Your posts can come back to haunt you

[Ivan Seeking]

I have been meaning to mention this. There was a story on the news recently - I think local but maybe NBC network news - which claimed that employers are now looking for people's online activities. If you post under your real name, or if you reveal your true identify to a large number of people, a future potential employer, or even your current one for that matter, could be looking for you and what you say when you think that nobody important is paying attention.

Personally, I can't take a chance on Ivan causing problems with my business. I don't need problems like that in a competitive business world. I believe in what I'm doing here, but it would be much harder to justify if I knew that any customer might read what I say.

Also, I think it is nuts to give away personal information on the net; if for no other reason, identity fraud.

 

[Azael]

How could the employer even know if it was really the employe that wrote it or just someone using his name?

If a employer did this to me I would tell him he can take the job and shove it up somewhere. I wouldn't work for someone that invades my private life in that way.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I don't use my real name anywhere online. My employer may not be terribly interested in what I write here or anywhere else but the students here might be interested.
I had my picture up on MySpace and one fo the students here somehow saw and started trying to talk to me. I sent him one message telling him that I could not talk to him at all because of the rules here at my job and haven't sent anything else since. He continued sending me messages for about six or seven months after that.

 

[loseyourname]

Hopefully, any employer that did this would see I've been made a moderator at every forum I've ever posted at with any frequency and conclude that I must be doing something right.

 

[hypnagogue]

There was a bit of a flareup in blogdom a bit back over this issue-- see http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2005/07/blogs-and-market.html .

 

[Pengwuino]

I really do need to change my name...

 

[zoobyshoe]

There was a bit of a flareup in blogdom a bit back over this issue-- see http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2005/07/blogs-and-market.html .

That was interesting.

Do you think "Ivan Tribble" might be related to "Ivan Seeking".?

 

[Cyrus]

Having your name on the Net won't allow anyone to steal your identity. I would even go so far as to say that no one cares, unless you work for the government and need a security clearance.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So is that just a wild guess?

 

[Cyrus]

The majority of businesses in the US are small businesses. I don't think they have the money or time to see what every potential hire posts on the internet.

 

[Lisa!]

How about someone who posts under his colleague's name or even his/her employer's name?

 

[wolram]

I tell my employers,bosses what i think of them to their faces, though
ultimately my employers are merchant bankers and i doubt if they would
even know my name, my supervisor is a nice guy but is as usefull as a
chocolate fire guard, the factory manager could be replaced by a tape
recorder ,and i never see the engineering manager, he all way has some
thing more important to do even if there is a crissis at my branch.
So if you are reading this sirs, *you are a bunch of useless dick heads*.

 

[CosminaPrisma]

I like being anonymous, so I don't do anything on the web with my real name. Truthfully if my employers knew that I posted here, I wouldn't really care and I don't think I'd be judged negatively for it. But yeah , I agree that its nuts to give away personal information on the web.

 

[jimmy p]

I tell my employers,bosses what i think of them to their faces, though
ultimately my employers are merchant bankers and i doubt if they would
even know my name, my supervisor is a nice guy but is as usefull as a
chocolate fire guard, the factory manager could be replaced by a tape
recorder ,and i never see the engineering manager, he all way has some
thing more important to do even if there is a crissis at my branch.
So if you are reading this sirs, *you are a bunch of useless dick heads*.

My supervisor is a plank. He is so thick. He phoned me to tell me some crap today, and after he talked for about 5 minutes straight, I just said "I don't care, it's my day off". He never knows what is going on. He must be brothers with your supervisor. He couldn't be with your factory manager, you can find a use for a tape recorder.

 

[Physics is Phun]

I used my real name in some astronomy blog like 5 years back. Whenever I google my name, it comes up. I wish I hadn't done that, or could get rid of it now

 

[Cyrus]

Why, do you think anyone actually cares physics is phun?

 

[tribdog]

I don't care if people know my real name, or address or telephone number. I am not worried about renewing my top secret security clearance and I keep all my money buried underneath the palm trees next to the swimming pool.