Incentives drive behavior. I firmly believe this. Because I believe this I would look to see the number of additional Facebook accounts increase:
SEATTLE — When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.
…
Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.
Companies that don’t ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.
Not sure how I’d handle this if I was out of work for an extended period of time or if my current employer asked me to for the same information. However, now that I see this growing trend, I may just create a duplicate Facebook account that I keep for just such occasions.
Ugh.
