From Facebook Follies to MySpace "My Bads"
The Age of Global Viral Embarrassment
If the Internet has created information freedom, then the price of that freedom is eternal vigilance over our private information. And while that may be scary when it comes to e-mail spying and wiretaps, it can also be pretty hilarious when it comes to the idiotic behavior that people intentionally post on sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. More funny still is when it comes back to bite them.
The latest high-profile victim is Kevin Colvin, an intern at the Anglo Irish Bank of North America. Colvin e-mailed his manager on the afternoon of Oct. 31 claiming "something came up at home" in New York and that he needed to miss work the next day. For whatever reason, perhaps managerial intuition, his boss decided to inspect Colvin's Facebook page on Nov. 1 and apparently found pictures of the intern dressed as a fairy, beer in hand, at a Halloween party in Massachusetts.
Rather than reprimand him, the manager decided to have a little fun. He shot Colvin an e-mail back stating: "Thanks for letting us know -- hope everything is ok in New York. (cool wand)" with the fairy picture attached. And if that weren't embarrassing enough, the manager reportedly BCCed the rest of the company. Those images are now being forwarded to offices around the world for cubicle dwellers to enjoy.
News of Colvin's botched excuse comes on the heels of yet another self-induced Facebook embarrassment. This time it was a group called "30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night," though a better title might be "How I Ended Up Out of Work." The main page features a list of chuckle-lite reasons a young lady might want to stop drinking and go home. But the real eye-grabbers are the nearly 5,000 pictures of just such girls in various poses of drunken debauchery -- plucked from their Facebook public albums. At last check, the group had 166,570 members.
Time will tell how many of those photos will come back to haunt their subjects. But according to a new survey from career management company vault.com, 82 percent of employers say information they perceive as negative from an online profile would affect their decision to hire an applicant. Yeah, and listing "Able to chug a bottle of wine in 10 seconds" on your resume may not be a good idea, either. (And, just to be safe, you may want to keep that video of you chugging that bottle of wine off YouTube.)
The beauty and danger of putting your party self online is that it'll be there forever: once this stuff is online, it's there for everyone to spread. And with video cameras in cell phones, Google Earth watching from above, and idiots like me trolling around for idiots like you, the fun has just begun!
By Emil Steiner | November 13, 2007; 11:30 AM ET | Category: OFF/beat Politics
Posted by: Fruit | November 13, 2007 2:10 PM
If you act like an idiot you deserve what you get. Plain and simple. Set your profile to private and you don't have to worry
Posted by: | November 13, 2007 3:42 PM
I can chug a bottle of wine in 8 flat! But where's my medal? Wheres my parade? Wheres my wife?
Posted by: Craig | November 13, 2007 4:08 PM
I timed him and its really closer to 12 seconds than 10
Posted by: | November 13, 2007 4:24 PM
Some day, and this day may never come, speed drinking will be regarded as an essential skill and not a liability. Maybe by having the younger generation advertise is we will get there someday. I may not be there, but I do have that dream.
Posted by: Terry T. | November 13, 2007 5:57 PM
such jobs such as wine tasting might be benefical to say u can drop a bottle of wine in 8 seconds
Posted by: Bob Brown | November 13, 2007 6:36 PM
From what I hear those girls were proud being on the 30 reasons page. When I hire someone I want them to have enough confidence to laugh at themselves. Thats honesty and thats what companies can't live without not a worker likes drinking at a party.
Posted by: Teemo | November 13, 2007 8:17 PM
oh, those would be employers who have such impeccable records as Exxon, Blackwatch, Halliburt0n etc
Posted by: RU serious | November 13, 2007 9:28 PM
i think its funny how stupid people are
myspace and facebook werre created so you can talk and meet friends...not to show how stupid you can be. hahahaah
Posted by: tina | November 14, 2007 1:49 AM
Frankly its going to get to a point where if everyone is doing it then there won't be anyone left to hire. Kids all do dumb stuff only now there is a system to record and distribute the evidence. In the future employers will have to have some leeway, like no violent crimes on Myspace or something.
Posted by: Pints and Quarts | November 14, 2007 1:51 AM
The dude (or should I say dudette) got caught lying about missing work and the got fired. It's an age-old thing and not tied to technology. Deserves what he got, in addition to what he might have gotten the night the cute picture was taken...
Posted by: GetReal | November 15, 2007 6:25 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Some employers might enjoy a worker who can chug wine that quick.