I have blogged before about the perils of the net when it comes to employment. But decided to have another go after seeing this article in the Guardian about someone arrested for a tweet, and someone else refused a teaching degree, they claim on the basis of a My Space entry. I haven't fully read the judgement in this case, although comments on one of the sites covering it suggests that the issues were other than the photo.
What interests me about this are the range of views that exist in this area, for example the comments on this version of the story, from what you do off the job is no one elses business through to everything you do is part of the job (perhaps only for certain jobs). It also touches on Red's question on differences of opinion. Are there jobs where your behaviour off the job disqualifies you from carrying out the job? I think the answer has to be yes - although with qualifications. Nobody is perfect (I know this will come as a shock to some of you out there ;)) so the question becomes what imperfections do we focus on? Red asked whether we would make a priest having an affair a Bishop - slightly tongue in cheek I would ask whether we would make a priest lending money a Bishop - after all the Bible says more about usury. The same goes for other public roles, doctors, politicians and of course teachers.
I guess where I fall on this is that there are behaviours which would disqualify people from certain jobs, but having your photo taken as above isn't one of them.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post, and partly because this issue is in the back of my head most of the time when I write here.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to me is two-fold: (a) what we do in our private life is our business and we should be free to do as we see fit, within the law (b) if we are going to be splashed across internationally accessible meejya we have to be savvy about it.
Conclusion - my example would be: I am a priest and I like a drink of beer or wine. An image of me drunk on the steps of the town hall visible to those in Aylesbury would therefore diminish the value of the more important aspect of it all, that I am a priest.
People who seek to earn trust and respect from those among whom they work have simply to be aware of the effect a laspe of propriety might have if publicised. In other words, go somewhere else and be silly
In answer to the question in the post - we don't know that she is drunk, that she isn't drinking Vimto, and that it was posted by a japing mate - so we can take nothing from it.
Oh and Alan, in your header, what is an 'Is Manager'? :)
An Information Systems Manager, as opposed to an Information Technology Manager. Those of us who called ourselves IS get on our high horse that it isn't about technology alone, but about systems, which includes people!
ReplyDeleteBless
ReplyDelete