Should you friend your boss on Facebook?

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As Facebook's popularity grows, basic usage for we early adapters is changing. Gone are the days when your Facebook friends were just your college buddies, your true friends, and an anything goes attitude rarely had consequences. Now, not only do you have relatives and parental units (yikes!), you are taxed with making decisions about friending your boss and other people in your professional life.

While there may not be a resolute yes or no answer for all circumstances regarding friending your boss on Facebook, there are a few things to consider in all situations:

Who initiated the friend request? It is probably a lot better to wait and respond to your boss’s friend request, rather than adding your boss. That way, you are being respectful and emulating the personal/professional boundaries he/she is setting.

What is the overall dynamic with your boss? Is he/she the type of person you can joke with, tell stories from the weekend or have dinners with your respective significant others? If so, then becoming friends on Facebook probably won’t pose a problem. If he/she is all business and you couldn’t imagine having a casual conversation, definitely don’t add him/her as a friend. If you still get a friend request from a boss like that, you might want to explain to him/her you prefer to keep your professional and personal relationships separate.

How do you use Facebook? Is it a place you genuinely go to connect with old friends? Is it a place you like to flaunt a political agenda? Is it a place you seem drawn to air your dirty laundry? (Ugh! Don’t even get me started on the scary amount of people who do that one!) Your answers to those questions will help you determine if it is appropriate to introduce your professional life (your boss specifically) to your online personal life.

Back when I was in college, Facebook was definitely not mainstream (I’m not even sure it was around—yes, I’m on the older end of the Gen Y spectrum). Had it been, there is no way I would have been Facebook friends with my boss then. He was a tad creepy to put it mildly (click here for a Michael Scottish example involving me, him and drawstring pants—yeah, not good). I kept my personal life very separate from him and would still if we were in contact.

On the other hand, since then, I’ve had several bosses I have liked and gotten along with very well, personally as well as professionally, and have been more than happy to accept their friend requests—when they came along. (I didn’t want to initiate that. I did however initiate connections on LinkedIn, the professional social networking site. Plus, it never hurt for them to see I was frequently adding clients to my professional connections.)

Now, as Facebook becomes more and more of a business marketing tool, being friends with current and old bosses is an easy way to network and keep abreast of new opportunities and developments.