Kimberley Swann, an office administrator in England was sacked last month for telling her friends that it was boring. Dan Leone, a stadium operations worker in Philadelphia, lost his job last week for criticizing management’s decisions.

Where they erred – they vented to their Facebook friends.

They didn’t mention specific people. They didn’t even name their employers. They just updated their Facebook status with what they were feeling at the time – about work.

Today’s social networkers should consider the lessons learned from these examples.

Know your friends. With Facebook, you pick who you want to be friends with. There are pros and cons to befriending co-workers, and there are advantages to separating your work life from your private life. Did Leone’s friends rat him out, or was he Facebook friends with his boss? Swann’s slip up was clear. She was 16-years-old and in her first real job. She wanted to make friends and fit in. Her downward spiral began when she added co-workers to her Facebook friends and then started talking negatively about her job.

Don’t alienate a revenue stream. You shouldn’t target any co-worker by name and should really try and avoid talking about workplace specifics on social media profiles. You have the right to express yourself; however, your employer can determine what’s “appropriate.” Swann’s employer felt that her comments about her job were a sign that she was not happy and didn’t enjoy her work. They didn’t want to continue to invest time and energy training her.

Control your emotions. If you’re going to share your feelings and opinions, or even vent online, be prepared to stand behind what you write. All you’ve achieved in your career can be gone in a flash. Leone worked his way up through the ranks with six years of dedication, but a few days after his status post, he was fired. It didn’t matter that he took the post down after two days. As far as his employer was concerned, his post was a bell he couldn’t unring.

There will be growing pains as social networking evolves – especially in the workplace, where one mistake could cost you your job. Swann and Leone found out the hard way what not to say about work online.

The next time you get ready to post something to your profile, add a co-worker as your friend, or vent online, think about what happened to these individuals and how their job loss could have been avoided.

Have you faced a similar situation? Do you know anyone who has? Let us know in the comments section below.

Have you ever attended a meeting that you felt was not beneficial to you or that you weren’t able to make a contribution toward? You’re not alone. Most everyone has spent some time in a meeting thinking, “I could be doing something productive right now if I wasn’t here.” While you can’t always change how an unproductive meeting is managed, you can change whether or not you attend. Although you won’t be able to get out of every meeting, you can charm your way out of some of them. Try using these three ideas to attend fewer meetings.

Politely Decline. Sometimes you’ll be invited to a meeting but won’t be required to attend. Determine if this meeting will affect you directly, so you’ll know if you really need to attend or if you’ll receive any value from it. If you feel you or your team or company won’t benefit from your attendance, politely decline the invitation so you can spend your time doing something more productive.

Request to Skip It. When you’re on deadline, working on a big project, or just need to catch up on your work, ask your supervisor if you can miss a meeting. Explain to him that you feel you have other priorities that need to be taken care of first and will be more productive by continuing to work. Also, be sure to tell him how you and the department will benefit from your time spent elsewhere and the money that the company can save by you working through the meeting, if that’s the case.

Do Your Part Ahead of Time. When you’re expected to attend a meeting to simply report an update on a project or make some other small contribution, do your work before the meeting, and then decline attending. Send an e-mail to the group containing the information you would report at the meeting. If you need others to take action on something for you, you can also request this in an e-mail or phone call instead of waiting to talk with them at the meeting.

Meetings aren’t productive if you don’t receive any value from them or contribute to them, but you can be more productive if you carefully choose which meetings to attend and which to skip. Try using one of these three techniques the next time you’re asked to attend a pointless meeting. It may surprise you how many unproductive meetings you’ll be able to charm your way out of if you approach them the right way.

Check out these posts for more ways to get more out of your work day.

• Stay Focused and On Task
• Avoid Distractions
• Organize and Prioritize for the Future