Reg Braithwaite’s (hypothetical) resignation letter makes it perfectly clear why companies demanding to pre-screen applicant Facebook accounts is a terrible and potentially self-destructive idea. Aside from the very real problems he mentions in his letter, there’s also the fact that if you are even tempted to do this, you need to grow up.
April 3, 2012 at 1:00 am
It is fictional though. He mentioned it on Hacker News.
Whether that matters is up to you, but I guess I’ve said my piece by posting this.
April 3, 2012 at 1:02 am
It does matter, and I had assumed that it was hypothetical but I wasn’t sure so I didn’t include that. Now that I do know, I have added it. I doubted that it was real mainly because I just didn’t see him or anyone having repeated failing encounters with applicants over their Facebook accounts. If my boss told me to look at people’s Facebook accounts over their shoulder, I just wouldn’t do it, and I doubted that he would either.