Social media has become one of the greatest ways to destroy work relationships. People post everything that happens to them and what they are thinking on their social media page and then claim they were victimized by a coworker reading their posts. Some people have not figured out that when you post on social media, anyone in the world can read it.
Work was so much easier when we didn’t know every secret thought of our coworkers. We knew when to keep our mouths shut; so why have people become so open on a public forum? I got so tired of people coming to me to complain about what someone else said about them on social media. Just because a thought goes through your head, doesn’t mean that you need to speak it or post it. Going on anyone’s social media page, you will discover crap. We produce a lot of it.
I worked with a human resource director who believed that every social media post had the basis of being rooted in some fact. She could not understand that many posts have no basis in fact. If it appeared on her social media account, it must be taken care of. Do you have any idea how much time is required to manage baseless nonsense? Social media has proved that our first amendment right is one that we so often abuse. People feel free to say anything that they want on social media; at least in the old days when you would talk person to person, we developed some skills of diplomacy. Deplomacy is a skill that our society is quickly losing.
Many people take advantage of the fact that government employees cannot sue for slander that occurs as a result of their work place. We just have to accept that suffering lies is a job requirement. Because we cannot sue, there is no opportunity for people to learn any lessons for slandering. Even organizations that have government contracts are in the same situation. If you are feeding at the government trough, you are facing the same restrictions as other government workers.
Social media is becoming a mechanism in which people are leaving behind their civility. It is becoming evident in our every day lives. We see people acting out in public places over the smallest of issues because we are becoming a society that doesn’t teach how to control ourselves.