards close to the chest.

To learn better what not to do online, earn an English / Language Arts degree online. It will help you understand the power and effect of your words, effectively preventing you from making mistakes like these so you can keep your job and enjoy a long and prosperous career.

What Not to Do Online Part I
What Not to Do Online Part II
Source: 10 Social Media Blunders

What Not to Do Online Part II

July 28th, 2010 by Sarah Ward

If you’ve ever been stopped in traffic at a stop light and looked over to see the dude next to you picking his nose in his car, you’re well aware of transparency. In addition to deciding when is a safe time to, well, dig for gold, care ought to be taken for our online dealings as well. Here’s Part II of What Not to Do Online (click here for part I).

What Not to Do Online Lesson #4: Share Confidential Information

How would you like your medical records being discussed on Facebook? Five nurses from Tri-City Medical Center were fired for breaching patient confidentiality online. Keep confidential information classified.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #5: Affiliate With Known Terrorists

Yes, some things should go without saying. This ought to be one of them. Recently a group of 11 Afghan military training at an Air Force base in Texas went AWOL. The majority of the AWOL military were tracked down with the help of Facebook. In the process, it was discovered that several were connected to friends who had Al Qaeda connections. Be careful who you connect with on the internet, because this likely won’t bode well for their military careers.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #6: Threaten Your Colleagues

It’s easy to take things out of context online, such as threatening to bomb your place of work. David Noordewier, a former Wal-Mart employee, remarked on his MySpace page that the average person’s IQ would go up if a bomb were dropped on Wal-Mart stores. His superiors found out about the social media post and he was escorted out of the building. The takeaway for Noordewier? “If you have a MySpace site, you better act like you’re a politician,” he said. “Be politically correct and don’t try to be funny.”

To learn better what not to do online, earn a communications degree. In the meantime, stay tuned for What Not To Do Online, Part III!

What Not to Do Online Part I
What Not to Do Online Part III
Source: 10 Social Media Blunders

What Not to Do Online Part I

July 27th, 2010 by Sarah Ward

With practically the whole world online these days, the things we say or do on the internet aren’t as private as we may think they are. In an eye-opening study by Proofpoint, Inc., 8% of companies with more than 1,000 employees have fired someone for bad online behavior. In order to remain happily employed, here is the first article in a 3-part series of what not to do online.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #1: Bash Your Boss

In 2009, Philadelphia Eagles employee Dan Leone publicly criticized the company for losing star player Brian Dawkins to the Denver Broncos. His Facebook status read: “Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … Dam Eagles R Retarted!!” Leone told the Inquirer that even though he removed the comment, it led to losing his job only days later.

Word to the wise: don’t bash your boss online.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #2: Complain About Your Customers

We’ve all had difficult customers and it’s natural to want to vent. Just don’t it online. Case in point, a waitress at a pizza place in North Carolina complained on Facebook about some customers who stayed for three hours, causing her to work an hour past her shift and only left a measly $5 tip. Because she mentioned the name of the company, it came back to bite her in the behind when she lost her job.

What Not to Do Online Lesson #3: Slam Your Community

While in Memphis on business, James Andrews, the VP-director of Ketchum Interactive, posted a tweet saying how he’d die if he had to live in Memphis. This was right before he did a presentation for one of his company’s most important clients, FedEx, and over 150 employees, many of whom — including FedEx founder Fred Smith — are Memphis natives. A FedEx employee noticed the offensive tweet and called Andrews on it, CC-ing his disappointed email to a myriad of executives at Ketchum and FedEx. Andrews kept his job, but upset a lot of people.

To develop an appropriate radar of what not to do online, earn a business degree. In the meantime, stay tuned for What Not To Do Online, Part II!

What Not to Do Online Part II
What Not to Do Online Part III
Source: 10 Social Media Blunders