@ 1Mans – Yes, I already feel a great need to censor as it is. This is partially my fault because I haven’t found a tactful way to tell some coworkers that I don’t want them as friends on FB, when others I have no problem adding. The couple that instigated a big issue over one of my posts I took down and don’t really care one way or the other what they think, but in general, I try to be courteous to people I work with and telling them I don’t want them on my FB page can create hurt feelings – a situation I just don’t want to deal with. But, I like FB because I can connect with friends and family that don’t live here. So I keep it and just limit what I say.

@ Dawn – You’re right. While I feel as it’s my page and I should be able to write anything I want, doing so could lead to trouble. Which is the reason I do censor. But, I’ve decided to limit myself even further. No need to cause even more problems and drama for myself for something that was supposed to be fun in the first place.

@ Michelle – Yikes, hard core! lol. But you’re right to be so cautious. You never know who could see the page and take offense.

@ Kosmo – I regularly Google myself because I know this to be true. However, I’m overshadowed by an actress who shares my name, so companies would have to dig in about 20-30 deep before you even see my name. Actually, that’s not true. I’m on the second page briefly with my LinkedIn page that I never use. But, I try to keep the negative stuff to a minimum anyway for that reason there.

@ Slinky – I’m with you on the healthy does of paranoia. I don’t use my last name on this blog – come to think of it, I don’t even think Jonathan knows it. I don’t share where I work. And, with the few interviews I’ve done, I’ve been very circumspect about information that I’ve given out. For instance, I did that interview with Money Magazine several months ago and the editor wanted my full name and where I worked. I was like, no. So, I am careful in that sense.

@ Nicole – wow, that’s ridiculous. My situation wasn’t even close to that. I made a vague comment about computers and one guy in IT thought I was talking about him. The guy who thought I was talking about him wasn’t even on my page, so it was another of the IT guys on the page that said something and blew it out of proportion. Like I said, when the managers got involved, they were a little annoyed that it had been blown so out of proportion – I was happy to show them what I wrote. The guy that started the issue was reprimanded and I deleted him off my page. I don’t use specific names at all anyway, but starting rumors is childish in and of itself. Sorry you have to deal with that!

The whole drama sucked up so much time and reduced productivity. Most of my staff is in their early to mid-twenties, so maybe that had something to do with it).

I only use Facebook for family and keeping up with friends from college who have moved far away. I don’t update often, and I make it a personal rule to never say anything about someone on there that I wouldn’t say to their face.

If you’re going to have friends from both personal life and work, make sure it’s people you trust not to stir up issues at work.

I think the lady with the facebook shouldn’t have been fired. There are a lot of differences between being on a computer at home when sick and being on a computer at work. For one thing, you work for 8 hours, how long was the lady on? Was she upright in a chair, or curled up in a papasan or lying down with a laptop in bed, or as she said on her blackberry? And even then, given the ability to sit in a chair for 8 hours, how well do you think (which is what most computer work is) when you have a headache or fever or upset stomach? Unless she was seen to me writing witty banter back and forth all day, I don’t see the issue. I check my email when I’m sick. My fiance will often write and see how I’m doing and whether I need anything.

It sounds like your coworker on facebook is just being overly sensitive. There are lots of ways to say stuff about people that isn’t indicative of what’s going on.

I’ve Googled upon some interesting stuff. It’s interesting that some people choose to talk pretty openly about work incidents that portray them in a bad light.

-1MansMoney

I had a blogger that I think was taking a shot at me for writing about my personal life last week but my thoughts about it were if all my blog readers could access my Facebook, they’d have the same information anyway so I didn’t see it as odd or didn’t think it would make people ’see my differently’.

So my stance is I put nothing on Facebook or the blog or anywhere else that I don’t want everyone to see and accept that I live large parts of my life (though not nearly all of it) are public domain. I think a lot of us forget just how public the internet is but I think making everyone more aware of it will only be helpful in the end.