Making friends at your online job? That’s good! Befriending your co-workers has become even more crucial today, as they help alleviate the feeling of isolation and loneliness in a work-from-home setup.
However, should that friendship extend outside the remote office? Specifically, should you add your co-workers to your social media accounts?
Similar to befriending your boss, adding your co-workers may have a negative impact on your work dynamics. Doing this could make it more challenging to establish boundaries between work and your personal life, for example.
Thus, before you add your co-workers on social media, here are some factors to consider first:
How Close Are You?
Although they sound similar, there is a difference between being friends and being acquaintances.
Being friends with someone entails a deep emotional bond, trust, and loyalty between parties. On the other hand, an acquaintance is someone you just happen to know and generally implies limited interactions and experiences.
Before you add one of your co-workers on social media, you must determine your relationship with them first. Ask yourself: “Do I feel comfortable sharing and discussing more personal topics with this person?”
If you answered “yes” to this question, then go ahead and add them. If not, maybe you shouldn’t add them or wait until you know them better.
How Much Do You Value Your Privacy?
Aside from personal topics, there may also be other posts on your social media accounts you don’t want your co-workers to see. These could be your latest workout pictures, political-related posts, or family-related posts.
Having your co-workers see these can make you look unprofessional to your co-workers and compromise your privacy. At worst, this could lead to potential discrimination and harassment at work.
So, unless you’re okay with them seeing these aspects of your life, it’s best to keep them at arm’s length.
Do You Want to Broaden Your Horizons?
Networking is much easier today, thanks to social media. However, this can be challenging if you don’t have any connections.
Besides your old classmates and friends, another group of people who can help you grow your network are your current and previous co-workers.
By adding or following them on apps like Facebook and LinkedIn, they can help you find online communities or virtual events to help you grow your career.
Are The People You’re Adding Your Juniors or Seniors?
Although it’s good to be friends with everyone, there should still be a level of professional respect between you and your seniors or juniors.
Imagine how awkward it would be to call one of your co-worker friends “boss” or “sir/ma’am” or vice versa. Or, it can also make your co-workers too familiar with you and end up contacting you about work outside your usual hours.
Like being friends with your boss, adding seniors or juniors on social media may raise some eyebrows at work. This can cause gossip to spread at work, causing tensions between you and your other co-workers.
Have You Ever Had Any Issues With Them?
This may seem obvious, but you should not add co-workers you’ve had an issue with on social media. Even if you’ve already resolved said conflict, you never really know if they’re holding a grudge against you.
Doing so prevents them from seeing your personal posts or spreading word about your conflict to your friends and relatives.
Think Twice Before Adding Your Co-Workers to Your Friends List
In itself, there’s nothing wrong with adding your co-workers on social media. In fact, it’s a great way to bond with them outside of work or even when you’re not in the same company anymore.
However, before accepting their friend requests, always consider the factors above. Doing so helps preserve the boundary between work and personal life and protects your data privacy.
Still looking for online job opportunities? If so, you should accept Remote Staff’s friend request.
Our jobs list contains various available positions for you to choose from. These range from virtual assistant jobs to even engineering ones.
What are you waiting for? Sign up with us today here. Good luck!
