Emily Clow applied for a job with Kickass Masterminds, a company that used to describe itself as “Kickass Masterminds matches and manages Mastermind Groups for rebellious business owners.” I say “used to” because they took down their LinkedIn page after Ms. Clow applied.
Why?
Because they tried to make her a bad example. Clow applied and followed Kickass Masterminds’ Instagram account. Someone at Kickass decided to make an example out of Clow by sharing her pool picture along with commentary. They took that down too, but Clow got a screenshot, which she shared on Twitter:
To keep reading, click here: A Company Shared an Applicants Instagram Photo as a Bad Example. Then the Tables Turned
Heads up that the person’s name changes from “Ms. Clow” to “Ms. Crow” in the article.
Thank you! fixed
It seems ironic that a company named “Kickass Masterminds” and uses other profanity in the description of themselves would be so sensitive to a provocative photo.
As an employer, checking out social media profiles is something we do as part of the recruitment process. After a recent hire kept taking days off, a quick check of Facebook found that each time she was at the beautician or hairdresser. We had another job applicant who had recently moved from interstate and all the FB pages she liked were domestic violence pages. Great that she was getting her life back on track but bad for us if the ex showed up at our workplace.
If people are going to put personal details all over social media then expect to be judged, whether correctly or not. I don;t agree with what Kickass Masterminds did but surely Ms Clow would have realised that potential employers will do their research.
I really cannot believe you denied a job to someone who escaped an abusive relationship because of that abuse. And the ex wasnt’ even in the same state!
Wow.
You seriously denied a job to someone whom you assumed was a victim of domestic violence?
You don’t even know that, and it’s complete crap you penalized her for what someone else did to her – ASSUMING that’s even true.
You need to take a long hard look at your hiring practices before they come back to bite you in the ass.
So you declined to hire someone because she’s a victim of domestic violence? Nice.
Just make sure that this is legal where you operate.
+1 to Observer’s horror about excluding the applicant because she had an abusive ex.
However – reminder to everyone to check your privacy settings.
Aside from the fact that Facebook loves to randomly change your settings with each update, I can reasonably expect an employer to not deny me based solely on innocuous stuff like – oh, say, me posting Star Trek stuff on my wall when he’s a huge Star Wars fan. I get the whole at will employment thing, but for shit’s sake, it’s gone too damned far.
I have a tendency to be a bit old-fashioned but this is silly. What did that company hope to accomplish? Is it really their responsibility to coach and counsel applicants?
I say be careful of that moral high ground. It may really be the edge of a cliff you’re about to get pushed off.
I agree. I found her swimsuit too racy for my tastes, but it’s not like I’m going to not hire someone because their swimsuit is a little too little — and I certainly wouldn’t copy someone’s photo to use them as an example for that! We actually DON’T check social media where I work. Too fraught with peril. We do standard background checks.