This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

How do we feel about having people at work follow you on social? Is that a 👍🏾 or 👎🏾?

anonymous·Apr 17, 2019

This is more about people more senior than you**My department lead clearly disagreed with something I said and decided to not actually come to me with his response. But instead indirectly respond via his own story where he loosely described my points. I say loosely because it wasn’t something to be offended about. I commented about the news. Anyway he suggested that what I said was me complaining. I immediately noticed what he wrote as did my colleagues. It’s aggravating and I did feel really upset. I actually didn’t even confront him (trust me I have no issues with letting people know I disagree) because of who he was. I kind of just wish he didn’t follow me.So yes, it springs the Q above. Colleagues (particularly those more senior and/or not as close to you) following you on social is that a 👍🏾 or 👎🏾?

April·Apr 17, 2019

It’s a slippery slope and really depends on your online presence and how you use social media. If it weren’t for my social media presence, it’s possible that I wouldn’t be here with Microsoft today. 4 out of the 6 people I interviewed with saw all of my social media accounts prior to interviewing me and liked what I was doing for the dev community.Post-hire, there are now seniors who follow me on Twitter and check out my YouTube channel. Even on my first day, a senior came up to me because of my Twitter account and asked if I would be interested in joining his team for PyCon.Given that my social media platforms primarily focus on helping people transition into tech, discussing personal matters seldom if ever reach any of my social media accounts.So in those cases, I think it’s fine for really anyone to follow my social media accounts.But if a person uses their social media accounts to talk about everything under the sun including what’s happening at work, then no, I would avoid having coworkers in general follow me on social media.If your presence is more public with no harm in anyone stumbling upon your account, then it shouldn’t matter much for people to find your accounts and follow you.But if your online presence isn’t for everyone, then take the initiative to get the block button ready so that coworkers can’t follow you. Whenever I answer questions about social media and online presence, I like to remind people that there’s no wrong way to social media. And there’s no need to clean up your presence to appease others either. Decide on the type of presence you want and take any necessary action accordingly.

kuan·Apr 17, 2019

Love this answer. Thank you for sharing!

JennyPIN·Apr 18, 2019

As a CEO, my rule is that if they "friend" me, I accept. If they don't, I don't reach out. I think employees have a right to privacy (from their boss) even online. Of course it depends how you use your social media. I tend to be political and have really pulled back from that as more VCs are following me.