Why I Won’t Alter My Social Media Presence For Work
In the earlier days of social media, I remember listening, horrified, as a high school classmate returned from a college visit where she was interviewing for potential scholarships. Her interviewers placed a printed out document of the girl’s MySpace page down on the table and asked her to explain how her posts aligned with the university’s ethics code. It was an anxiety-inducing issue I never even thought to have. Of course there were cautionary tales about being conscientious about what you post online, but here was concrete evidence that the powers-that-be were, in fact, tuning in.
In recent years, I’ve had to ask myself to weigh out what I gain from tweeting and posting against what I hope an employer might be looking for, and it’s raised as many additional questions as it has answers. Namely, I’ve had to ask whether I’m willing to defend what I say online in real life, should the situation arise. And while this is something that everyone who joins a social channel must contend with, I feel like where I live makes this situation slightly more delicate.
Texas has a fraught political climate and anyone with a shred of humanity would feel frustrated about how our politicians behave. We’re a largely Republican state and there are many people in power within the business sector who fulfill the gun-toting, Bible-thumping Texan stereotype. Even though I’ve always been pursuing jobs in what is considered a liberal city in an otherwise conservative state, being vocal about my intersectional feminist ways is not necessarily deemed appropriate.
I remember at a past job, where I held a position in social media, I’d just written a blog post for the company and linked to my Twitter in it. The post had done well but, on my personal page, I was embroiled in a political debate about the defunding of Planned Parenthood. My manager was horrified, worried that people might click onto my page and find themselves in a liberal’s battlefield. I curtly replied that our audience could do with a bit of a reality check in regards to respecting a woman’s right to choose.
My retort was due partly to the feeling that censoring my ideologies was simply another way of facilitating a patriarchy. I am to be quiet in the face of oppression — I am to ignore when oppression does not immediately affect me. And social media, for me, has always been an opportunity to circumnavigate the predominant media narratives and create stories that are representative of the people they are supposedly including. These stories are complex, difficult and require everyone to work harder towards compassion — but they’re honest.
Sacrificing that honesty, for myself or on the behalf of others, to get a job is a privilege I have not as of yet been asked to forfeit. Others might not be as lucky and their social media presence may be a means of excluding them from the hiring process. So, as it stands, the risk of expressing myself without a filter on my social channels is worth it. In many ways, placing myself front and center on social, sans filter, offers employers the chance to see if I truly align with their ethos and, if not, we’re better off not doing business together. I’d rather be able to engage in worthwhile communication with people dedicated to creating a more peaceful, inclusive world than go work for a company that cannot handle its employees striving for more.
