The Dilemma of Sharing Social Media Handles with Employers

Social media is a place that people share their thoughts, express their opinions freely, share their personal lives as well, and many more. Nowadays, a lot of organizations place loads of criteria and many conditions for securing a job and then make it compulsory to attain before having the job. Some of these criteria might look quite uncomfortable to the job hunters, and one of them is employers requesting the employees social media handles.

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Now, I will really share my personal opinion on this subject matter. I feel it is not supposed to be; my social media handles are part of my private life; it's not like my certificate, which should be a major criteria for securing a job. So ordinarily it's a no; I am not supposed to submit my social media handles to my employer because I should have a life outside that job.It's obviously an invasion of privacy, because it's my personal space, and sometimes what I share does not have to be something with the job I am doing. My social media handles allow me to express my thoughts and share my views and life experiences. Requesting this is like someone mounting the camera, watching me both in the office and at home, which nobody likes.

Talking about the image of the company, I understand that there are reasons why some companies might demand that. First, for protection of the company's image, if the prospective employee's social media space is filled with content that could damage the company reputation, then it becomes important for the company to protect their name. If I think that my social media handles are too private to give out, then I may forfeit the job. But personally, I am not even the type that posts carelessly on social media, so obviously, if submitting my social media handles will grant me my dream job, I will give it out; hopefully, the company handles it legally and does not discriminate based on my personal lifestyle.

Come to think of it, submitting social media handles to employers may give one the sense of responsibility of posting something that would not stir any controversy or dent the image of the company or anything at all that would demote the company name in any way.

The answer to this prompt is subjective. Submitting to this request could be part of what I want to sacrifice for my dream job, while another person might have different reasons to say NO to such a request.

Wrapping up, my dream job is far better than my social media handles. It doesn't mean I won't be using my social media, but submitting to this request will give me this responsibility to become very cautious of what I post, but generally it's not supposed to be so, but then I can sacrifice it as long as it can land me my dream job and wouldn't affect me negatively.

This post is in response to the #HiveLearners community contest on the topic titled, Your Social Media Life.

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