Drunk girls posting on Facebook.

I can just imagine it in twenty years time when she is a mom and she is trying to tell her kids "No soda for you. You know how bad that stuff is!"

You say "my company."  I trust if you work in HR you are not also the owner.  Is browsing Facebook (and any other similar sites) something the employer mandated or something you took upon yourself to do?

And for general sarcasm not directed at anyone specific.... Yeah, I'm sure all of today's leaders in business were such angels in their youth.

You may be right. However the difference between right & wrong is often just 'getting caught'. Only an idiot would incriminate themselves voluntarily.

Last time I checked, if you're 21, getting drunk isn't illegal.

It ticks me off a little that employers snoop into the private lives of their employees with no real cause. If you show up drunk or hungover to work, that's one thing. But if you're doing your job acceptably, what the hell you do in your own time should be of no concern to the people you get your paycheck from. Unless they want to pay you 24/7.

How are you able to see anything other than their profile photo without their permission? 

x2. It seems that as long as it is not affecting your work performance or breaking the law people is free to do whatever they want; it is called having a private life! The level of self righteousness exhibit by some is disturbing but not surprising, ugh...

That's the problem, when you post those pictures for all the world to see, it's no longer private.  They're making a concious decision to broadcast traits that employers would find undesirable if they knew about it.  You don't put "Binge Drinking" as one of your interests on your resume...

bts

As a college student and resident old fart---

I've been told that companies will search you out on FB or MySpace to gather information about your interests inorder to see if you are a agood match for the company.  For example, as a teacher I have to be careful to not have any pictures of me in any compromising pictures as it will ruin my credibility.  That means that I'm very careful to not have my picture taken with friends that are drinking and may not be 21 yet.  I have to be careful about having my picture taken with girlfriends if we are clowning around and it could look racy (I've had a few of those taken, just requested that they not tag me in them). 

My general take on both sites is that FB is safer than MySpace if for no other reason that your name is your name. On MySpace you can change your name on a minute-by-minute basis and if you request a friend you may not know who they are because of that.  I've denied lots of friends because I don't recognize the name.

But the point is that they're not published in public.  At least not on Facebook.  If people are dumb enough to allow their employers to view their photos, then they can't really complain much.

And I'm not really buying the "consciously publishing undesirable trait" line.  People are posting pictures of themselves with friends having fun.  Nobody says, "Hey, let's see what kind of trouble I can get into by posting this!"

As posted above, if it doesn't interfere with your work, why does it matter?

The way I read the article in question, they were publishing these pics within a group, not on their individual pages (though I couldn't find the group when I looked).  I agree that if you post them within your profile, and only allow friends access to that profile you're entitled to some privacy.  But even then, in facebook the idea of a "friend" is a little vague since I see people with 1000's of so-called "friends".  And on top of that, just because someone isn't your friend doesn't mean they can't see the picture.  If there are 5 people tagged in the photo, then all of their friends have access to it.  And if the person who posted the picture doesn't restrict their profile, then anybody with an FB account can see it.

Maybe nothing.  But if you're an employer who could choose between a guy who rows crew on the weekends and has a few beers with his friends watching the gave vs. someone who gets so polluted they can't even stand, don't you think the former is a lower risk?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for people having private lives, my point is that once you post a picture that potentially 1000's of people could have access to, you loose that expectation of privacy.

bts

So you and Mike stopped making home movies?

Those are all controllable situations.  I agree that if you post your pictures in those situations, you should be willing to deal with the consequences. 

I just don't agree with the consequences.  If it's not affecting your job or the company you work for, why does it matter?  I don't generally like slippery slope arguments, but I think this is an appropriate situation for one.  You're now going to punish somebody for doing something completely legal on their own time?  What next?

I just signed up on FB last week - I guess I'm glad I'm too comupter illiterate to know how to use it yet!  Thank god we didn't have this stuff when I was in high school beacuse I have lots of bad pictures I'm sure would have made it on there somewhere!

edited to say - not really bad pictures, just drunken pictures

And if people's behavior away from work affects their job or employer, then I'd be the first to say that it's relevant and should have consequences.

There is a middle ground here though.  Not everybody who has a few drinks on occasion has it affect their job.  Not sure we those people need need to be treated the same way as the partier who drinks 5 nights a week and shows up to work hung over.

Maybe we're talking about different people, or maybe we have a different definition of a "few beers".  I don't know about D.Z., but I concur that I'd give a big "who cares" about a "few" beers.  The article that starts this thread, however, refers to people getting out-of-their-mind trashed (on what I assume is a somewhat regular basis), taking pictures, and then all but bragging about it.

bts

WWW = world wide web.

if you put it on the internet, it can be found.  The security most people have about it is an illusion.

That's your assumption...

If your screening new hires, then checking myspace and facebook is fair game. If you're spying on current employees (like the earlier poster claimed), that's offsides. Again, if their work is satisfactory, buzz the hell off. If you're showing up drunk/hungover, that's another story.