Facebook at Work: Social network takes aim at LinkedIn with new site for office staff

Facebook is secretly working on a new version of its network, built for work, where people will be able to hide embarrassing stuff such as unwise selfies and political rants, and create a more boring ‘professional profile' that colleagues will see on Facebook at Work.

There will be no way to see the ‘real you' on Facebook at Work, however curious your boss might be to leaf through your private photos.

The look of the new site would be similar to Facebook – with profiles, and a news feed of work-related posts – plus chat areas and tools to allow users to edit documents together.

The new service should, hopefully, cut down on the amount of meetings the average office drone has to endure in his working life – and perhaps spell an end to office Facebook bans.

Facebook employees already use the site as a messaging service, and to share announcements through the group – and it works well among the company's 8,000 employees.

The new service would separate out these ‘work' conversations, and offer added functions such as the ability to share and edit documents.

The move would put Facebook in direct competition with networking site LinkedIn, often used in preference to Facebook for work contacts. It would also mark a move into Microsoft and Google's territory.

Zuckerberg's company will have to work hard to convince companies that information can remain private on the site – and that it's a good idea to allow employees to use Facebook for hours at a time.

Speaking earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook had a ‘lot of room to grow'.