Singaporeans refuse to be friends with bosses online

2 in 3 workers exclude bosses in their virtual social circle.

According to a survey by JobsCentral, with the increasing popularity of social networking platforms, employees now are likely to have to make a conscious decision about whether to include their bosses in their virtual social circle.

Here's more from JobsCentral:

While 81.1% of the respondents said they have at least one social networking profile, two in three (66.9%) said that their bosses are not among their list of friends on any of the social media they use.

A total of 2,281 respondents took this survey, and the respondents consisted of employed individuals from all levels of occupation and income groups. This survey has an error margin of 2.05%, at 95% confidence level.

However, the survey also found out that the likelihood of adding bosses as social networking friends is higher if the employee is of a younger age group. 36.5% of employees below the age of 30 said that they are friends with their bosses on social networking sites, as compared to 31.5% of those aged between 31 and 40, and 25% of those aged between 41 and 50.

“Younger workers seem more likely to blur the line between work and personal relationships and have fewer qualms about adding their bosses to their Facebook and Twitter accounts. However, they need to consider if they really want their bosses to make judgements about them that may negatively impact their career. There have been cases of employee termination due to inappropriate content on their social network profiles,” says Michelle Lim, COO of JobsCentral Group.

“As a general rule, be careful what you post online, because in addition to current managers being able to see what you have been up to in your personal life, recruiters routinely check out social media to gain a holistic view of a candidate,” Lim adds.