Ducks In A Row: Bosses, Candidates and Facebook
by Miki Saxon
I received an interesting email today.
Hi Miki, I’m a candidate for a senior position at [company]. I fully believe my success is dependent on a good cultural fit and that means, among other things, bosses I respect and who respect me, good communications, etc.
Everything was going fine until I googled the CEO and there was a link to her Facebook page. It showed a picture of her in a bikini with her arms around a couple of attractive young guys. Although I won’t be reporting to her I am concerned about the culture that she presides over and her leadership ability.
I’d appreciate knowing what you think.
“Jim”
What made it even more interesting is that the writer is a guy.
The email included a link to the Facebook page and the lady’s pose with the very young guys came over as extremely friendly.
There was a time when situations like this were classed as private, unless you were a movie star, but those days are in the distant past.
Young people are constantly warned about posting inappropriate images and content that recruiters might see, but it is assumed that adults know better.
So what’s going on?
At the least, this CEO showed extremely poor judgment publishing the image, especially on a public page. Further, age doesn’t excuse her because she is definitely old enough to be classed as an adult.
The bottom line in this instance was that Jim decided to pass on the opportunity. He felt the same discomfort and concern that many managers voice when they find comparable pictures of candidates online.
Jim didn’t care what the CEO did on her own time, but he recognized that he didn’t respect her and felt he couldn’t trust her.
What would you do?
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/
