Ah Facebook . Everyone's going gaga over you.

Well, erm, you can't really blame 'em (ooopss, I mean, us -- myself included).

The apps are cool.

Hooray! Your long lost friend has a facebook account (he/she didn't bother with friendster, so long-lost na long-lost...).

Sparks fly when you discover that your high school crush (and you're still, somehow, mooning over him) is still single. Or is single already. Heehee...

It sucks when you see your ex & his/her new beau's pictures while on vacation. Poof.

Pictures, pictures, pictures galore! You just can't help yourself and you keep on tagging. Haha

And of course....

...you never fail to post a mind-boggling, attention-seeking, controversy-steering status message.

I know you're guilty. Haha

Yes, yes, the delights of Facebook.

It's great when you are able to express yourself (via your status messages), right?

And it is even more liberating when people give their two cents on it.

Whether they agree with you, or argue with you, still, it is fun.

However, be careful.

As said in the Miranda Warning: You have the right to remain silent; Everything you say can be/will be used against you. (tama nga ba???)

Unfair as it may seem, these status messages can be or WILL BE used against you.

At school, at work, you name it. These status messages reflect you & your emotions, and some people are exploitative enough to use something personal as Facebook status message inorder to get back at you, use you, or plainly, just to get on your nerves.

NOTE: Be careful especially when your boss is on your friends list.

Take my team mate for example. He's a joker, very blunt -- and he kept on joking around about applying for another job/having a job interview later that day or tomorrow. Well, partly, he's to blame, kasi medyo garapal. Hehe

So fact established: he's applying for another job. So he's praying & hoping, and he wasn't able to contain himself -- he posted something about it (stat message) on Facebook. Shempre, everyone commented, everyone has seen the thing -- including some team leads from our company. Then an *anonymous* team lead told our team leader, "may Facebook ka ba? Magbasa ka nga ng FB ng mga tao mo". My boss is not really into social networking (she never bothered with Friendster so why would she bother with FB???), so what she did was borrow her cousin's FB profile, added a teammate of mine on the friend list and then pow -- she now has access to everything.

And that is not the end of it. The same teammate of mine was called by our Department Manager for some harsh, thorough verbal beating (LOL...exaggerating. Hehe). Well, harsh kasi I noticed that his words are really "harsh" (and oozing with sarcasm, if I may add) and my teammate was really affected (and demotivated).

Basta, I will not expound on it nalang....

And I am at a loss...

Do they really have the right to reprimand their employees because of what they posted on FB? I mean, the employee did not surf FB during office hours while at the office (so there's no improper use of company resources),. Second, if the statement is very broad, does not use very foul/derogatory words, and there's no name-dropping, I think people should not jump into conclusions and should not bother with those statements. And I personally think that FB is such a personal thing, in the sense that you can say whatever you want.

Kinda reminds me of the Indonesian student who got kicked out (I think) because he said something foul against his Music Teacher. Well, in my officemate's case, he didn't say anything foul, he sort of said na he's not happy with something anymore (very broad yung statement) and siguro, na-relate nila sa jokes niya about resigning, so mega-ganun naman ang manager.

And besides, I think that the (ideal) conversation between bosses and an employee/staff who is thinking of resigning (lalo na kung may potential) should be like, "why are you thinking of resigning? what are the factors that contributed to your decision? what are the problems that you have encountered? How do you think this company can improve on this problem?" blah, blah, yaddah, yaddah, and not like, "are you going to proceed with your external applications? Para maayos ko na yung listahan ko ng staff ko and hindi na kita isasama kung sakali". Tsk tsk.

Lesson Learned: Be careful not to say anything incriminating on Facebook...

P.S. Good thing my Multiply Blog is for FRIENDS/CONTACTS ONLY. And good thing I have few officemates on my friends list here (mga hindi pa aktibo...hahaha)