Toxic Facebook posts
Facebook and twitter are the most popular social networks in this country. Facebook is perhaps neck to neck with WhatsApp messaging in terms of usage. These are wonderful pieces of technology as they make communication much cheaper and easier. However, because of some people joined the ‘religion’ uncircumcised, they have ended up losing jobs or being sued for slander.
Some information at the work place is what can be described as privileged. This means that you are entrusted with such information and that you are not expected to broadcast the same to people outside the organization. One such piece of information is the payroll.
Employees of one organization g ot communication through a memo that salaries would be delayed for a day or two because of some cash flow technicalities. One Facebook-savvy employee decided to seek sympathy from Facebook friends. Then post went viral as all sorts of people started making various comments.
This employee was not tactful; an entire memo with company logos and symbols was uploaded unto Facebook. The thinking here was that this was being shared amongst his Facebook community of 300 plus members only. This employee did not realize that the privacy settings on the Facebook page allowed friends of his friends see posts that they had commented on.
One Facebook friend of the employee thought that the post was very ‘juicy’ and decided to share it to his 2,500 friends. One amongst those 2, 5000 was a senior member of management team of the concerned organization.
You see, Facebook can be an interwoven web. Whatever you post can reach a wide variety of people that you may not even have befriended. Think of it as something that is said on the radio; you have no idea about the reach of the message.
Even if you had good reasons to believe that your spouse was stupid, you would not want to post that on Facebook. Your spouse may not be on Facebook, but one of his friends who may be a friend of your friend can find out about it and report you.
And there is another Facebook lot that want to impress on their credentials on Facebook by indicating universities they never went to. Some have got into problems with their employers who found out that they indicated positions they never held in the organization. They police calls it ‘masquerading as somebody’ and it is an offence.
Most organizations have new employees sign conditions of service that most of the times state that employees shall safeguard information that if let out to the public, can cause the organization lose reputation or business. This is the weapon that is used against you when it is discovered that you have been washing company’s dirty linen on Facebook or Twitter.
From time to time, you may want to share some pieces of information to trusted friends, in such cases use email or WhatsApp special groups. All I am trying to say is that do not broadcast your sensitive messages but rather target them.
This is why I do not get offended when Pastror Salange enumerates the vehicles he has; it true, he has them!
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