It’s been more than a month since my last post—and my last illustration. I’ve been dealing with a family emergency. A family member took a tumble that could have been fatal. Alas, it was not! Lucky—and perhaps there was a good angel or two involved.
During this hiatus, however, I was checking in on social media and noticed a post on LinkedIn that caught my attention. The question was whether posting could harm your career. Harm? Hurt? It’s up for debate. But will your posts be judged? Most certainly.
Good, bad or indifferent, what people post is noticed when they work for companies—or are looking for work. Perhaps especially personal posts. Employers aren’t necessarily looking only at interests. They’re getting a glimpse of behavior, discretion and, yes, whether someone might fit the company culture.
Not surprising, really. Most of us judge the content we engage with. We agree. We disagree. Maybe we remain neutral and continue scrolling.
Those who are self-employed may have an easier time skirting some of these posting concerns because they are responsible for their own brand and voice and have more freedom to decide the angle. People working for larger organizations have other considerations—even when making personal posts.
Why? Because companies have reputations, and employees can represent the companies they work for even on their own time—particularly when their employer is identifiable. In corporate environments, official communication is generally controlled by corporate communications and public relations, legal, finance or other functions, depending on the content and context. Those controls exist for good reason: accuracy, consistency and accountability matter.
But even employees who have nothing to do with corporate communications or public relations can represent the company outside working hours—sometimes without thinking about it. Wear the company logo, identify your employer, discuss the organization or connect a post to its name, and the line between “personal” and “professional” can become blurry very quickly. Misinformation can spread just as quickly, and so can an image the company never intended to project. A couple of examples follow.
When I was a director of corporate communications, some people from a satellite office posted a video of themselves drunk, high, loudly talking and laughing while at a non-company party—all while wearing hats and shirts featuring the company logo. These employees were friends outside of work and decided to whoop it up while proudly representing their company. Oops! Needless to say, the video disappeared.
In another situation at a different company, an executive flying back to the United States from Latin America, on business, behaved so egregiously on the flight that security became involved. The executive’s name and company were on record. Suffice it to say, Mr. Exec lost his job—and probably a whole lot more.
Of course, actions have consequences. They should. In essence, the wrong post—or rotten behavior—can cost you. That’s why it pays to think twice and remember that someone may be watching your TikTok or how you respond on LinkedIn or Instagram.