I subscribe to Tech Republic emails, mainly for my regular job, but also because I’m a geek and enjoy reading geeky things. Anyway, one of the topics that I get Tech Republic emails about are  employment and HR issues.

In one of those HR related Tech Republic emails, they were talking about how employers could be held liable for making employment decisions based on social networking profiles.

In the discussion forum about the topic, people were arguing for both sides.

One camp was arguing that information posted in the public domain, such as MySpace and Facebook are fair game for employers. The other camp, was arguing that while it may be fair game, it’s not legal for employers to discriminate against you based on information posted on social networking sites.

The crux of the argument went like this:

If a potential employer went to your MySpace/ Facebook/ Twitter profile and found out that you’re gay, or black, or have a certain political view, or are married, or are not married etc. is it legal for the potential employer to then use that information to decide whether or not to hire you; regardless of your professional qualifications?

The argument is not really about whether or not you’re a member of a protected group, but whether or not it’s legal for an employer to not hire you based on information available on social networks.

My 2 cents to about it, was simply that you should be mindful about what you say and do online, since everything that you say and do can and will be used against you at some point.

I present to you the following completely fictitious and way over the top scenario:

Suppose you’re an astrophysicist, with a PhD and 10 years of experience as an astrophysicist, applying for an astrophysics job at NASA that requires a candidate with a PhD, 10 years worth of experience working as an astrophysicist and be willing to work 60 hours a week in a cold dark room.

Let’s say that NASA finds a MySpace profile that says that you are a 4 foot tall, Vietnamese black man, with a penchant for running through the woods drinking beer.

Given the above:

• Does NASA have a legitimate concern about the potential effect of your personal activities on your ability to perform your job?
• If you don’t get hired, how do you prove that you didn’t get hired because of your Vietnamese ancestry, or because you’re black or because you’re 4 feet tall?
• What if because of that profile, NASA knew to ask certain questions and managed to find out that you were let go from your previous employer because you didn’t like working 60 hours a week in a cold, dark room and needed to get out in the woods for a run and to experience nature?
• Even better, how can NASA prove that it really was you that created the profile, and not an angry ex-spouse or ex-significant other?
• What if this is the legitimate profile of someone that happens to have the same name that you have, then what?

Most of the HR people in the forum were saying that they’d only consider information on the resume and information obtained from regular background check methods. They were saying it was too risky and unreliable to use information from social networking sites.

Maybe large companies with experienced and/or trained HR personnel may adhere to those guidelines, but I’ve been asked at many a job interview how old I am, how many kids I have etc.

As they say, caveat emptor both when it comes to finding a job and with whatever you publish under your name online.

What do you you think about this?