Legal Research

The line between personal and professional

Now this is an interesting question and something that I have struggled with (although not literally) for a while now.

"Where do you draw the line between personal and professional. Do you keep your "friends" in Facebook and your "professional connections" in LinkedIn?"

Lets make one thing clear straight away I don't think having your line manager or boss as friend on Facebook or Myspace is a great idea although there many people who do this. These types of "Friends" even have a name "Frolleagues" thats Friends who are Colleagues. But it can be dangerous and there are numerous articles outlining the "dangers" of doing so:

• LinkedIn warns social networkers about dangers of 'frolleagues'
• Are your 'frolleagues' ruining your career?

My "advice" is to only add "colleagues" who you socialise with on a regular basis outside of work as these I would class as friends, you may disagree.

But what should you do about your contacts who you consider to be "professional contacts" who you might not want to see photos of you drinking beer or enjoying yourself perhaps a little bit too much. This is the subject of this post on the Martindale.com Blog and I recommend everyone reas this for an introduction to a delicate subject matter.

[Hat Tip - Doug Cornelius at the KM Space Blog]

Full post as published by LI Issues on February 09, 2009 (boomark / email).