I may not be a hero, but I am not a fool.*

posted 2009.08.31 at 00:34

Originally posted as a Facebook Note. Post started life as a facebook update/comment/post/whatever, though that input blank started to choke after the first paragraph.

(Minor edit, Dec. 22, 2011 - For some reason I was drunk enough to both write this and think that posting it was a good idea. My first instinct was to unpublish the post - my second was to shuffle the bullshirt into the "Extended" field. /noise/ is five years of drunk dialing the internet - this steamer is just one example of many.)

Previous, SPELLED CORRECTLY WITH A REAL KEYBOARD**:

knows that talking about work on FB is roughly equivalent to telling all of your sig. other's friends and family how they perform in the sack. Not only does it abbreviate the relationship, nobody wants to hear about it. You want to talk about work, use LinkedIn. You want to *bitch* about work, use IM or IRC. Your career will thank you. *I* will thank you.

(end that bit)

Seriously.

Back in '69, I didn't have a care.

On the one hand, reports are trickling in about people getting fired for facebooking. That's bad. On the other hand, anything you tell the world with regard to what you're doing oughtta be framed in the context of just how awesome this particular moment of your life *IS*. Doesn't matter how you feel about it- you cant the camera at the right angle, almost every job is Crucial.

You wouldn't be paid for it otherwise.

On the gripping hand, the morale in my workplace is so poor that reading work opinion - even INFERRED work opinion - outside of work is just TOO MUCH. What I'm doing is one thing. The projects I'm working on are one thing. The noise I'm required to filter out in order to accomplish my tasks.... well, through facebook, they've bled out of the workplace and into my browser. That I feel compelled to rant as a result should serve to underscore the severity of the issue more effectively than griping about the situation itself ever could.

I'm not specifically referring to coworkers in this context - I'm referring to the general concept of pissing and moaning about work through Facebook.

My coworkers aren't the only guilty parties here - I read friends bitching about work on FB, I think two things: first, "you idiot." and second, "the 'ignore' button is riiiiiiiiight there.....".

FB IS NOT PRIVATE, PEOPLE. Everything you say here, you say to the world.

Act accordingly.

I'm not a case example - not by a long shot - but for frack's sake, that isn't the point. Who you are IS NOT who you THINK you are - To the world, you are what you TELL the world.

And I'm telling the world that The Job implies a certain amount of professionalism with regards to these so-called "social networks."

LinkedIn and your Sig. Other are the entities you inform about Work. Exalt to the former and unload on the latter. Facebook is the focal point for the entities you tell about everything else. Your cat. Your new video card. You cut yourself shaving this morning. The mailman left your mailbox open and your bank statement is mush. The girl (or boy) you wait for the bus with might have looked at you That Way but you're not sure- advice?

Repeat after me :

This is my rifle, this is my gun. One is for killing, the other's for fun.

IRC, instant messaging software, social networking web applications - they all have some kind of equivalent of "/ignore" - and the thing is, that command is invoked by the offended party. Not the world. Not your boss. I can willfully cease to listen to you on Facebook (or AIM or IRC or any other digital medium), but that doesn't stop the people that you don't want hearing your angst from turning on, tuning in, dropping by.

This is the internet. Everything you say Can And Will be used against you.

Keep that in mind, please.

For your sake... and for my sanity.

Separate the planes. Keep your work at work and share the rest with whomever you choose to - these days, making a clear distinction between the two is healthier than eliminating any number of vices from your diet.

Compartmentalize. The 10.5+ OS X Dictionary.app states a particularly vivid example - an example that is particularly applicable in this instance.

End rant.

Resume bed prep.

* Qualified : I am - and am likely to remain - deeply foolish. I just happen to have a good amount of sense with regards to the Method of Separation of Church And State and a basic concept of how that extrapolates to the Separation of Social Life and Work. My ability or inability to move on said planes has no relation to my ability to perceive said relationships.

In some ways, it's a lot like being able to perceive the merits of Renoir's sketchbook, with my own capabilities comparatively restricted.

** This orgy of exhausted pretension (sp?) started life as a horribly-spelled iPhone post. Transition to real (tactile) equipment and the rest of the post results. The horror, the horror.