Can my boss look at my Facebook page?

I try not to ease drop, but this woman was sitting right behind me loudly talking on her phone, hard to ignore. I am going to try and quote her as exact as possible.

~WARNING!~ Reading the post quote below may be painful, so I'll post a quick summary farther down if you choose to skip.

* 20 something girl's monologue to person on the phone~ "I was in the bathroom at working smoking out of my favourite pipe. I dropped it and it broke. I was so upset I posted to Facebook that I just broke my favorite pipe. 45 minutes later my boss called me into his office and said '45 minutes ago, you were supposed to be at work, where were you?' I told him I was at work, so he showed me my facebook page and fired me for getting high at work.

How did he know? He isn't even on my friends list, isn't it like illegal for your boss to look at your facebook page. It can't be legal. No one should be looking at your facebook page if you don't want them too. I think I am going to sue him for invasion of privacy, I can do that right. I lost my job because he violated my privacy. Your boss can't look at your facebook page. Now I am afraid to apply for a new job" *

Quick summury~ Girl got fired for posting proof on facebook that she was getting high at work, thinks it is illegal for her boss to look at her Facebook page and wants to sue.

I don't use Facebook, but even I know pretty much anyone can see what you put on facebook forever. She is going to have a hard time finding a new job.

a reply to: calstorm

Ughmmm note to self. It is labeled "social media" for a reason. If anything she should have been fired for being a dumb @$$....

Jeeze

a reply to: calstorm

Facebook has privacy settings for a reason. If they didn't want someone to know, they shouldn't have it publicly viewable.
And yes, if it's viewable, it's 110% legal for their employer or anyone else for that matter to look at.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

Exactly, I thought that was pretty much common knowledge, even for people like me who avoid it like the plague.

I used to use Facebook a few years ago, and there was actually a privacy setting you could activate which meant that only people on your friends list could view your posts and pictures.

It's not illegal to view publicly available information. If you don't select the appropriate security setting, your information is publicly available.

Still though, everyone who uses Facebook should be more aware of the repercussions of posting potentially incriminating information.

A couple of years ago, well after I'd permanently deleted my Facebook profile, I had a boss who was actually pretty annoyed at my lack of social media presence. It was not difficult to discern that she preferred co-workers and people under her supervision to have Facebook, so that she could keep tabs on them. She would go out of her way to add everyone in the workplace, and anyone who didn't accept her friend request right away got given sh*t at work until they added her. Bitch actually went so far as to call me "untrustworthy" for not having a Facebook. Moral of the story - if you use social media, take care when choosing your privacy settings, and avoid posting anything that could be incriminating; you'll never know who is watching you.

She wants to sue because she's offended at her own stupidity and feels a judgement and a cheque will alleviate her of her shame. Nope. Hard lesson learned.

Put co-workers and your boss on your Facebook, and create a "group" containing them. Then it's easy to keep them from seeing specific posts. You can just do 'custom' and choose for people on that list to not see your posts.

Be careful though, every now and then you need to let them see you post something, otherwise they'll think you have them blocked (which you do).

So, every now and then take the "work" group OFF from the "don't share with these people" list and post a picture of your oatmeal or something on a Sunday.

a reply to: SlowNail

pretty sure the defendant woukd file a motion to demurre, striking the case and a judge would conform and rule almost immediaty. i say almost immediately but first he would probably call the defendant have a good mutual laugh at the stupidity of the plaintiff.

a reply to: calstorm

This is exactly why I never post anything on Facebook anymore. I use it to pm people sometimes and that is it.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

Yeah. And then they change the privacy settings when your back is turned. Just don't post anything incriminating, ever!

Apart from the fact tat the boss is being a bit intrusive, one has to wonder why people are surprised by this sort of thing! Call me an old timer, but I am not moved to write my life down for everyone to see.

a reply to: calstorm

Maybe she'll also get a visit from authorities armed with a warrant.

She can try to sue them too.

Bally

a reply to: calstorm

I think someone hit the nail on the head here! The boss viewed it on some other employees Facebook who happened to be in the friends list. I would fire her first then after about 2 weeks fire the snitch. Why fire the snitch well they used personal information they had been entrusted with to get someone fired probably for personal gain or job security these type of people are the same people who take valuable work information to other companies for personal gain. However if the reason they informed me about the subject was due to safety concurs aka working around dangerous materials or machinery I wouldn't fire them. I'm making a wild guess here since and assuming A: she posted from a work computer and not her phone and B: if it was a work computer then I'm assuming its an office job.

If she used a work computer to post the information then the termination will stand as I'm sure there are some work place ethics policy she probably signed also she will have no legal standing on privacy. However if she happened to use her phone and cellular network to send the information and the information was obtained through some underhanded way like guessing her password or some other way. However she will have to prove first he couldn't have obtained the information through her contacts on Facebook, Then show her privacy settings are locked down correctly. Only then can she reasonably question how he obtained the information and make it a privacy issue!

Always a Great idea to put your real name on FB...

Brilliant!

The boss can't have been too busy if he found time in his working day to check his employee's Facebook page.

One has to wonder if he made a habit of checking Facebook every the day to see what the staff were up to or if this girl was behaving in such a way that she alerted his suspicions.

Either way - do people ever get any work done or do they while away all their time on Facebook? It might explain a lot...

a reply to: berenike

I'm guessing the boss was either friended by the twit or she had posted incriminating stuff there before and the boss had been tipped off and was watching randomly.

a reply to: calstorm

Yes, your boss can look at anything you post on your facebook profile that is set to public. That girl is a moron.

It's easy to police your own posts and set things to private. What you really should worry about though, is your friends posting incriminating stuff about you.

a reply to: calstormI learned about privacy laws and work related issues at college. The rule that applies as I remember it is. If an employee is using company computers to do social media, or surfacing the net for any reason. They have the authority to do what they want. It is their equipment a employe is using. So as a general rule. "Do not expect privacy at work". The company owns the system you are using.

a reply to: calstorm

Haha stupid cow posting drug use at work on fakebook, no sympathy from me, I'd have sacked her as well.
If I was taking an employee on I'd be full-on vetting them as best I could on facebook/twitter/instagram, you name it, I'd try to snoop.
I've refused 'friend' requests from many a boss over the years being quite blunt when asked, "I don't want you to know anything about my private life, I'm here to work, nothing more, nothing less". Awkward sometimes but it did the trick.
Anyone stupid enough to bare their dirty washing on social media deserves the consequences, tough # I say.

a reply to: grainofsand

Exactly. Facebook has been a thing since the mid-2000's if you can't figure out by now that you can be held responsible for the things you say on Facebook by now then there is no hope for you.