When it comes to finding your career mentor and sticking close to them to enhance your prospects, Facebook could provide a useful bit of cement. On the other hand, it could be an unwelcome loss of personal privacy. So what to do when you get that friend request dilemma? Obviously, if you really must spend a quality nauseating amount of time hanging out with your boss and being all buddy buddy then jump right in. But if you wan’t to keep it professional, simple answer: decline.

Managers should also take note. There are countless cases of boss abuse, fake sickies and other unfortunate FB discoveries that have turned out badly for the subordinates but the senior individual is also at risk. Junior staff being cyberstalked by the boss is not just a problem for them.

Managers sending friend requests to staff via Facebook, Twitter and other sites constitute a growing trend in the workplace says the NLJ; a trend that has employment lawyers concerned rubbing their hands. Online relations between boss and employee can trigger or exacerbate a host of legal claims, including harassment, discrimination or wrongful termination. Never mind the non-legal stuff like cries of favoritism if the boss is rather choosy about their FB chums.

"The intention may not be a bad one," said management-side attorney Michael Schmidt of the New York office of Philadelphia’s Cozen O’Conner. But "it’s the unintentional consequences" they need to be concerned about.

Given that social networking sites are loaded with personal information, Schmidt said, a manager is bound to learn things about an employee that he or she will wish the boss didn’t know. Moreover, when a manager learns of some personal attribute through the site, the worker now has the opportunity to argue that any later adverse employment decision "was based on this personal information," Schmidt said. (NLJ )

The old friend request dilemma can swing both ways so whether you’re the monkey or the organ grinder its best to keep it simple and decline.