The new 5 second rule!

With Christmas just around the corner, the world of work starts to become more fun. Conversations in the kitchen have far more purpose and the office chit chat starts to take on an audible, continual hum. We all love the work Christmas party build up! What should I wear? Where’s cool to kick on afterwards? Who is bringing who? To partner or not to partner, that is the question? Oh, what CAN I wear?? And on it goes! Except someone then recalls the ghosts of Christmas past!

“Remember last year when so and so did…….”? “Oh and did you see…..” “Can you believe such and such was…….?” Oh dear! Cringe for ‘so and so’ and ‘such and such’, but stuff of Christmas party legend! We love it!

Now this is all fine if you are a bunch of great mates, what goes on tour stays on tour, nobody got hurt, it was all in good fun and your personal lives are nobody’s business! Right? Hmmm, actually wrong!

In the connected world of today, very little remains unrecorded. Phones take photos, photos get uploaded to Insta, Snapchat , Facebook etc etc, and before you may even know it, it’s possible you could be starring in your own little one person show to an audience you don’t even know, or showing keen team spirit just because you’ve had too many spirits. You get the picture! But you don’t necessarily want anyone to get the photo!!

Now it is all very fine and well if you are in the obligatory group shot with the boss and you all say cheers on the count of three. Lovely! You all look good except you wish they could have told you, ‘you have parsley in your teeth,’ but otherwise, very nice. Except your boss really shouldn’t wear red and green as it’s a bit too Christmassy! But yes ok, bad colour choices but all very honourable and fine.

The problem of the new world of social media lies in the fact that people post all manner of things. People comment on all manner of things. People like, or not like, as may be their preference, on many different social platforms and this is often open to public scrutiny.

And why could this be a problem? As recruiters we have access to many different tools of assessment. Your resume, the interview, reference checks and yes, you guessed it, social media accounts. And dare we say it, it surprises us how many people have few privacy settings around their social media accounts.

Your future employers will search your name and view your public web offerings. They will look at your language, how you interact and what pics you post and what you comment on and how. It gives a great insight into their possible future employee.

So it’s not just at Christmas that you need to be conscious of what your social media profiles are telling the world, it’s every day.

I personally have a little 5 second rule – Take 5 seconds to stop, reflect and think of the children! If my children were to see it, or read it, or my future grandchildren stumble across it, would I make them proud? Or would I be embarrassed or ashamed? And not just because I got snapped with parsley in my teeth!

So do a ‘comfort test’ that works for you. You can always request to have a post taken down, or edit a comment but sometimes better not to have it posted in the first place.

Now if only I could remember which Christmas party I wore those green pants and that red top?