Maintaining a personal/professional equilibrium – a salutary tale

Maintaining a personal/professional equilibrium – a salutary tale

by | Jun 13, 2014 | PhD, social media | 3 comments

This morning I tweeted a photograph of an envelope, in which I was returning the free copy of The Sun newspaper that has dropped through my letter box, alongside the letterboxes millions of people in last few days. When I made an off-the-cuff decision to post that photo, I was drawing on a comment made by someone about returning theirs the night before – my head was in social/personal mode. I did a quick work/professional mode scan, got a green light, and pressed the ‘send’ button. I do generally steer clear of politics on Twitter and tend to save ranting and hyperbole for my personal Facebook page – where the biggest consequence is my dad occasionally telling me off. But, I detest quite a few things associated with The Sun, not least the topless images of women, or ‘girls’ as The Sun prefers to call them on their  page 3. I personally think it’s ok to have views about such things and remain professional – I’d happily share and debate them with my colleagues at work. However, it was only as I reached the post box that I remembered that this week I emailed a Sun editor to request an interview as part of my PhD research. In choosing to tweet that photo, and make a statement about my personal/political  views, I had scanned for professional but completely forgotten to do the same for research – at that particular moment it was outside of my conscious awareness. In my email to the editor I had given my blog and Twitter details, a modern form of verification, and I guess I’ve compromised any...