5 Stupid Facebook Faux Pas You Should Avoid

With almost everyone using Facebook these days, it’s important to keep in mind that stupid Facebook Faux Pas can cost you a lot. And even though we’ve seen lots of discussion of this lately, it seems that people just don’t seem to listen and continue to do stupid things with their Facebook profile. Here then are five things you should never do on Facebook:

Put Up a Drunken Picture of Yourself for a Profile Photo

Even if your profile is set to semi private, your profile photo is usually visible to the whole world. A few years ago, when I was living a very different life, I worked on a college campus and recommended a student I knew to a former employer for a summer job at a sleep away camp.

My friend at the camp called me to let me know that the student in question was not getting the job. It had nothing to do with his interview (conducted by phone) or with his resume. Since my former employer couldn’t meet the student face to face, he checked out his Facebook profile. The profile photo was a picture of the student, clearly drunk at a local party, not exactly a ringing endorsement of his ability to be responsible for taking care of younger kids.

There's nothing brilliant about these stupid Facebook faux pas.

Discuss Top Secret Information

Talk about stupid Facebook moves – an Israeli army officer decided to post a Facebook status update discussing a top secret operation he was to take part in later that day to root out a terrorist cell. The terrorists got away, the operation was scrubbed and the officer in question was sent to military prison.

Even if you’re not in the army, putting up top secret information about your company’s latest and greatest technological gizmo is likely one of those Facebook faux pas you simply don’t want to be responsible for (and if you are in the army and do something that stupid, you could endanger people’s lives as well).

Talk About How Annoying Your Customers Are

13 Virgin Atlantic employees found themselves flying some very unfriendly skies when they posted Facebook updates about passengers they’d found annoying. Mind you, they didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, but they still said things which were hurtful and which hurt the airline’s reputation.

With a large chunk of the world already on Facebook, you must assume that what you put there can be found by your boss.

Do yourself a favor and commiserate about difficult customers the old fashioned way – with friends you trust whom you talk to on the phone or in person.

Insult Your Boss

The single most common Facebook faux pas people make is to insult their bosses on a Facebook status update. It becomes a downright stupid move to insult your boss on Facebook if you happen to have friended him or her.

And yet, there it is – people do it all the time and get fired for doing it (contrary to what you may believe, in most jobs, you are an employee at will, which means that you can be fired for insulting your boss since being terminally stupid is not a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act).

Updating Facebook with Pictures Of You at the Beach (When You’re “Sick”)

People do dumb things on Facebook all the time. However, this is one Facebook faux pas that I’ve never understood, which people do all the time. They call in sick and then post pictures of their day at the beach.

Even if you haven’t friended your boss, do you really think that he won’t find out? Maybe someone else at work will see the pictures and forward them. Or someone else will tag them on Facebook who has friended the boss. Bottom line, be smart – if you’re playing hooky, don’t give away obvious evidence.

Bonus: An Old Story

Writing about Facebook faux pas reminds me of an old story from the very early days of computers – it’s one of my favorites:

A man calls in to technical support and says that his computer has stopped working. The tech support technician (this was back when tech support was still offered by Americans, not workers in third world countries) asked what happened. The man said, “Well I was just sitting there typing along and then the computer stopped working.”

The technician asked if he could see a “C:\>” prompt (back in the days before Windows, that was the starting view on a computer – hey, I told you this was an old story). “What’s a Sea prompt?” was the response.

Bottom line, pulling any of these Facebook faux pas can get you fired and force you to look for a new job.

The technician then asked the man if he could check if the monitor was still connected to the computer. He heard some rustling as the man was trying to check. Finally, the man got back on the phone and said he couldn’t tell for sure because “it was pretty dark down there.” The technician asked if he could turn on some additional lights. The man said “no, the power is out.”

The technician then said, “aha. I see the problem” (and here is where we come to the stupid Facebook faux pas – this would likely have made it to a Facebook status update had it happened today). He asked the man if he still had the box the computer came in. The man said “yes.” “Good,” the technician replied. “Take the box, pack up the computer and bring it back to the store you bought it from.” “Is it that bad?” the man asked. “Yes,” the technician replied. “Make sure to tell them you’re too stupid to own a computer.”