Question: I consider Facebook to have information that is personal and that I only share with close friends and family. However, in my new workplace I’ve been asked several times for my Facebook username and/or have been *friend requested* and I don’t want to sound rude by telling them that I don't want to add them as friends. 

Any suggestions on the way I should handle this?

Answer: 
I have a pretty large queue of individuals whose request that I friend them on Facebook I have studiously ignored, sometimes for years. And I have done this ignoring without embarrassment either.I don't recall anyone having ever made explicit, repeated requests to me that I friend them on Facebook.

If somebody keeps asking, I keep forgetting :) And I will tell that persistent someone that I make hardly any effort to maintain my Facebook page and that I'll process their request that I friend them "whenever" - There are so many ways of saying "No" without saying "No" :)

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> Follow-upcomment from Gus "Altough I've done this a couple of times, I believe that I'm avoiding the "sincere" factor that can lead to future misunderstandings or colleagues not being sincere to me as well.."
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I am sincere about certain things and diplomatic about others
I have a simple way of dealing with that.
I have the fortune of having a really good relationship with my workmates, even with the senior one, but since i have a totally uncommon life style, i've decided to not disclose my free time with them.

Since we are Italians, we tend to create strong groups and ties with people we work with, so to not refuse them the friendship on fb, i have created a fake profile as decoy for them.
So my "real" profile is one with a nick name, the "official" one is one with my real name and surname.

I've found it really useful even for online privacy and other social network connection, namely Linkedin, and it also doubles as a self-promotion tool for my working life.

Remember: you'll never be "too much" safe online.