to be sick of having my photo taken at work?

[KatDubs261]

Ok fair enough when I started I had an employee photo taken for online. Now we are made to put it in our signatures which I hate as my own face pops up all the time!

For the last couple of weeks at almost every meeting or event we've been having our photos taken, close ups of us working, videos of us walking around the office, you name it. I think it is because the brand is trying to make more of an effort with its image but I hate it.

Today we were asked to have our photos taken for instagram posts and I finally snapped (inside anyway). I don't want my face all over social media and I'm starting to find it quite intrusive. AIBU?

Tell them you're in the witness protection programme.

Ho ho!

I honestly didn't mind at first but now it seems constant. I've heard others grumbling about their faces in the email sigs too

I get you though. Will your name be associated with the pictures and do you have a google-friendly name?

According to your online poll 107% of respondents agree with you. :)

Find out who is responsible for GDPR. Tell them you do not wish to have your photograph used for anything and withdraw consent for it to be used. As your photo is produced along with your name in external communications, it's deemed as identifying personal information and employers must allow you to withdraw your consent and remove all photographs, such as those on letters or on social media.

You may find the section on When is Consent Invalid? useful here

Withdraw your consent. You can do it at any time. I don't want someone to google my name and find out where I work, and to confirm it with my mug shot. Our work has just had a professional photographer in to take our pictures. I wasn't the only one not to participate. So just withdraw your consent in writing, they cannot object.

Say no. In our website we've had photos taken down, although our names are still there. One colleague used a fake surname at work though.

I outright refuse.
Not even my own mother has a single picture of me as an adult.
I absolutely, without exception will not have my picture taken at work for any purpose other than my id badge.

In today’s social media way of communicating it becomes “pressure”. I feel pressured into smiling and feeling excruciating discomfort at being photographed.
I just say no thank you, it’s not for me.
And yes, they go on and on at me but I still refuse.

I rebelled against this at my former work place and had a picture of Shaun the sheep.

I take photos at my work for promo purposes. I need consent forms every time though and people are free to say no - if they do I don’t use any pictures with them, no issue whatsoever. As above I’d ask your GDPR reps about this as it should be a given, it should be consent based.

*shouldnt be a given I mean

Oh thank you everyone!

I had been grinning and bearing but today really gave me pause for thought - I offered alternative suggestions to having my personal photo on social media but nothing else was deemed acceptable. I'm going to opt out of this one for sure.

There are never any consent forms. I have always had to sign consent forms for promo work at other events which is what got me thinking.

Also @SheepSocks you are a legend

This is not ok.
I hate the use of photos in sigs at work because while some people see it as "helpful" to put a face to a name, I think it just helps them with their unconscious bias. Why do you need to know I am middle aged, female and fat? You'll just fob me off. Read my words. I am sharp, quick and lethal in writing.

In public it's even worse. I've felt like we're fattened farm animals, the way my company want to exhibit us as specimens. I refuse everything that is asked, but I think they share stuff (with potential investors etc) that isn't technically legal. It really pisses me off.

I feel your pain. No photos, but there is a CCTV in my OFFICE that is just me. So no one else is there, just me and the camera. Creeps me out! It has no set hours, I will just turn around and sometimes it is on.

I once paused a presentation I was giving to point out to the member of staff taking photos that I had declined consent (we were asked at every event) She looked shocked and stopped then told me afterwards she’d assumed it was ok as I’d consented in the past.

@BridgeToTerabithia - that is really creppy. Do you know who is monitoring it?

or creepy ... you choose

Can you not just refuse? I had a photo taken for security ID card purposes but point blank refused to allow them to upload it on their website. I don’t have any identifiable social media and if you put in my (unique spelling) name on Google, no trace of me comes up and I like to keep it that way. To be fair, this is such a big deal for me that I would have walked straight out and quit if they had tried to enforce it, it wasn’t an empty threat or me being difficult for the sake of it.

Pictures in sig files?! Ask them what assessments they've done with regard to unconscious bias and the deleterious effect of this policy on their female employees. Also point out that anyone external getting an email from your company will absolutely hate you for it as the picture will make every email much much bigger. Plus it looks unprofessional.

I would leave the workplace if they insisted on this! I don’t “do” social media at all. Why should you be dictated to if it’s not your wish? Those photos presumably will be out there on the internet for evermore. YANBU.

And not just female employees actually - any protected classes that are obvious from a photo.

I had this issue at the last school I was working at.
I said I refused consent for the use of my photo.
The head want ballistic with me. I stuck to my guns though - I pointed out that parents have the right to refuse consent for the use of the children's photos and I was making the same use of the right to refuse consent.
They accepted this in the end and there were no further consequences but lots of people thought I was being weird about it.
I don't want my photo and name plastered anywhere thank you. I feel very uncomfortable about it and I have had issues with stalkers in the past.