Black Professionals Need To Stop Oversharing Online – Here’s Why
The rise of the ‘workfluencer’ has made it more acceptable for people to embrace the culture of oversharing online, especially at work. However, for many Black professionals, sharing too much about their job is risky.
The dangerous side of oversharing
Several nurses decided to jump on the TikTok “icks” trend by sharing their personal “icks” when dealing with maternity patients.
The most viral videos came from staff at Atlanta’s Emory Hospital, and the internet did not react well to their videos.
In many of the clips, the labor and delivery nurses mocked expecting mothers and their families. They exposed “irritating” tendencies these patients had and even mimicked the demands and worries of their relatives.
Another nurse even spoke about the “ick” she had of mothers asking about the weight of their newborn baby minutes after giving birth.
Not only did these videos spark widespread outrage, but they also led to the nurses losing their jobs and the hospital releasing a statement after coming under fire.
In response to the videos, the hospital described the former nurses as “disrespectful and unprofessional” and “not representative of their commitment to patient-family-centered care.”
The incident also prompted many Black women to share their personal experiences of poor maternity care and highlight the potentially life-altering, and sometimes fatal, consequences.
This incident isn’t the first time Black professionals have lost their job due to oversharing online.
Earlier this year, licensed therapist Shabree Rawls went viral after disclosing her issues with Black men not being emotionally intelligent and not communicating enough, despite Black men making up almost 90% of her clientele.
Her views were widely shared and debated online, and she was later fired by the company she was working under due to the backlash and complaints she had received.
According to Rawls, her former employer was utterly aware of her social media account, and she believed they wouldn’t have any issues with it.
Additionally, after filming a “Day in the life of a Black girl working in tech,” former Apple contractor Nylah Boone lost her job due to breaching the company’s rules around sharing footage from within the premises.
Despite her innocent attempt to make the tech industry seem a lot more diverse than it is, the outcome did not benefit Boone in any way.
Is oversharing online worth losing your job?
The termination of Atlanta Emory’s nurses, licensed therapist Rawls, and Apple’s contractor, Boone, isn’t anything new.
Recently, companies have been paying closer attention to what their employees post on social media – especially their Black and brown workers.
According to Insider, one TikToker who disclosed private information about her salary online was also fired for breaching the company’s rules around security and privacy.
As companies continue to crack down on employees more prone to “oversharing” on the internet, now more than ever, Black professionals must remain vigilant about what they post online.
It is vital to have the same self-governance on social media you would have when working in the office. Think twice about creating content in company workspaces. Ask yourself this, is oversharing online really worth losing your job?
