Applying for a job is stressful as it is.
The unemployment rate, reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, remains at 8.3 percent until the next report for March, due to be released this week.
To add to a graduating senior's fear, there now comes a new problem with employment: to disclose one's Facebook password to an employer or potential employer.
Once something's out on the Internet, it's out there forever. But when did it become a mandate to go beyond the resume, cover letter and interview to attain a job, or for that matter, to keep one?
Your social life remains outside the office, so why should employers break into your social media? Where should employers draw the line?
Kimberly Hester, once a teacher's aide at Frank Squires Elementary School in Cassopolis, Mich., was fired last April for denying the district school access to her Facebook page - a parent, coincidentally Facebook friends with Hester, reported her for a slightly inappropriate picture she posted, which Hester explained was a very "mild" picture, nothing to worry about.
When the Lewis Cass, ISD Superintendent, asked to see her Facebook page, she repeatedly refused and was fired shortly after.
According to The Huffington Post, Hester was quoted saying, "I stand by it, I did nothing wrong. And I would not, still to this day, let them in my Facebook. And I don't think it's OK for an employer to ask you."
And now the privacy issue is more questionable than ever before with the "Mind Your Own Business On Passwords" amendment, which the U.S. House of Representatives struck down just last week.
With more and more employers requesting Facebook passwords, Facebook issued a statement saying it would stand by its users and protect their privacy, regardless of the decision in Washington.
Employers shouldn't have that right regarding a person's social media pages.
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Employees should not be using Facebook, Twitter, etc., at work anyway, so why should those lines cross?
If you're not allowed to bring your personal issues or problems to work, why should employers go hunting for that information?
Employees of any type of job should know this is now the real world.
You cannot and should not exhibit your entire life out somewhere on the Internet.
But employers don't have the right to go searching for any criteria just to have a petty reason to fire you.
Whatever may come up in a Google search is one thing - your past will creep up on you sooner or later - but if you're the right person for the job, with the correct skill set and personality, that's all that really matters.
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