Don’t ask your supervisor to be your friend on Facebook.  Period.  If you do (or if your supervisor adds you and you feel obligated to accept), put him or her on limited profile or decide that your profile will be strictly professional.  Otherwise it will backfire on you.

Case in point:

An employee called in sick today, which was supposed to be her first day back from vacation.  Something she ate didn’t agree with her and she had been throwing up all night. 

I was pretty sure that it was actually a hangover and not something she ate, but I was willing to turn a blind eye (she is, after all, one of our rockstar performers).  One Facebook login later I see that she is, in fact, still living it up on vacation.  Not only is she posting about not even being back in town, she shares that she’s currently drunk - at 1:30 pm - via status update.

How am I supposed to look the other way now when you spell out for me that you lied?

My management style is generally pretty laid back.  If you get your work done correctly and on time, you can play on Facebook as much as you’d like.  But don’t put me in the position where I have to be the bad guy.  I’m more annoyed about that than the fact that she called in.

#prof