A third of Australian young adults are “Facebook friends” with their boss: AVG

Security vendor finds that a growing number of young people are closer to their employers than they realise

About one-third of working Aussie 18-25 year olds are "Facebook friends" with their boss.

That is according to the latest instalment of AVG’s global Digital Diaries study, which revealed 31 percent of the 400 Australian 18-25 year olds surveyed have their boss in the Facebook friends list.

AVG Technologies Australia security advisor, Michael McKinnon, attributes this result to young people being more comfortable with using online social networks,

“This, in turn, is blurring the line between their professional and private lives,” he said.

The survey also found 13 per cent of respondents admitting to posting abusive comments about their boss and/or company at some point.

McKinnon says this result shows that careless posts are putting the careers of young adults at risk.

“It seems obvious that posting abusive content about a boss or workplace is not very sensible, but it’s important to understand that not only could it damage a person’s existing career, it could also negatively impact on future opportunities too,” he said.

Other key results in the survey included 54 per cent of Australian young adults admitting to never having audited their online profile, let alone clean up potentially career damaging content.

While 62 per cent of local respondents do not restrict the Facebook content that is accessible for their colleagues, 47 per cent wished they could remove inappropriate photos of themselves online.

“Our findings indicate that today’s young ‘digital natives’ need to be more aware of their ‘online brand’ as something employers and recruiters are increasingly investigating,” McKinnon said.

When it comes to posting abusive content online about their boss or company, 13 per cent of local respondents admitted to doing it after a bad day at work.

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