A recent article by Michelle Slatalla in the New York Times struck my interest. I’ll summarize briefly, however it’s worth a read on it’s own:

A mother signs up for facebook, searches for her daughter’s name, and slowly begins to befriend all of her friends. Mother states:

“Shockingly, quite a few of them - the friends, not the daughter - accepted my invitation and gave me access to their Profiles, including their interests, hobbies, school affiliations and in some cases, physical whereabouts.”

Daughter finds out, states:

“unfriend paige right now. im serious. i dont care if they request you. say no. i will be soo mad if you dont unfriend paige right now.”

As social applications become more and more popular, you’ll cross that generational bridge. Privacy which was once there due to ignorance will suddenly be violated, leaving everything you chose to make public seen and archived.

Consider the Wayback Machine. When I was 12, I never would have considered or even comprehended the idea that my first website might be cached forever. Were you thinking that way? Most of us didn’t, yet at some point we began to.

Or take another example: Instant messaging. I’m always on. Will my kids, too? Will they filter their away messages or profiles, knowing I might possibly view the information they are making publicly available?

I have a feeling this learning and yearning for privacy will begin to show in more and more web applications, where we’ll not only continue to see “parental controls” but we’ll begin seeing options to filter and control each generations access to the other.

I found an interesting article a few weeks ago over at Expat Software discussing how 2 weeks vacation time is simply what your employer will pay you for, but not what you are limited to. If you’re willing, taking an unpaid vacation is always an option. If you play it right.

As a business owner, I want someone to LOVE working for me. I’d give (do give) my employees every benefit possible. Making that extra $200 or $2000 dollars just so my employee is miserable is no way to go. So that said, I’d completely respect someone taking time to pursue something they felt is worthwhile, so long as they don’t leave the company at a major loss. There’s simply a balance to be made — one that larger companies without a startup mentality might never come to see.

But that luxury comes at a price. You have to be respectful of the company you work for. Time away isn’t simply time you aren’t being productive on whatever project it was you were working on. Even if it’s unpaid, you’re still receiving health, dental, vision, 401k, and other benefits. That’s when things start becoming a little less fair to your employer, so be mindful and respectful of the costs of simply having an employee — we’re not just paying your salary.