Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Overstepping the mark

I have always been aware that the balance of power between employer and employee in the US is far more weighted in favour of the employer than is the case in the UK, but this just takes the cake!

According to Toni Bowers, it seems that, in Bozeman, Montana, all job applicants are urged to divulge their usernames and passwords for all social media spaces, so that a complete background check can be carried out.

1) How dare they?
2) How ever will they find the time?

4 comments:

Harold Jarche said...

OK - so I spend 30 minutes creating some secondary accounts on FB, twitter, etc. and that's what I give my bozo employers.

The upsycho said...

@Harold Except if they google you and find your real profiles on any of those spaces, they will know that you have 'withheld' these and presume you have something to hide.

Quite frankly, it would take several hours to wade through just my digital footprint. If they had 25 such applicants to screen, that could take up a whole week of one person's time. Totally impractical and impracticable!

V Yonkers said...

I can't image this would be legal, though. While employers can always ask, I don't think they can require you to divulge that information UNLESS they are a US government contractor. If that is the case, then the sky is the limit!

The upsycho said...

@Virginia And if you refuse, presumably, they will just choose not to hire you on the grounds that you are not a 'team player'. The whole thing stinks!