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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Follow-up: Those damn Gen-Yers need to get off my lawn

I never thought my previous post would become such a lightning rod for conversation, nor did I think it would require a follow-up. Yet here we are.

The objections to my assertion that recruiters should stop rejecting candidates whose profiles on social networks include photos of college partying can easily be summed up:

My initial point was that millennials—raised in a world of 24/7 peer networking—are part of a different culture with different values. Not better. Not worse. Just different Because they are so incredibly networked, they don’t see the point of creating two distinct personae, one for work and one for the rest of their lives.

Posting a photo of a legal activity is not, to my way of thinking, bad judgment. Getting drunk and cutting loose is not illegal; most people don’t even consider it unethical. Plenty of people you work with like to party and like to drink. What’s more, you don’t have to work with someone long before you know whether they like a good time on Saturday night. The best boss I ever had—Ed Hahn, from Mattel, who was an organizational development expert—told me that the people with whom you work closely never remain strictly co-workers for long. Once you get to know them they become friends, acquaintances, adversaries, or any number of other roles, but not just co-workers.

How hypocritical is it, then to employ a “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” approach to hiring while you already know damn well that some of your best employees like to cut loose on the weekend?

I also utterly reject the argument that sharing such photos makes an individual more likely to share confidential company information.

That Gen-Yers share an open part of their lives—the social activity of partying—doesn’t mean they also share photos of activities that are criminal, deviant, unethical, or socially unacceptable. I wouldn’t hire anyone who shared a photo on Facebook that showed them robbing a gas station, performing acts of pedophilia, or offering a bribe. You shouldn’t hire them either. In these cases, the fact that they shared the photo is, yes, bad judgment, but the behavior itself is the real reason they shouldn’t be hired. I wouldn’t hire them (and neither should you) even if they didn’t share the photo themselves but were tagged in someone else’s upload.

But it’s a huge leap of logic to assume that an employee who posted a picture of himself drinking shots off his girlfriend’s belly is also likely to disclose material information, share a colleague’s private medical information, or reveal competitive plans. Do you really think millennials don’t understand the difference between sharing a personal photo of a good time and violating company policy, laws and regulations, common sense, and ethics requirements?

It’s an equally long leap to conclude that college kids who partake in binge drinking at frat parties are more likely than those who don’t post such pictures to commit crimes like vandalism and rape.

The argument has also been made that maintaining privacy is important. I couldn’t agree more, but it’s not the company’s decision about what an employee or candidate chooses to keep private. When The Mayo Clinic launched its “Sharing Mayo Clinic” blog featuring patient stories, I asked whether these weren’t HIPPA HIPAA (Health Information Privacy and Portability Accountability Act) violations. No, I was told; the institution’s lawyers made it clear that once a patient opted to disclose that information him or herself, HIPPA no longer applied.

Job candidates should enjoy the right to make the same choice. And even then, sharing that you’re being treated for depression is a far cry from sharing that you like to play drinking games with your friends on Saturday night.

The ranks of millennials coming out of college include scads of brilliant people—some of them may be equipped to solve your company’s biggest engineering problem, create the next bestselling product, or even become your CEO. If you want criteria by which to judge a candidate, look at their qualifications and education. Scrutinzie their work samples. Put them through tests. Study their behavior during the interview. Check their references. Rate the degree of passion they demonstrate for the kind of work you want them to do. Run drug tests. But rejecting them because you don’t understand the culture of a networked generation and view a photo from a party as “bad judgment” seems self-destructive—but it’s great news for your more enlightened competitor.

Oh, and don’t forget that checking a candidate’s social network profiles without disclosing your intent to do so can cause your company serious legal problems, according to the PDF document, “Social Networks and Employment Law: Are you Putting your Organization at Risk?.