James Jeansonne

Sorry you had to go through this for what seems like an innocent and generous public service!!! This is certainly one of those wow moments in my opinion. My knee jerk is to say “no way you don’t need to tell them where you are going for PTO!!!!” Looking into this it seems that this is a frequent enough question that employers do have this right as long as it doesn’t seem discriminatory. It’s still shocking, I tend to be on the conservative side on social media because I was always taught “don’t post what you wouldn’t want to be on the front page of the newspaper” but never really though my employer was watching. It’s definitely something that I will always keep in mind that they are all always watching.

This gives me all kinds of negative feels. I am clearly out of my league in the ways of human resources, but I have to ask, is the Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development a direct competitor to your organization? Or is this the way Big Brother is making sure you’re doing company-related work on company time by scouring the company chat for keywords? I find it odd that you were called out for taking PTO to earn money if it poses no threat to your organization’s bottom line. What about holding a garage sale? Must that be approved? 😕

Holy schmoley, James! I’m not even really sure where to begin! First off, your writing style is so incredibily engaging! The scenario you described is super unfortunate and lastly, I’d LOVE to hear about your tour of the prison (former Cleveland-, Columbus-, Cincinnati-, and Athens-Resident).

I feel a little funny for you regarding the handed to you printouts, that took premeditation! Was there a concern you engage in “questionable” activities on your free time so they were “building paper” on you? This is the question I have been grappling with myself over the course of this program and learning exactly how beneficial these personal (Torri the Consumer) insights are to me (Torri the Marketer). I am in the school of thought that if I don’t want my Dad or my Employer reading it, I shouldn’t post it. But even in class we had the prompt of if someone should be fired for attending a KKK rally? My answer to this is NO, despite what others think should be my obvious answer. Short of committing a crime or participating in said actitivy during COMPANY TIME that goes against Company policy, I just don’t agree with all of decisions resulting from the access, let alone whether the access itself is Kosher.

I’ll end by saying, I read and article recently, https://allpryme.com/employee-privacy-laws/employee-privacy-laws/ that discusses several facets of Privacy in Social Media and the rights Employers have. To your Geo-targeted question and to the question of Employers finding (and using) personal content against consumers or employees, my answers stay the same for the very public nature of Social Media. The minute you hit post, your personal statement, story, pictures, etc are no longer your own. I used to get on my little brothers for some of the raunchy crap they were posting on Facebook. Yes, they were young, no they weren’t looking for jobs right at that moment, however once something is posted, you lose control of the content and how it’s used.

Granted, this is somewhat veering from your experience, I do still feel similarly with your situation if you had the conversation on a company asset/ network. The day companies start using personal texts, sent using personal phones, to individuals that are not a part of the company nor was it sent during company time, let’s have another discussion.

James, there is steam coming out of my ears right now, signaling a burst of anger. I already imagined how I would wish that supervisor a pleasant (not) trip to a place far, far away. But I have to stop and remind myself that I have scrutinized potential candidates’ social media several times as a part of the hiring process. And during the interview, I had my brain already slightly primed… Hmm. I had also suspended a worker who posted a picture of being at the sporting event, appearing in great spirit and health despite calling out sick. So I guess I have no place criticizing your superiors.
On the other hand, your story also confirmed my underlying hesitation to share my plans, no matter how benign and irrelevant, with…well, anyone at work (at least in writing).
But still, somehow, I can shake off the feeling of the company’s wrongdoing or at least overstepping the boundaries. It reminds me of some sort of “regime”…

Ugh, the horror stories at your job make me cringe. This just seems so unnecessarily dramatic. Glad it all worked out in the end and you weren’t in any trouble. However, it’s certainly a thing we all need to be aware of – the fact that our employers or potential employers do scan our social media and our IT teams oversee our inner office chats, our employers are like Big Brother, always watching us. I do agree we are entitled to our PTO without having to share the reasoning too!

James! Omgoodness! Firstly, Great post! and Secondly, I’m so sorry you had to go through that experience!

Because I started out as a singer/songwriter before deciding to settle down and start a family. My social media platforms were full of my musical experiences, on the road, off the road etc. When I decided to go back to a normal life and get a graduate degree, I discovered after I was hired that my social media platforms were used as a pretty heavy source for discussion – Even though much of my professional experience prior to me taking a stab at a music career were all in corporate and academia, and I had a degree and more and 10 years of qualifying experience to perform the job. The Topic of conversation was “Yeah but she was a musician so…” While I am very proud of my decision to pursue a career in music after college ( I toured Africa, UK twice, charted in the top 10 overseas and in the top 100 for my niche market in the US and earned Grammy nomination credits, so what’s not to be proud of, right?), Yet it is part of my journey that still follows me in my professional career and sometimes not in a good way. What I have done since going back to academia, is not post on social during my work hours and if I take a day off to take a paying gig for example, b/c I still get to those fun things even though I’m relegated to singing on Zoom lol!, I don’t post until after I’m done with the event and usually I’m mindful that the post hits after work hours. My audience generally doesn’t comment on posts until 9pm on a weekday or in the afternoon on weekends so that helps me know when to post. But to Greg’s Question: “Where’s the line between protecting their interests and encroaching on yours?” It should depend on a solid HR policy (which should include privacy encroachment guidelines, right? Like whether or not you are using the “company logo” and/or anything company-related to promote your own off the clock activities could be determining factor. You were “off the clock” and doing what you are good at doing — which is why your company hired you I presume, but taking advantage of a great opportunity on “your” own time. One final point — I know where I work if I say I’m taking a sick day and I posted an activity on social that clearly shows I’m not sick — I could potentially get called to the carpet for it. But if I take a vacation or personal day, to do my own thing, I’m expecting not to be flagged for posting a pic of me and my son at the pumpkin patch.

Great post as always, James! My immediate reaction while reading this post was iritation and rage. How dare your employer invade your privacy like that while using your earned PTO?! I am intentionally vague when I enter PTO requests. If I have a female annual wellness exam scheduled during normal business hours, I can assure you I will just enter the request type as “FMLA: PTO Vacation” and write in the memo to my supervisor “doctor’s appointment”. I would throw a fit if they requested more information regarding the doctor’s appointment and would certainly cause a headache for myself and HR.

Perhaps I would grab coffee or lunch after the appointment and post my latte art or turkey sandwich to my Instagram story. Does that really matter to my employer if I chose to grab a bite to eat during my day off? It’s my time. It’s important to be aware that our employers can monitor any part of our digital footprint. For these reasons, I have a private Instagram account and I even block my stories from my coworkers to try to separate my work and personal life further. I am also very careful about what I say in our Microsoft Teams chats and emails because I know that our IT deparment reserves the right to monitor these channels. However, I can’t help but think, “do they really have the time, resources, or bandwith to do so?” I am not sure that I am important enough on the corporate latter to raise an eyebrow in the organization.

It also really rubbed me the wrong way that your supervisor asked if you were aware of HR policies regarding generating a second source of income. You were volunteering and were not being paid for your time.

P.S. the use of strikethrough text was cracking me up lol

OMG! This is irritating! And yet, when I turn in vacation or sick leave, I’m required to write something in the “reason” line. In some cases I’ve put a single letter to simply submit the form, sometimes I actually tell them what I’m doing and in other cases, I flat make something up (obviously I don’t agree with the idea that my organization should know what I’m actually doing on my earned time off). I’m lucky in that my current administration doesn’t really care what I put in and I’m not questioned about it. I’m all about putting things like “invasive colonoscopy’; or “breast augmentation” or “… injections”… you know – the things no one would actually ask for more details – haha! This sucks for you. Next time consider putting in a reason that is totally off the charts … “sex change” would be one to test how much they really want to know!…. Fuming…

Awesome freestyle analysis, James!

An important note that while indices are important for finding noteworthy changes in behavior, it’s all about what you’re indexing. Relative to normal interest in the Libertarians or Greens, the spike is massive. Relative to “normal” traffic for the two main parties, it’s barely a blip to a “average” day for the GOP or Dems (let alone compared to their comparative trends). So while the debate may have inspired more “looking elsewhere” than might have normally occurred, it was a relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

Also, date ranges are key here. Google indexes search interest to the range. While the spike is 100 here, there is not context about how “high” that is relative to normal interest. It’s only pinned against this specific range.

I love where you’re going with using this for TV. We’ve had a lot of success doing just that because, whether it’s the Bachelor, the Presidential Debate or any other reality programming of your choosing, the first thing people do when they want more/different info is pull out their mobile device!