Can I Use Social Media If I Work as a Household Employee?
One of the questions we get asked by candidates the most is about whether or not they can use social media if they are working as a household employee. In this blog, we’ll uncover the dos and do nots of having a Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok account if you want to work as a nanny, housekeeper or house manager in a luxury household.
Can I Use Social Media If I Work as a Nanny or Housekeeper?
Of course you can. Regardless of your job, you are entitled to use social media if you choose to. However, when you choose to work in the private staff industry, there are a lot of things you should consider as you’ll want to show that you can respect the privacy of any prospective employers. Equally, you can and should expect that your employer will not post any content of you online without your explicit permission!
Here are our top dos and do nots when it comes to using social media if you’re a household employee:
Do:
✓ Set your accounts to private so that only trusted contacts can see your content.
✓ Think about what you’re posting and how it could be perceived if your employer were to see it.
✓ Check your work contract for any social media policies
✓ Present yourself professionally online, as well as offline. If you wouldn’t be prepared to say, wear or do the things you post about in front of your employer, don’t post about them online!
✓ Expect that you will be subject to social media screening by agencies or prospective employees. This is standard practice so think about what they can see.
✓ Regularly review your privacy settings to check they are up to date.
✓ Be transparent if you are asked about something you’ve posted on your social media account. Never lie about something that is posted as the truth will likely come out in the end.
Do Not:
✘ Share photos of the house you work in, the family you work with, or the children you are looking after without explicit prior permission. We would recommend you never share any photos of your employers.
✘ Share your location when at work or if you share stories on your way to work.
✘ Include photos of you with your current employer or employers’ children in applications for new roles.
✘ Post or discuss any information about the children, family or residence that you are employed by. This includes, but is not limited to, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, blogs, message boards or other social media websites or apps. It also includes newspapers and magazines.
✘ Use your social media accounts when you are at work, or let the children you are caring for use social media apps on your phone.
✘ Post any public content that employers could use to question your character, i.e. photos of you drinking excessively, doing drugs or wearing extremely revealing clothing.
✘ Request your employers as friends. If they want to connect with you online, let them request you and only accept if you are comfortable with them seeing all of your online content.
Ultimately what you post online becomes public information, and especially when working with high-net worth individuals or celebrities, employers will expect to see a certain level of discretion from their staff. This is why many employers may even request that you sign an NDA. You can read more about what is an NDA and whether you should sign one here.
Just as with a corporate job, people looking to make a career in the household employment industry need to display a certain level of professionalism, and this extends to your online presence too. Breaking the trust of your employers by posting about them online can be detrimental to your career and can have real long-lasting effects on your career prospects. Families may not want to hire someone who regularly shares photos of the children they care for, and they certainly will not want to risk employing someone who posts negative information or personal information about their employers online.
Having said that, most of the families that we work with at My Household Managed want to hire staff based on their personality as well as their experience, and will expect that you have interests outside of work. Just ensure that these interests are in line with the professional persona that you want to portray to your employers and don’t post anything online that you wouldn’t be happy doing in person at your place of work.
Looking to take the next steps in your household employee career?
Want to have access to the best nanny, housekeeper, house manager or other household employee roles in Chicago and beyond?
