We all know about consequences of Facebook in the workplace. People post inappropriate pictures and comments and it sometimes ultimately leads to a firing. Sucks for you, but you should have been more discrete.
A friend of mine works at a sleep away camp in New Hampshire and recently received the email below from the Directors of the camp. Just a friendly reminder that what happens at camp, does not always (or never) stay at camp.
An Open letter to the staff of Bobcat Hills North:
Okay - try and picture this – 90 days from today, at approximately 1:30 in the afternoon, we are all going to be standing in the center of camp as the coach buses slowly make their way around the circle. We will be clapping and cheering the campers in as we set off on this summer journey together and finally the summer of 2010 will have officially begun...
We will get the campers settled in, find the missing duffels, run lice check and swim testing and hold the opening ceremonies. The staff and campers will settle into their routines, which include letter writing and phone calls. One thing our campers tend to do is rave about their favorite counselors and staff members and our parents then promptly Google them…..
And there in lies the problem…. There is a good chance that during one of our morning meetings, most likely toward the start of second month of camp, I will make you all aware of a conversation I have had with a parent who is delighted with us and the care that we have provided and how much their child has grown and what a fantastic time they are having with us. Our camper has bonded with the staff so that they now want to make them their friend on Facebook …And they will soon know that our staff curses, drinks and smokes and does other things they really did not want their child to know about just yet...
As we are role models for our campers, we need to make sure our Facebook accounts mirror the image we are portraying in camp. Our parents want to know who is taking care of their child when they are not there and what the person is really all about when they are not at camp.
We need you all to really clamp down your privacy settings on Facebook, for those of you that are “Friends” with campers. We strongly encourage you to place all campers in a “limited profile” and then customize your privacy settings, so campers cannot see your photo albums from nights out or days off or parties you have attended in the off season. If you use inappropriate language or have inappropriate conversations for campers to see, customize your wall privacy setting. Ditto for Posts and who may comment on your Posts. Some of our counselor and leadership team in the past have made their campers, their “siblings” on their page. We kindly ask that you do not do this and if you currently have campers listed as siblings, please remove them.
We appreciate your cooperation in helping us remove any sense of improper behavior and giving our camp parents the utmost trust in us.
