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According to a recent survey of executive recruiters, 75 percent use search engines to uncover information about candidates, and 26 percent have eliminated candidates because of information found online.
Jared Flesher, CareerJournal
January 20, 2006
This article is Awesome But I greatly Dislike it
Posted by Shames O'Tool | November 03, 2008 05:17 pm
In response to the article "How to Clean Up Your Digital Dirt Before It Trashes Your Job Search": Employers and recruiters who seek "digital dirt" on job candidates and employees rather than concentrating on on-the-job skills and performance infringe on employees' and job seekers' privacy and dignity--and undermine our most basic rights and freedoms. Once one allows any employer to dictate one aspect of one's private life, where does it stop? Why not require employees and job applicants to submit to employer monitoring--again, the technology for this is already widely available!--of whatever they, even (indeed, especially) on their own time and off employer premises, read, watch, or listen to; who they associate with and what kinds of groups they're in; what Web sites they visit and what they send or receive online; and the like? We can't have employees who dare to write or read postings like this one or otherwise explore, much less spread, ideas about "controversial matters" that the employer might not like, such as notions about fairer tax policies and a stronger "social safety net," or--horror of horrors--about (gasp!) employees having rights, now, can we? Employment discrimination based on off-the-job political activities, indeed, seem to be rising to a level not known since the era of McCarthyism. Many people, especially in today's job-scarce economy, are now hesitant to take part in any form of political activism--writing a letter to a newspaper, calling a radio talk show, posting on the Internet, taking part in a march or a rally--for fear that their employer might somehow frown on such actions. Indeed, in 2002, during a long job hunt after a 2001 layoff, I was once denied a plum job as an editor with a nonprofit educational association in part because of what the employer, when I challenged its vague (and contradiction-ridden) claim of things being simply a matter of "subtle factors" involving "fit"--meanwhile, I suspected and alleged sex discrimination (the editorial department involved was all-female and stayed so)--called, in McCarthyesque terms, my "record" of involvement in "controversial issues," namely, feminism and children's rights--never brought up in any interview, but found after the "responsible" employer decided to do an Internet search. This sleazy practice, too, while disturbing and reprehensible, is in many states, mine included, still apparently legal. This, too, must be stopped through legislation like California's, which specifically forbids employers from dictating or attempting to dictate employees' political activity. Better yet, every state and Congress should adopt legislation, as a few states have, protecting the right of employees and job applicants to engage in any lawful off-hours, off-premises activities they choose. Generally, such activities are none of an employer's business unless they pose an actual and substantial conflict of interest or otherwise materially and substantially impair one's ability to do one's job. It is time to reclaim your and our rights--before we are all forced to live at the mercy of abusive employers in a nationwide, high-tech version of the company town that controls not only our work but our other actions, our minds, and our souls "24/7." It is not about the bottom line; it's about power and control. Let's reclaim our rights. So urge your state and federal lawmakers to support legislation protecting the rights of employees and job applicants to engage in lawful off-hours, off-employer-premises activities without fear of employment discrimination. Let's say to employers: Our skills, attention, and loyalty are yours eight hours a day, 40 hours a week; the rest of our lives belong to us, and to us alone. For not only ourselves but our fellow citizens and future generations, we are taking back our lives, our privacy, and our rights. For your rights and mine, Scott Enk senk8105@sbcglobal.net
Posted by Scott Enk | January 04, 2007 12:59 am
As a Ph.D. ex-senior consultant, I was laid off with 9,000 other employees from a high tech outfit. As a single parent of a high school & college child, I ran through my savings and had to file bankruptcy. Now I find my life's work in Human Resources is washed away as I can no longer have an HR job because of accounting morality superimposed on individuals in ANY FIELD OR PROFESSION. So I stock shelves as a blue collar at 1/4 my previous salary, knowng I'll never again have a job I trained and paid $50,000 for--because bankruptcy shows as an evil no professional should beget.
Posted by John Singer | January 23, 2006 02:01 pm
Great article! And conversely, what happens if you Google yourself (or a recruiter / hiring manager Googles you) and nothing comes up? Do you exist? An online identity is going to continue to be a critical strategy to effectively managing your career and positioning yourself to outperform the competition. Cindy Kraft. The CFO-coach.com
Posted by Cindy Kraft | January 20, 2006 09:28 am
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