Employer wants to put my photo on their website

[abuhamzamouse]

I was wondering if anyone could give some advice? My employer has recently put forward the bright idea of photos of our team being made available to clients. We have also been asked to write something personal about ourselves and our job role against said photo. I.e. ?Abmouse takes cares of 450 plus clients and likes drinking copious amount of gin and does taxidermy in her spare time.?
Now I don?t want my photo or any personal info to be online for the world and his wife to see ? I feel very uncomfortable about it. I hate having my photo taken and I also suffer from Rosacea so am also self conscious. Before you ask I do have a Facebook page but that?s only viewable to friends.
I don?t feel happy that we are forced to do this. (We have been told this is not optional) Is there anything I can do to stop this? What are the laws covering privacy?

I have been with this employer for 7 years.

[abuhamzamouse]

Bump for lunchtime crowd.

[acebaby]

I know what you mean. I would feel uncomfortable too.

I don't know whether they can force you to do this, but it is a shame that after 7 years, you can't discuss this with your boss :-( Is there someone you could go to for support (maybe a mentor or supervisor), who could help you approach your boss? It might be that they have just been a bit thoughtless and would be happy to let you off if you aren't comfortable with it.

If you do have to do this, I think that the main issue is the photograph. You don't really need to put anything personal down (I would just say "In her spare time, acebaby enjoys reading and walking", or something similarly bland). For the photograph, could you find an old/blurry one that you don't feel so self conscious about?

[Bluelightsandsirens]

Just say no, they can't force you at all.

We have staff photos on the company intranet and as much as they would like all staff to have a picture there they can't force them and many are blank.

[Kernowgal]

Check your contract - my last job's contract stipulated that in signing it I agreed to photos of me (at work) being used in marketing materials.

[emess]

If it's really essential, then insist o n approving the photo first. Any half-decent photographer will understand your concerns, and do their best to produce an image you are comfortable with, including using Photoshop as required.

Re personal interests, you can write what you like. It doesn't have to be factually accurate.

I once had to upload an external board member's photo to a website. He had applied a swirl effect to the photo which meant he was unrecognisable, and wrote "John doesn't live in Surrey and has no dogs".

[tigerdriverII]

Well, from an employers perspective, I do want my client facing team to be accessible to clients and I expect them to give all their contact details (work only of course) out on the website etc. I would expect them to have a picture and I'd also expect there to be a picture on the intranet. We did have someone a few years ago who wasn't client facing, so was only on the intranet, but who refused to have her picture there. The daft thing was she was one of the longest serving people so everyone knew her anyway, and it just looked odd that there was a Milk Tray man in her place.

[breadyegg]

Jeez, I'd hate this too!

I went for a job once where everyone's photo was on the website and a strapline along the lines of... 'High energy, motivated and enthusiastic team player.'

Even the gardener was on there.

Snort!

Thankfully, I didn't get the job! How embarassing would that have been?!

[Aprilx]

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