Google Fires Blogger?

Thomas Hawk writes "CNET is reporting that Mark Jen, a blogger whose candid comments about life on the job at Google sparked controversy last month, has left the company. CNET reports that it is not clear if he resigned or was fired but references a post at Google Blogoscoped where it was suggested that he may have been fired over his blog Ninetyninezeros. Given Google's push into the blogging space with their recent acquisition of Blogger it might be interesting to see how this shakes out."

Comments

Re:Mark my words...

[leonmergen]

I agree. I read all the links and transcripts. I couldn't point to any thing the should have resulted in a firing.

Thank god it isn't even certain that Google fired him for this reason... fud fud fud

dumb editor comments, again

[wobblie]

Given Google's push into the blogging space with their recent acquisition of Blogger it might be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Why? What does that have to do with anything?

Re:dumb editor comments, again

[stinky wizzleteats]

Why? What does that have to do with anything?

They're setting a very public precedent about the dangers to blogging on the one hand and trying to break into the business on the other.

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Man criticises employer in public.
Employer fires man.

This is fascinating ... why, exactly?

Re:Hmmm

[Sophrosyne]

because everyone wants to work for Google-- it's like someone won the geek lottery then ripped up the ticket.

Re:Hmmm

[WormholeFiend]

Man criticises employer in public.
Employer fires man.

This is fascinating ... why, exactly?

Because the masses expect freedom of speech and opinion, but the people in power don't like to grant it.

To a lot of people, this is like an alarm going off. But to a lot of cynics, this is just run-of-the-mill stuff that's expected to happen regularly.

He had a chance, he apparently blew it.

[garcia]

Don't piss off your employer or when it's time for people to go you're the first one. I worked with a woman who was quite vocal at work about how she hated her job and she was looking for another and blah blah blah.

I was only there 6 months when the layoffs came up and she got the slip and I didn't. She flew off the handle that I should have went before she did. She didn't appreciate it when I mentioned she probably shouldn't have been so vocal about how she didn't like her job.

hi everyone, sorry my site has been down for the past day or so. i goofed and put some stuff up on my blog that's not supposed to be there. nothing serious and they didn't ask me to take anything down (even the stuff where i'm critical about the company). i'm learning that google is understandably careful about disclosing sensitive information, even vague financial-related things. the quickest way for me to fix the situation at the time was to take it all down. now i'm back up. just so you know, google was pretty cool about all this. thanks for and sorry for the frenzy of speculation.

It's obvious that Google had been aware of this guy's blog and while they didn't ask him to take anything down and they didn't ask him to stop he should have seen the writing on the wall and kept it down. He had a choice and he decided to bring it back up, but I am not about to speculate what would have happened if he hadn't.

Keep your opinions about work to yourself. If you don't like your job don't work there anymore. If you can't find a new job keep your mouth shut (to the Internet as well especially when you work for a firm full of Internet connected people that run THE search engine) until you do.

Just do your job and go home. Personally, I don't want to hear about anyone's work life outside of work and I certainly wouldn't want to describe mine to anyone else in my free time. Free time is exactly that. Time away from work!

Re:He had a chance, he apparently blew it.

[Scorpius-nl]

Ok, think i'll take this this flamebait.

You know what happens if people shut up and just do their work and never tell to the outside what is going on? Especially in large companies it eventually creates an atmosphere of repression, and the feeling in the back of your head that you need to be carefull with what you say.

It also creates a sense of false truths, as the cnet article says, a microsoft employee taking pictures of apple computers being unloaded is fired, creating the impression that at microsoft only windows is used.

Eventually the company will have lost touch with reality, because the employees don't speak their mouth, creating for example a company like microsoft. I know speaking to the outside world is something different, but it's the beginning.

And like a fellow slashdotter once said, google is just a company, primarily aimed at making profit, that it's primary objective. All the "cool" google things are invented because they make a very nice profit.

One of the inconveniences....

[halivar]

...of the professional world (damn these short comment titles!) is that you become a representative (somewhat) even on your own time. That means you respect the company's privacy and keep internal matters internal.

It's kind of like a family member airing all you dirty laundry. Do they have a right to be upset about your idiosynchrosies? Maybe, probably. Should they be telling the whole world about it? No... I think loyalty should be a driving factor here.

That said, I would have hoped that Google would be more lenient than this (assuming he was fired). But now they have public investors to think of, and they have to act more like a corporation than perhaps they have in the past. Sometimes that means tough love for employees who forget their first task is to make money for the company.

Re:If a blogger gets sacked...

[FirienFirien]

...like the people who post comments on slashdot from work, with an intent to be Funny ;)

Re:Mark my words...

[badasscat]

... this will be the last day Google is considered a Good company on Slashdot.

I tend to agree, though apparently this guy a) had more than 400 complaints from within the company to Google's HR department asking that he be removed, and b) was obviously a complete idiot in the things he posted about in his blog.

Just because we all have the ability to post anything we want anywhere we want doesn't mean we should. You're free to say whatever you want in the United States but a company is not obligated to keep you under hire if you become a disruptive influence or publicly reveal trade secrets. It has nothing to do with whether he signed an NDA or not; it comes down to common sense.

I don't know exactly why he was fired but it should not be a surprise to anybody, including him. And I don't think this is a free speech issue; this is more of a lesson in learning when and where it is and isn't appropriate to say certain things, which is something that has been lost on the internet generation. Nobody can put you in jail for complaining about your company, but your company is not obliged to keep paying you for the privilege.

"Good" "Bad" "Moron"

[MosesJones]

I've got some Karma to burn so I'm going to say this anyway.

For all the muppets who will respond about Google being a "bad" company, and how they were "good". FIRING PEOPLE HAPPENS, and sometimes ITS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. If one person is dragging down the morale of everyone else, should that be allowed to continue ? If one person is damaging the companies reputation, should that be allowed to continue ?

Firing people is something that happens. And it doesn't make companies "bad" or "good". In fact companies ARE NEVER bad or good its the PEOPLE in them that make bad or good decisions. Reference Microsoft, it was the will of a group of people to act as a monopoly and abuse that position.

For anyone who thinks about "Good" and "Bad" in a George Bush style way when looking at any part of the world, whether business or politics. GET OUTSIDE and see the shades, subscribe to the economist, read the Wall Street Journal, become a member of Green Peace and Amnesty International, but don't wear Rose Tinted specs and moan because ONE person got fired.

Google has ALWAYS been protective, and ALWAYS done some "odd" things. There is no tipping point of bad to good, the world is not as simple as "Whitehouse Politics 101".

Re:"Good" "Bad" "Moron"

[mks113]

Sometimes the worst thing a company can do is keep someone employed who is casuing problems for the company.

The ability to get rid of troublemakers and deadbeats is an indication that management is in control and willing to make things happen.

Problem with time perspective...

[PornMaster]

Given Google's push into the blogging space with their recent acquisition of Blogger it might be interesting to see how this shakes out.

They bought Pyra in 2003. It's now 2005. This guy worked there for one month. I think your sense of perspective is a little out of whack.

Re:Mark my words...

[m50d]

Nonsense. That should have happened when they DCMA'd someone for offering RSS feeds of google news. Google is like Apple, whatever they do slashdot will love them.

Re:Blog Damage Control

[danheskett]

You assume that Google did not have a clearly state blog policy.

I start by assuming that since he got fired so quickly, without much messing around, that Google had a clear policy, he violated it, and he was terminated.

a googol minus one

[way2trivial]

wouldn't that be 99 nines?

Be More Careful

[nnnneedles]

If I had gotten a job at google, I would have been a lot more careful.

This guy first ditches microsoft, because they don't want to code with extreme programming methods (laughs), and then gets himself fired from Google. I'm sorry, but what a dumbass. He doesn't know how lucky he is..

Re:Mark my words...

[fizban]

No way! The guy posted *FINANCIAL* information about a *PUBLICLY TRADED* company using inside information. There are very strict SEC rules about that stuff. Google had no choice but to fire the guy. This episode will not affect Slashdot's respect for Google at all.

liability

[willCode4Beer.com]

also don't forget that now Google is a public company they could be liable to their shareholders if it appeared the guy's comments could affect the stock price and they did not fire him (hows that for a run on sentence?).