how risky is it to post about politics on social media?

[ResidentialBusiness]

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

Am I shooting myself in the foot by engaging politically in a public way on social media? And how should I weigh the pros and cons? Will a future employer even check for my social media, and if so, what will they think? Can I just temporarily disable my social media during the job search, and will that be sufficient?

I am currently in a full-time graduate program (middle career going back to school) and expect to be applying for jobs when I finish in about three years. The types of jobs I would apply for are mainly in academia (meaning I would also probably apply for government grants to fund my research at such a job). If that doesn’t pan out, I would look at government research posts or independent research roles like think-tanks. And if those don’t pan out, I would likely go into an industry role.

I am very concerned about the actions of the current administration, and I occasionally post my thoughts on social media. I use a respectful tone, but people who like the direction of the current administration would and do express disagreement with my views. I try to respond thoughtfully to any comments, or if I cannot think of a reasonably kind way to respond, I don’t reply. For example, I have posted reputable articles describing the way NIH funding is being cut and expressed that I think this is harmful to the future of critical health research. For another example, I posted that I think people can disagree on the right steps for responding to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but I will not be tricked into forgetting the facts of how it started, and I included a 2022 news article from a mainstream right-leaning news source that states Russia initiated an invasion of Ukraine.

Philosophically, I think that people who show cowardice when the stakes are fairly low are unlikely to suddenly become brave when the stakes matter more, so in that regard, I don’t want to kowtow to this administration or make decisions in fear, especially because being a student is probably the most freedom I’ll ever have to express my views. If things were to become truly authoritarian, I would like to be the kind of person who would stand up for what is right, even if there were consequences, and I think this is a small way of taking a stand now. Also, to be clear, social media is not the only thing I do — I also call my legislators with some regularity, and I am involved in my community. I guess I don’t want to be known for staying silent towards injustice, but I also don’t want to be needlessly reckless with my career fighting windmills. What do you think?

To answer your first questions: Yes, you should assume future employers may check your social media. Yes, some of them may have opinions about your posts and it’s possible you won’t be hired because of some of the opinions you’ve expressed there. (That is very much a thing that is happening at this particular moment for the types of jobs you’re interested in.) It will probably be enough to lock down your social media during a job search, but that’s not guaranteed; posts get forwarded, reposted, and saved in places you might not account for. (And at any point Elon could spontaneously decide to make all Twitter data fully public, etc. etc.)

If you want a fully risk-free approach to social media’s intersection with your future job searches, the most cautious approach is not to post about politics. On the other hand, if you see social media as essentially a town square, that’s asking you to opt out of public dialogue in a way that you might not be comfortable with.

I tend to think that there are many more effective ways to stand up for what’s right than posting on social media (and it’s good that you’re already doing some of those) and that not talking about politics on social media doesn’t mean you’re staying silent in the face of injustice — as long as you’re not staying silent in other parts of life — but it also depends on what kind of platform you have and who you’re engaging with. Everyone has to sort through that calculation for themselves and decide what feels right to them.

To help you do that calculation: the risk is not nothing and there are ways to mitigate it ahead of a job search if you want to (like removing past postings and locking down your socials), but those mitigation measures aren’t 100% reliable.

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