One of the newer areas of research that is getting a lot of attention is if, and how, people use Facebook at work. Some of the negatives that arise is how employees manage issues of privacy (teacher’s enjoying a beer on their personal time) and impression management from sharing one’s personal information (do your colleagues really want to know about your children’s soccer games?!) as well as the positives that can occur, for example, Facebook could replace the water cooler for employees who are dispersed or who simply don’t have time to chat while they are at work. The latter effect could increase social liking among co-workers who do not interact as frequently as employees who all worked face-to-face once did.This social liking could also have tangible outcomes related to productivity and/or employee satisfaction
There are a lot of research questions organizational scientists are interested in related to Facebook, and I am even conducting my own research on this topic.
This post, however, is about my own personal “experiment” in using Facebook with work colleagues. I use the term “experiment” in the lay sense: I don’t have an IRB; I’m not conducting research on this and I’m not writing this up for publication. Instead, if you’ve noticed a lot more Facebook activity (spam!) from me recently then it’s because I’ve likely moved you from a work-colleague-who-doesn’t-see-most-of-my-posts to a work-colleague-who-does.
“Why?” you might ask.
Well, honestly, I like the connections I have made with my work colleagues who post on Facebook. I like learning about their work and personal lives, their beliefs and hobbies, and whatever they find funny. It’s easier to talk to them when I see them at conferences or when I have a professional question. And basically, it’s easier to *like* my work colleagues on Facebook because I know more about them. (I like to like people; it’s potentially a character flaw)
I know I post a lot on Facebook and, much of the time, it’s usually some personal observation that HOPEFULLY is funny or, sometimes, thought provoking. Or, lately, it is some disgusting picture from Instagram about my horrible running injury (which is itching like crazy at this exact moment).
Anyhoo, that’s why you might be seeing so much more of me lately. I don’t know if it will stay that way. Certainly, if I show up at a conference and my colleagues start to point, stare and/or laugh, I might increase my privacy setting again. But I’m hoping to start a trend of getting to know my colleagues beyond just their smartypants thoughts in research papers and also getting to see their funny, serious, family, pet, and home/garden related lives.
How do you manage your privacy settings and/or relationships with your work colleagues? Reply here, or, optionally, on Facebook.