Monday, July 27, 2009

Found on Facebook

I have been discovered on Facebook by several customers. I really don't feel good about this. I did not, of course, accept their friend requests and have since taken my picture off. But I do wonder how these customers got my last name.

I have to say that this puts me in a strange and uncomfortable position. I am supposed to be friendly and sociable. I am supposed to be approachable and nice. How far does that go though? Do I need to accept these people in to my personal life as well? Do I need to read updates on Facebook about them going to the Bar tonight or their vacations? Censor myself so they never read a word about how I feel concerning my job? (Because of this last one, I had to decline a request from someone I really am friends with because he is Facebook-friends with one of my managers.) I don't write about work there like I do here, but I don't need customers reading updates like "I don't feel like working today" or "not in the mood to wait tables today", etc. We all have those days.

I began using Facebook to keep in contact with friends that have moved away and family that lives out of state. These are the only "friends" I have. I post things about my job and personal life that I don't feel appropriate for customers to know. If I wanted them to know I would tell them. What's next, someone finding this blog? That would be a disaster. Of course I could avoid all the drama and simply censor myself in most aspects of my life, but I think that would be ridiculous.

Has anyone else been found online by a customer?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No not yet and I am hoping it never happens.

purplegirl said...

Not so far! I get super paranoid whenever I see someone in my state has visited the blog. :)

If you don't feel comfortable rejecting their friend request on Facebook, you can make a separate friend list for them and then change their permissions so they can't see anything. :) Go to Settings in the upper right, then privacy; then for each category (wall posts, status updates etc.) you can select individual people or friends lists who can't see that stuff. I have people who can't see anything on mine other than stuff from FB games I play, even though we're "friends".

Anonymous said...

I don't trust sites like this. Too much info goes out.

Hellraiser said...

@ Lone Waitress.
At Chef's Kitchen Rant we are 100% transparent. People know who we are and we say what we want. If the public don't like it, tough fucking shit!!

We are known in our area as the authors to our site, and I think it lends more validity to what we say.

We have our picture on the site and have linked a Facebook fan page for avid Facebookers to follow that way
We also have a Twitter profile in conjuction with the site and Facebook, again, all linked together.

This way means I can keep my FB profile for MY friends only. I'm not into collecting random anybodies, FB is for connecting, as you say, with friends and family all over the world.

I have had the same experience with FB requests and now I can direct them to the alternatives.

I admire your honesty here, and your statement about venting the frustrations being better for our mental health is SO true, keep up the awesome work!

@Banquet manager
Why don't you trust this site, surely honesty is the best policy, be it publicly or anonymously?
The world NEEDS to know that our industry is not some fucking reality TV show.

Just look at Anthony Bourdain and the success he achieved with his first book, based on....you guessed it....HONESTY!