Jason Pfeiffer

Here's a question back to you. Has your boss followed you on Instagram?

Ah. Ah.

I think that it depends upon the kind of relationship that you have with your boss. My boss's name is Bill at Entrepreneur. I thought I did not follow him, but I just checked Instagram and actually I do and he follows me. So maybe it's not so bad because Didn't even notice.

But I think that the real issue here is how much should you be thinking about people that you know professionally when you are posting on social media? And I think the answer to that is all the time. Because even if your boss doesn't follow you, they could see something that you post. So you should probably act like your boss follows you regardless of what you do.

You can follow. Right. There's like a whole ton of them.

Better not. That's fair. I think that the blocking is an aggressive move. So you'd want to be careful about that.

I would say default to no too. I would also say it shouldn't matter because the things that you're posting on social media are so work safe that anyone can see it. And this is why you should just create group chats with friends where you can really do all your shit talking.

No, no. I actually make a very specific point of this. I do not follow colleagues unless we have hung out and that colleague relationship has turned friend-like. Otherwise, I leave it alone. I do not follow them. I don't want them thinking about me when they're posting stuff. That is an intentional decision that I make.

So, yeah, here's a non digital scenario that I expand into all of this stuff. When I became the boss. I realized that my presence at a after work happy hour took on a different meaning. I think that people might want to talk about me. They might want to talk about some annoying thing that I did. And that's their right. They should.

And when I was there, now they all have to defer to me in some way because... His highness. But that's how I always feel. If anybody is above me in a hierarchy, I add this level of deferentialness to just general conversation just because I don't ever want them to be annoyed at me because that's the thing.

Even if it's a social setting, an annoyance in a social setting can now translate to the work setting where that person now has some... They can lord over me. Anyway, so I just thought... I now don't belong here after a certain amount of time. So maybe if everybody from the office goes to the bar, I don't belong here after the first drink. And then I should leave.

And I take that mentality and I apply it to everything with social media. If my presence... makes you think twice about anything because I am no longer just a neutral party in your- You're not a wallflower. Life. Yeah. Then I should remove myself. So that's why I don't follow people. That's why I don't go and like their stuff or whatever.

I remove myself because I understand that everything that I do or don't do is going to be perceived differently. And I just want to leave you alone and let you do your thing. Thank you, Your Highness. You are welcome.

Great.

I've done that. I've brought out Indian food on work Zooms. Here's my rule. I have a very specific rule for this. The rule is... So first of all, it depends on the Zoom, right? If it's a client call or some important call, no, obviously not.

Oh, all hands. Well, sorry, I'm exploring all the options. So...

Eat on this call. That is fine. We give you permission. So if I need to be presenting totally professionally, obviously there's no food. If it is just internal and it's casual enough, then my rule is very specific. The rule is no food goes into my mouth on camera. I will lean off camera and take a bite and then come back on camera.

Why? Because it's, I find it unpleasant to see. And this is, you know, like whatever you go out to dinner, it doesn't matter. But like, I don't like watching cooking, like TV, like the food network or whatever. I don't like seeing people eat. Why do you want to see people take food and put it in their mouth? That's not a pleasant thing to see.

But that's what people do. Like you watch Guy Fieri and it's just like him shoveling food into his mouth. I don't understand.

The food is, and I just lean out of frame and I take a bite and then I come back in frame. This is, I've always, this is what I've been doing for years now.