Friends forever
We meet again, Facebook. I won’t be ranting and raving like an old man trying to return soup at a deli ($1 to the Seinfeld writers, and to my misguided youth) today, however. No, for today we look at perhaps the last workplace taboo: being online friends. It’s quite the dilemma. Let’s say your boss friends you, right, and you’re all, Oh, jeez, what do I do now? Accept the friendship and he’ll have access to all those photos of you doing unseemly things. On the other hand, reject the friendship and you’ve very possibly ruined any chances of you having a career. For the record, we’re all Facebook friends here at The CG, except for Vince and Josh. Vince is too busying DJing and Josh is… well, that’s better left unsaid.
Back in The Day, I employed a clever little trick called the pocket veto when I wanted to avoid Facebook friendships. You don’t actually click “decline friendship” or invitation or whatever, but just let the invite fester in Facebook Purgatory. Just leave it there until everyone has forgotten about it. The pocket veto.
OMG — My Boss Wants to ‘Friend’ Me On My Online Profile [Wall Street Journal via Gawker]
Totally agree, the pocket veto is the way to go. Chances are your boss has sent out numerous friends requests and will hopefully gain fulfillment from those who accept. Maybe they’ll even come to their senses and realize they don’t want you all up in their stuff no more than you want them all up in yours.
Then again, if you get *repeated* requests, then you’d better start tap dancing, Buckaroo…
Pocket veto is the best way to go…Though I haven’t used it yet.
There is a way around that in Facebook. You can set a “limited profile” for yourself – for example, you can decide that only certain people see your wall, photos, etc. – and when you accept someone as your friend, you can choose to have that person see only your limited profile.
Facebook doesn’t work like that. People can’t see if you’ve ignored or declined their request, only if you’ve accepted it. If you decline or ignore the request and they go to your page, where it says “add so-and-so as a friend” it will say “friend request pending” until you accept the friend request, so it doesn’t allow for multiple friend requests.
actually, you CAN tell by re-visiting someone’s profile whether they’ve ignored your request – it only says ‘friend requested’ if the person hasn’t dealt with it yet. if they’ve denied it, you will be able to add them again, so bear that in mind next time you’re tempted to ignore a friend request!