What to do when your boss follows you on social media.

I just don't get it. I think bosses try to be cool with their employees, or maybe they want to micro manage you in ways you don't realize, or maybe they legit want to be your friend? Anyway, in my book, it's not cool when your boss follows your personal social media pages.

In my personal experience, I never had a boss follow my social media until my last job. It was like day 3 that I started working at this company and the CEO follows me. I was like... wait, why? Yes, I was their social media manager, but my personal social had nothing to do with my work, at that time. I know what you're thinking. "Why didn't you make your profile 'private'?" Because. I like connecting with people and using social media to expand my network. "Why didn't you block her?" That's the better question. I don't know, but I should have.

Fast forward to Nov 2020. It was election time. I had my friend write VO and TE on my ass cheeks and take a photo. I posted it to my personal social media channels. Since then, I was never treated the same at work. Not to mention, I had to re-read some poorly written policy about how I need to represent the company on my social media, and it made things very awkward.

Let me give you some context. My former boss would pray at the office openly and expect everyone to join in a circle and pray with them. I have no issues with praying, I just think that it's a personal practice and not something that people should shove in anyone else's face.

So, my life at work became hell since that point. When I was given the social media policy, the expectation was that I would sign it and never post anything like that again or I would be fired. I was left feeling confused and uncertain. This was my personal page that I wanted to post whatever I want to it, because I can, because it's mine. So I blocked her from my stories at that point because I felt like she violated my trust. I didn't block her entirely because I felt, after her following me for two years, that it would be awkward and give her even more reason to fire me. It was a mess.

I blocked her from my stories because later, in December at our Holiday Party (during a pandemic, btw), she said, "Oh, you've been everywhere except for here." Here was the office. We were all working from home because, you know, covid. I didn't even know how to respond to her. She made me feel bad about hiking outdoors on my days off. She made me feel bad for posting what I was up to on my stories. She must have been assuming that I was doing all this fun stuff and not working, based on her out-of-line comment.

So, my suggestion. Do not allow your boss to follow you on social media. Even if you think you're homies, it's still likely a toxic situation that could turn for the worse later. Also, don't be homies with your boss.

It's like when friends go into a business venture together and they don't have a contract clearly stating who owns what and clearly defined roles and so on. This is a bad idea because, even though you're besties for the resties, it could turn sour at any moment.

In this context, even if you know your boss on a semi personal level, I would suggest you block them to have that stress be nonexistent. You don't want them assuming anything about your life or what you're posting - especially since social media isn't all that... real.

God speed.