81% users don't want their bosses as Facebook friends
19 Apr 2013
At least 81 per cent people agree on the one person one should never befriend on Facebook - one's boss, a new survey reveals.
In the survey two websites polled 722 people and found that 81 per cent said one should not be Facebook friends with one's boss.
According to the survey site, SodaHead and anonymous feedback site Youtell, slightly more men than women said that it was alright to be friends with your boss.
According to the Huffington Post, those aged between 25 to 34 were the most comfortable with befriending their boss.
While there seemed to a consensus on not befriending one's boss on Facebook, people were not quite as sure regarding colleagues on the site.
In a parallel survey that asked whether or not one should be Facebook friends with one's co-workers, 55 per cent said yes, while 45 per cent said no.
According to analysts, employees probably do not want bosses to see embarrassing information about them, and also not have to censor Facebook photos from their wild college days.
Given the fact that Facebook posts have resulted in people getting fired, the fears may not be totally unfounded.
A Swiss woman was fired from her insurance job in 2009, because she had told her boss that she could not work at her computer and needed to lie down in the dark. Her activity on Facebook got her fired. In 2010, a waitress ended up getting fired after complaining about a pair of customers on her Facebook page.
People generally like to keep a professional distance at work, and when their boss and coworker can see every photo taken of them over the past 5 years, the distance does not hold. Also people do not want their boss to get to see the photos from last night's party after calling in sick.
The survey also found that whether people chose to be Facebook-friend with their boss had a lot to do with their line of work and their age.
There has been much discussion recently over employers forcing their employees to ''like'' or friend them on Facebook in order to keep tabs on them.
The Oregon House of Representatives on Monday passed a bill that would prohibit employers from forcing their workers to friend or ''like'' them on Facebook.