What boundaries or limitations do you have, if any, when it comes to adding co-workers on social media?

37 comments

1. I would never add coworkers to my social media.

2. I don’t add any of them, they don’t need to know the in’s and outs of my personal life and I don’t need to know theirs

3. I don’t. My social media contact is for friends. Just because I’m on good terms with a coworker doesn’t mean I keep them that close.

4. I would never add a coworker on social media. They’re coworkers, not friends. When we leave the workplace, our relationship ends.

5. I keep work and personal life separate, it’s better that way

6. I have most of my closer coworkers and even my bosses on instagram, it’s the norm in my circles. I don’t post anything inappropriate or overly personal on social media.

   We all spend 8+ hours together every day, it would be really sad for me to have two completely separate lives. In the past I’ve been in a position where I had no friends at work and it was extremely lonely.

7. Unless I actively avoid them at work, I add people I work with after working with them 1+ months. I don’t actively seek them out but if it comes up during conversation or sth, we say “oh let me add you”. It doesn’t change for positions higher or lower. My stories are usually hidden from the executives and blue collar, but that’s it.

8. I don’t send them a request unprompted unless they’re someone I consider a proper friend. If they add/follow me I would most likely accept because I don’t really post anything controversial on my socials and I like my colleagues. For context, I am friendly with my colleagues and sometimes go for a drink after work, share things about my personal life etc but don’t consider them friends as I wouldn’t meet up with them on the weekend or invite them to my bday party.

9. I won’t add my supervisors, but have no problem adding coworkers. Our work environment has always felt like a big family.

10. I have several coworkers on social media. My only rule is that I won’t add coworkers that I have a power dynamic with, like a boss or someone I supervise. I would only add these people after we no longer work together.

11. I have social media as part of my professional presentation, and while I don’t have coworkers, I do add other musicians and creators to my professional social media. My personal social media is for family and friends only.

12. I dont! No one has asked me but I’d they do I say I’m not comfortable with it. I do however add them once either of us leaves the job. Generally most people I work with aren’t fixated on social media.

13. Don’t.

    I used to, and I hated it.

14. I do not let anyone from work add me on SM, no way no how. I need to keep everything private for my sanity.

15. none, if I add you then you’re cool

16. I don’t go out of my way to add them. If they add me, they’ll stay in limbo until one of us leaves the company. I currently have a coworker that’s been in limbo since 2019.

17. I don’t, if we are currently working together. If our working relationship ends and I think we can remain genuine friends, then I will.

18. I don’t do it until I’ve left a job. I have a couple coworkers I consider very close friends to the point I tell them all my stuff anyway and still haven’t added them. It’s just not good practice in this day and age. Even though 99% of the stuff I post online is my family or pets, I just don’t think it’s smart. I share pictures via text or our company messenger app of I want them to see the adorable thing my dog did. Lol

19. I don’t and probably won’t. My mom doesn’t allow any of her coworkers to befriend her because “I’m here to do a job not become besties”. Not everyone has your best interest at heart and some people only add you to be nosy and messy so I’m going to avoid all of that.

20. If I consider them an actual friend (would/do hang out with them outside of work) then I’m fine with adding them. If someone requests to follow me but I don’t want to accept them then I just let the request sit there.

21. If we have some kind of relationship at work, I’ll add them.

22. I do not do that at all. The short answer is that I was a skip tracer for a while and even if people try to hide using different names or nicknames, you can easily locate them using their family, friends, and coworkers on social media. Most skip tracers have very private or little social media because they know how powerful it can be.

23. I only add them if they are also a friend. I only have a few people currently. I used to have a bunch (like 20-30) when I worked at my previous position, but I unfriended most of them because I wanted to be able to share/post things that had potential to cause negative fallout at my job (school district). Political issues, etc.

24. People I like are added to my social media. Coworkers I don’t like won’t. That’s it.
    Most of my coworkers have become friends over the years. So I don’t have any issue with that.

25. I made the mistake of accepting a bosses friend request and it was awful. He was later fired for sexual harassment. My new rule is to only accept friend requests from people I have naturally built relationships with outside of work. I’ve been at the same company for 6years and only have 3-4 co workers on social media and I would be comfortable with each and every one of them dropping by my house and spending time with my family. When I have that level of comfort with them I’m okay with it. I also only add co workers on a similar level of company.

26. LinkedIn only, other than that I want to be left tf alone honestly lol

27. It depends if we are friends as well as coworkers. I have coworkers that I hang out with outside of work. They are added to my social media.

28. I don’t proactively seek them out, but if they send me a request I usually approve it. I don’t post a whole lot anyway and anything I do post I’m fine with them knowing/seeing.

29. I never add coworkers to my social media. Hard no. No matter how well we get along at work and how much I like them, I maintain strict boundaries between work and personal life. I keep my accounts locked down. There have been awkward moments when coworkers have found me and tried to add me, but I just blow it off like I’m rarely on social media and mostly just have it to keep up with my out of state family. I don’t tell them hell no, but I sure think it.

    There may be some irony in the fact that my best friend is someone I met on the Job 35 years ago and we’ve been best friends ever since.

30. The only SM I add coworkers to is LinkedIn. I keep work and personal life separate. It has never served me well in my life when I mixed them.

31. I think it really depends on the work environment and how long we’ve been working together etc.

    At the restaurant where I used to work the place’s insta still follows me, after I’d quit, and some of my old coworkers too. We spent the better half of the day together 5-6 days a week, on repeat for months. So we got to know each other pretty well, and actually stayed close.

32. No co-workers on social media, nor friends who I met through work.

33. I don’t add co-workers unless we become good friends and meet up outside of work. I use this rule when working a desk jobs, for a year I worked at Amazon such a rule didn’t exist for me then because I really didn’t care about the job at all.

34. At my last two jobs I added almost everybody on my team and still keep in touch to this day. I wouldn’t add a single person to my social media at my current job even when they request it. I already know from our conversations it would make it difficult to work with them if I ever saw what they post.

35. I’ve never understood the idea of coworkers as a dealbreaker when it comes to social media. They are no different than anyone else In my life: I will add them if I like them, I won’t add them if I don’t

36. I keep them both separately. ESPECIALLY if it’s a male coworker. I don’t avoid problems period.

37. I keep them both separately. ESPECIALLY if it’s a male coworker. I don’t avoid problems period.