Senior colleague refuses to be photographed - what to do

[Waferbiscuit]

We all have be photographed for work with the photos used for internal comms including our intranet. This is a pretty standard approach in large organisations as it helps to identify people. Photos are perfectly fine, generic photos and we get to select the one that is used.

Staff member is very senior but refuses to be photographed as 'doesn't like it/doesn't feel comfortable'. May be an anxiety thing.

Can they opt out? Should this opting out be supported or is this indulgent? Seems to me part of what you sign up for when you're in a senior role.

Staff member is not part of witness protection program, doesn't work in the community and AFAIK no safeguarding or privacy issues.

I’m assuming that OP means ie photos of the executive on their company website. Most companies will do this, as well as publishing executive photos in the annual accounts and other statutory returns.

we’re not talking about outlook photos or something equally operational.

GDPR is irrelevant- clearly the company are not going to force the staff member to sit for a photo. But causing difficulty over something that is expected as standard may well have repercussions for them

I'm a senior staff member in my job and we were all asked a while back to add a photo to our HR online portfolio thing so that other members of the company who we might not know can recognise us.

My answer was no. Quite simply I don't want my photo on some site that isn't managed by me.

If they want to know who I am at a national staff meeting or something they can come and ask me.

I'm still wondering what OP's role in this is. Is she the line manager of 'senior person', chief of staff, marketing person, who?

Senior in the Nosy Parker dept.

I am fairly senior and I don’t have a photo. Same with most of my colleagues. Some do of course but also some don’t and nothing is forced

I even did a project in a previous company for a MD for about six months and even today I wouldn’t know him if I passed him in the street. It was during lockdown so not in office, he never had his camera on and no photos on both the Intranet or LinkedIn. Didn’t cause an issue at all, work still got done on schedule

OP says “photos used for internal comms including our intranet”

Yeah, first rule of fight club witness protection is that you don't talk about fight club witness protection.

It's not like the ice breaker on a training course
My name is Carol
And 3 things you don't know about me
I love under water hand gliding, long walks on the beach at sunset, and I'm in witness protection because I saw Jimmy the Lips take out Tony the face...

How would you even know? I hide my identity as far as I can due to severe domestic violence perpetrated against me. Work don’t know. One of them tried to get my photo up for something a few months ago. Not happening.

Sounds like they are getting on okay so far since they have reached senior level?

Hoe do you know?

I was essentially forced to have a photo on my teams etc. and it really pissed me off. It's a professional shoot but I look fucking awful and it's embarrassing every time I send an email or start a teams call. I actually put my camera on to avoid seeing it. It's the opposite of a catfish.

Absolutely no one should have to have a photo if they don't want to.

Is that a thing? Wouldn't that make the senior person a figure of fun, I'd think it very weird if I saw that on a business website

I have to opt out. I moved from people who wanted to hurt me. I'm always worried they will find me. I don't have public photos or profiles anyone can link to me. I always get told to be on photos so they can post on linked in and always refuse.

I don't have my photo on the intranet ( council worker ) I do have a works badge though . Never been asked and I really don't care .

This isn’t something I would worry about as it doesn’t really matter.

It really doesn’t. Just having landed a senior role doesn’t mean you’re any good at it or that you will last. If only it did… I’m pretty sure we can all think of people that are in senior roles and are very ill suited to them.

The social norm is everyone needs to have their photo on the intranet? Why?
perfectly fine to opt out for whatever reason.

Weird and precious. Don't you take photos for security passes anyway? At most places I've worked they just use those if people don't agree to take/provide an alternative.

Maybe suggest they get one of those little emoji/avatar/sticker things of themselves? Don't know what they're called.

Unless it's specified in their contract, then of course they can say they aren't doing it. There could be many reasons someone doesn't want a photo taken and the only one they need to give you is "No, I'm not doing that".

Staff member is not part of witness protection program

You have no idea about this 🙄

I have refused to let my firm share my image. My image, my choice.

I just wonder why it is getting up the OP's nose so much?

As the CEO of a company, I have done precisely this. I never have my photo taken and would simply leave any job where this was a requirement.

There's no policy on this that I know of
So who decreed it had to happen? Was it your initiative?
Just respect people’s decisions and stop pushing.

I also don't like being photographed but if you have to have a photo for work, you have to. I suggest your senior colleague disguises herself as much as possible for the photograph, eg wears glasses if she doesn't already, do hair quite differently, eg pulled right back from face so you can hardly see it. Wear a bold lipstick. Then nobody will recognise her from the official photograph.

Why are you even talking about witness protection?

Unless the job is as a model, actor or public relations (or similar) I see no reason why a member of staff should be required to be photographed against their will. I am totally on your colleague's side.

I am in a role which frequently requires me to be photographed and I hate it. I go along with it purely because I think that in the long run the impact of the photos on me personally will be less than the impact of me insisting in front of 200+ people on not being photographed, but that does not mean I am happy.

Unless it is a core part of their job that they were made aware of in advance, forcing people to be photographed when they do not want to be is, in my view, a form of workplace bullying.