People just do not take advice well. How many times do I have to write not to write stuff negative about the company you work for? Apparently, once more. Maybe, instead of putting these posts under weblog, I should create a new category, like dumbass bloggers.
Under the pseudonym of Sarcastic Journalist, Rachel Mosteller wrote this entry on her personal Web log one day last April:
"I really hate my place of employment. Seriously. Okay, first off. They have these stupid little awards that are supposed to boost company morale. So you go and do something ‘spectacular’ (most likely, you’re doing your JOB) and then someone says ‘Why golly, that was spectacular.’ then they sign your name on some paper, they bring you chocolate and some balloons.
"Okay two people in the newsroom just got it. FOR DOING THEIR JOB."
This post, like all entries in Mosteller’s online diary, did not name her company or the writer. It did not name co-workers or bosses. It did not say where the company was based. But apparently, Mosteller’s supervisors and co-workers at the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun were well aware of her Web log.
The day after that posting, she was fired.
Bamm. People figure it out. People know. People at work know I blog. My boss does. Some know the address. That is why I am careful. Mosteller wasn’t. SHe treated the blog as "smoke break." Doesn’t fly.
There are many more examples in the article. Even a Google employee got the axe.
I worked with a woman like this once. In a review she was told that she needed to be more polite and treat her co-workers with courtesy and to say “thank you” every now and then. She told her boss that she refused to thanks someone FOR DOING THEIR JOB. Needless, to say when layoffs came, she was the first to get the ax.
I bet that the woman who was fired in this story had more issues than just blogging. When someone is fired for slamming their employer or being indiscreet about work in their blog I wonder if “bad attitude blogging” isn’t just a symptom of a bigger work place problem.
Oops, sorry for the double post! But I also wanted to say about the guy who was fired for blogging on company time – idiot! If he were fired for knitting or playing hockey on company time would bloggers care? If san employer pays someone for their time and they spend that time doing something entirely different from what they are being paid for it’s called stealing!
If you hired a plumber for $20 an hour to fix your toilet and he spent one hour repairing the toilet, one hour blogging and then charged you $40 how would you feel? You sure as hell would never do business with him again.
Not a problem on the double, I just saw it while cleaning out duplicate photos in my archives. I will delete one of them.
This kind of firing seems to be happening more and more, or at least it is being publisized more. Of all the things to be canned for, this is stuff that definatley could have been avoided. There is a site, http://blogherald.com, that constantly documents these type of things. I hope some folks learn. Probably not.
Umm…I blog at work. Quite frequently in fact. I work a 12 hour night shift. Lets just say there’s some down time. I’m in a technical field and playing with HTML and stuff like that is something tech companies actually encourage people to do as long as it doesn’t hamper work. They’ll realy start to love it once I’ve mastered HTML and move on the javascripting. They’ll be like kids in a candy store.
“Hey, Jeremy, I know you were hired for network security, but could you help with this web page?” or “Hey Jeremy, I know you do network security and web stuff, but could you write a javascript that will do X function at X time and e-mail X?” Think I’m kidding? Let people at work you know how to imbed activeX and MS Access and Excell into a modifiable web page and see what happens. It took me about a month to finish the project.
I did have a scare last night though. I saw someone google search my name and the web address had similarities to one that may or may not be trying to dig dirt on me in a competing company. Luckily, it was the person who made me that nice new title banner, Mammamontez (aka Lila).
You mean we’re not supposed to blog at work?
oh oops
Just kidding. I try not to mention much about work. I won’t be at all, now since a number of people now know I have a blog. Most people say, blog? what’s that? which admittedly says something about where i work…. sigh.