Social Media Pitfalls

The World Wide Web has been in widespread use now for at least 10 years, and you would think we would have learned how to use it as a society by now. However, I guess there will always be people who post their phone numbers on Facebook for the world to see and complain about their employers, future employers, and co-workers on blogs and on Twitter:

As social media become the latest branding strategy, networking technique, job seeking tool and recruitment vehicle, they’re also becoming the latest way for people to find out job offers have been rescinded, to get reprimanded at work and even to get fired. It’s happened so many times — publicized and not — that one would think we could learn from others’ mistakes. (But, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have anything to write about, now would I?)

A recent tweet by a potential Cisco employee, for example, turned ugly when she decided to tout a recent job offer: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Unfortunately for “theconnor” (the handle for the would-be employee), Tim Levad, a “channel partner advocate” for Cisco, saw the tweet and responded with this: “Who is the hiring manger, I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.”

How about this for disciplinary action? There’s nothing like making an embarrassing example out of somebody to snap everybody back into line:

An MSNBC article tells of Kevin Colvin, the legendary young intern who e-mailed his boss, claiming a “family emergency” would keep him out of the office around Halloween. His co-workers (and Facebook friends), however, saw a photo of Colvin dressed as a fairy at a Halloween party time-stamped on the same day of the “emergency.” Colvin’s boss responded to him with an e-mail CC’d to the entire company, firing him and including the incriminating fairy picture.

By the way, Indiana is an employment at-will state, which means you can be terminated from your job because a sudden breeze blew into your boss’ office and upset him/her. But, more likely than not, complaining about your organization in public is considered bad manners and even worse PR.

Kimberly Swann, a former employee at Ivell Marketing & Logistics of Clacton, U.K., thought her job was boring — and she said so on her Facebook page, according to an article in The Daily Telegraph. Swann was called into her manager’s office and handed a letter that cited her Facebook comments as the reason for dismissal: “Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect.”

In March 2009, the same MSNBC article cites Dan Leone, a Philadelphia Eagles stadium employee, who was fired after slamming the football organization for trading a player in this status update: “Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver. . .Dam Eagles R Retarted!![sic]” Two days later, the head of event operations said they needed to talk about his Facebook status; instead, he got the boot.

So, what do we learn?

1. Don’t announce interviews, raises or new jobs
2. Don’t badmouth your current or previous employer
3. Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed

For the record, I love all my jobs and my employers Have a great weekend!

A Practical Joke

Making a Presentation Magical

Analyze this video on its strengths and weaknesses, and determine how well you think this speaker performed.

A Word on Encouragement

I hate to psychoanalyze myself in public, but I have recently struggled with discouragement in two separate projects I have undertaken at church. In both of them, I feel like I have been following God’s will and trying to serve Him well with these projects, but for some reason, everyone else involved just does not seem to share the same motivation I have to complete these projects.

Why is encouragement such a big deal? Look at the refreshment it brings to us:

Job 16:4-5 (NLT): I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you. But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief.

Encouragement takes away grief. It lifts a burden from our hearts.

In Exodus 17, a story is told of a battle that the Israelites waged against the Amalekites.

Exodus 17:11 (NIV): As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.

Not only is this story a testament to the supernatural power of God, but it also demonstrates the encouragement that the army received from Moses knowing that he was up there blessing them as they fought. However, the encouragement doesn’t stop there:

Exodus 17:12-13 (NIV): When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

When Moses himself got tired, Aaron and Hur were there to lift him up and encourage him in turn.

Encouragement is a positive thing. It strengthens us, emboldens us, rejuvenates us, refreshens us… it does so much good, yet why would people cut us down?

There’s a huge difference between an overcynical nature, a healthy dose of realism, and trusting in an almighty God that can shatter all our expectations with blessings.

I hope there was a point there, because I feel better now.

It Could Be Worse

Curse of Pac-Man: the Dangers of 3D Charts in PowerPoint

This seems like an appropriate article, given that one of the topics for tonight’s class will be charts in Excel 2007.

No matter how “pretty” your charts look, they need to be easily interpreted. Just like Pac-Man, it is never a bad idea to just keep things simple.

Or maybe it’s just an excuse to talk about Pac-Man. You decide.

Twitter Feed

I’ve expanded the Twitter feed to the right, because so many of the blogs that I subscribe to and are listed on the left are also on Twitter. It makes it a lot easier for me to forward great ideas and content over to the blog here without having to post directly through WordPress (still haven’t gotten the hang of it yet for iPhone). Check it the sidebar to the right for some great retweets!

This also reminds me that I need to clean up the blog roll… the work is never done *sigh*

Blind Hacker Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison

If you think that a blind hacker is amazing, you haven’t seen the half of it:

Matthew Weigman, 19… known in the telephone party-line scene as “Li’l Hacker,” is widely considered one of the best phone hackers alive. Relying on an ironclad memory and detailed knowledge of the phone system, the teenager is known for using social engineering to manipulate phone company workers and others into divulging confidential information, and into entering commands into computers and telephone switching equipment on his behalf.

“I’ve been interested in phones since I’ve been about 8,” Weigman said in a 2007 interview with Wired.com. “I talked to technicians when they came down here to do things on my phone.”

In his plea deal with prosecutors, Weigman, who was born blind, admitted to a long criminal resume (.pdf). Among other things, he confessed to conspiring with other telephone hooligans who made hundreds of false calls to police that sent armed SWAT teams bursting into the homes of their party-line enemies.

Weigman also admitted eavesdropping on customer service calls to Sprint, by dialing into a phone line used by Sprint supervisors to monitor their employees. Weigman parked on the spy line to overhear customers giving out their credit card numbers, which he memorized and passed to accomplices. Weigman and his friends used the numbers to purchase computers and other electronics.

By the way, social engineering exploits the weakest part of a computer system: human beings.

Facebook Encourages Open Marriages—Just Ask Dan’s Wife

Facebook has been doing some screwy things lately. This is one of them.

One thing I personally hate about Facebook is how the ads co-opt my friends’ pictures and use them to try to sell me stupid stuff. Dan received one of those types of ads yesterday, only the combination of text and photo selection was a little… um, let’s say “open minded.” …

“Hey Dan!” The ad said. “Hot singles are waiting for you!” And on the left hand side was a picture of my wife! Apparently, this particular ad grabbed a picture of one of my friends to display with the ad and unfortunately, just happened to grab my wife’s picture.

Apparently there is also a FB quiz scam where you click on one of those links that tells you to find out if your IQ is higher than your friends, and it takes you to a site where it asks for your cell phone number, and then some spammer bombards your phone with text message spam.

One reason I never take these quizzes: I generally already know whether I’m smarter than the people they show me or not

Upbringing Plays a Key Role in How We Behave at Work

Here’s an interesting story about team dynamics and how we align our work role to our familial role in childhood.

I read Sylvia Lafair’s book Don’t Bring It to Work while I was on vacation. She was a family counselor for years and then was brought into corporate America to help resolve team conflicts. Her premise is that we play similar roles at work that we played as a child in our family dynamic. There were several revelations in the book for me but one key nugget that will stick with me. I’d always wrestled with why I worked so hard and pushed myself. She described classic over-achiever behavior that described me to a “T”. Typically busy and distracted by much to do, Lafair states that this behavior comes from being raised in an environment that’s economically or emotionally starved. Since that revelation, I’ve been much easier on myself, resting and letting myself enjoy life as I know it.

Makes perfect sense. After all, the first team we recognize and have experience with is our family, unless you were some kind of 18-month-old T-ball prodigy.