While I took a day off of blogging about them, the offenders and the offended certainly didn’t take a day off. They never stop!

This morning’s story is yet another advice column (hey, it could be a Reddit or TikTok scrape again!). This one comes to us from MSNBC and the title pretty much sums it up:

Help! My employee blocked me on Instagram. Should I be offended?

Dear Work It Out,

So I found out my employee blocked me on Instagram yet followed me on LinkedIn. I think I get it, but make me feel better about it?

Blocked

*

Dear Blocked,

Here’s something I feel pretty strongly about: With very few exceptions, bosses should not follow their employees on personal social media. If you’ve ever heard that gifts in a professional setting should only flow down the managerial ladder, on social media, especially Instagram and Facebook, it goes the other way. 

If you’re wondering which platforms are fair game, first stick to those used specifically for professional reasons, like LinkedIn and maybe Twitter. For other platforms, like Snap and TikTok, it’s probably best to leave your employees unfollowed unless they bring it up.

While this is sound advice, I noticed that they didn’t mention Only Fans so I thought I’d add a little tip (no pun intended) just in case.

It is perfectly acceptable to follow your employee there. Trust me. If you don’t, they will definitely be offended.

Conversely, if you have an Only Fans page you need to let all your employees know right away. They’ll be highly offended if you don’t and they end up stumbling across it accidentally. Send them a link right away so they can follow you there.

It’s just good etiquette!