Getting Fired for Blogging Article - NY Times

[simplyk]

Great article here:

A blog can be a great way to vent about work. It can also be an
invitation to a pink slip.

By MATT VILLANO

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/business/yourmoney/24advi.html?ex=1122955200&en=90f2c1bec4f5bfc5&ei=5070&emc=eta1

[George]

I can see more corporation having some form of blog policy in the future.

[simplyk]

Mark Jen got to write the blog policy for Plaxo. :)

[simplydamon]

"Mark Jen got to write the blog policy for Plaxo. "

Just goes to show you that even a bad experience can give you valuable experience. It is, of course, too bad that it came to that to begin with.

[simplydamon]

While an older article, it does have mention by an attorney on the legality of getting fired for blogging. The beginning of the article talks about some cases where this has happened.

http://news.com.com/Google+blogger+I+was+terminated/2100-1038_3-5572936.html?tag=nefd.top

The key part of the article re: legality is below...

"Employers have considerable leeway to discipline employees over any public expression touching on the company's business or reputation, Cobey said. Workers in states governed by at-will employment laws, including California, are most at risk. But even workers covered by collective-bargaining agreements could run afoul of an employer's right to protect the company's public image, if they criticize the company or disclose confidential information.

Anonymity offers little protection if a blogger's identity is uncovered in a state with at-will employment, Cobey said. Nor are bloggers protected simply by conducting their activities from home on their own time, rather than at work during office hours, he said.

"Employers in at-will states have very wide latitude" to fire workers, he said. "Is it always fair or nice? No. Is it lawful? Yes."


Note from Damon: An interesting question, at least to me, is how does this tie into sites where people can gripe about a company? Another one would be how is protecting the image of a company decided (In other words, how would they decide that one case of an employee blogging was actually more severe than another employee. Some aspects of these cases are important because they set precedent, and precedent is important in a common law society like the U.S.).

[simplydamon]

Hi,

A great article with ways you can minimize your chances of getting fired for blogging. Points #3 and #5 are very good ones...

3. Practice safe blogs.
"Employees who go around sharing negative or confidential information about their company, product, or service -- either internal or external -- to the company would and should get fired," says Pete Quintas, CTO of SilkRoad Technology, creator of an enterprise blogging application called Silkblogs. "You need to be honest and not secretive about what you are writing unless you are willing to deal with the consequences."


"5. Use good judgment.
If you consider blogs and the Internet an extension of your voice, what you say on your blog about your company, product or service should be kept within the guidelines of what you would verbally say in public, according to Quintas. "Treat it with the same restraint of how you talk in person about your company, remembering that more people have access to what you say." he suggests. "Don't say anything different than what you would say at a happy hour, or at a company holiday party, or at an industry trade show, or in front of a customer."




blogging and protecting your job (http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom/msn/careeradvice/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=573&SiteId=cbmsnch4573&sc_extcmp=JS_573_msn1)

[George]

Can You Be Fired for Blogging? (http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Custom/MSN/CareerAdvice/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=573&sc_cmp1=JS_573_wihublead)

[simplydamon]

The link below is interesting because it concerns 27 employees that were recently let go for allegedly making comments about the service/coworkers on myspace.com. Why is this one interesting? Because it appears that many of those that were fired chimed in to comment...

Fired because of info on myspace.com (http://www.gadgetopia.com/post/4209)

[simplydamon]

Some interesting thoughts on how not to get in trouble for blogging at work - the article also mentions how technology may be growing faster than the ability of an organization to keep up with the issue(s) surrounding blogging.



blogging about work (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2005/08/blogging_about.html?class=)

[kd5145]

You don't have to like your co-workers, but you do need to be polite and professional. If you can't manage that, you should probably stay away from the blogging boards and look elsewhere for work.

Ain't that the truth?

[simplydamon]

I also found this article interesting...

Corporate Blogging (http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=02300000IIJE)

Some points from the article that I found to be of interest:

"Some CIOs worry that having employees getting involved with corporate blogging will just become one more thing to take up valuable time. Others voice concern about the impact on employee productivity caused by reading and writing blogs."

***I disagree, as another person does, that blogging can lead to a decrease in productivity. My personal take is that I can service more customers with a message board/blog than I could taking an inbound phone call/email. I can also *talk* to many different people in near "real" time.

Vass cautions those Sun executives with external blogs -- including Schwartz -- that their comments might easily influence stock prices. In fact, that actually happened from an offhand remark Schwartz made in an earlier blog. But he is more comfortable with knowing his own internal blog offers some protection against such problems.

This is very, very important. I would state this is one area where employees, regardless of stature within the company, need to be aware as to how much their comments can affect a company. A key problem that needs to be resolved would be *how* to get Senior Executives out in cyberspace w/o creating damage to the company (comments by a senior person within the company would obviously carry more weight & have more potential influence on market prices). It is also important to realize that there are some very legal restrictions about what you can say about certain aspects of a company that is public.

[kd5145]

Our company offers internal blogs where you can ask questions of other HR people in all the states and see what others might do about a specific situation. I think this is a helpful resource as it gives you the opportunity to get an external point of view on a situation.

One downside I could see is an executive having a blog and the possibility of unanswered questions. Maybe I am jaded. :) I would have frustration if an executive put information out there and then never followed up to the comments. :)

I could see having to be cautious with an external blog and being careful with what you say and information you put out there.

[George]

Just have someone in the legal department blog. They know or should know whats allow and not allow to be posted.