Who do I really belong to? | nuno machado lopes

Ethics & Workplace Survey 2009

According to the third annual Deloitte Ethics & Workplace survey, more than half (53%) believe that their own profiles on social networks are theirs and that their employers do not have the right to monitor let alone interfere.

As you would expect, the younger the employee surveyed, the stronger that belief becomes. This is in stark contrast to the employer’s belief (60%) that the company has the right to know what they are up to in the virtual land of misgivings.

There does seem to be a clear assumption that those that use social media are acutely aware of the dangers and the impact that that might have on their company’s reputation (74%). This at a time when Bloomberg released its internal policy regarding employees and their existence online – to all effects the policy can be summed up in: you are not allowed to do anything online and if you do happen to find anything that you can do, don’t bother doing it because no one will care. It is refreshing to see the LA Times adopting a more informed approach basically asking for a dose of good sense.

So there seems to be a fight for the ownership of our persona – between the overly paranoid executives and Facebook’s Terms & Conditions, you have to wonder who actually owns us. Times like these that I’m glad that I work for myself and get to keep myself, which in most days is actually quite a nice bargain.