Work and Social Networking When a person wakes up what would be the first thing they look at? One could say their alarm clock, the ceiling, or their feet; but most probably they are on their phone or computer checking social media. Checking social media doesn’t just stop there, it continues throughout the day, and this includes at work. Since one is using work recourses to check social media, whether their personal or work related social networking sites, should the company have the right to claim your page as theirs? This will include the right to keep your page and followers after you leave the company. Also is it productive to allow them to be on social networking sites while they are on company time, and are users taking precautions to keep the companies they work for safe, including from malware and viruses, and/or the company’s reputation. Social media is constantly being used all throughout the day and can have its benefits, but can also have its disadvantages to both the user’s and the companies they work for. Social media is used frequently for all types of situations, for personal and work related interests. The main concern with social media usage at work is who owns the rights to the page and followers of the page. Can a company take over a person’s page and if the person isn’t working for the company anymore, for whatever the reason is, and the companies keep the followers they have gained and share personal work relationships. A federal judge rejected a claim by a woman whom claimed that her employers illegally accessed a social networking site and changed her password in order to lock her out of her account. The company was able to get her password, because they suggest sharing their password with another employee, which she did, giving the company the chance to change her password. A lot of social media don’t allow password sharing and there are state legislatures planning on making it illegal to share password. There are disadvantages to having social media in the work place, as well as disadvantages. Using social media in the work environment can decrease productivity. Using social media doesn’t take a lot of bandwidth, but the post posted on do. This creates problem for IT administrators, as well as increase the cost for internet. Using social media at work is also bad because it creates viruses and malware attacks. Also this makes people vulnerable because their information on their pages and company’s information from the computer are open to scams. Social media is also responsible for ruining reputation and have legal liability, whether it’s the companies or the employees. If a person says they hate their job and they think a product is awful, it can cause issues. The company has to do damage control and the employee might get terminated. There are great advantages for having social media in the work place. One of them is that companies can expand who they can reach. They can target more people and connect with them, making it more personal. They can also connect with people by sending out special promotions. Companies can boost their image with little to no funding and improve their reputation, showing their excellence. Using social media is how the world stays connected, making it sometimes beneficial and others not. Human resources and