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The Repercussions of Blogging
hende_jman writes "How much should you be allowed to say in a public blog? There's an article on CNN that looks at different situations in which people have been fired for blogging about their company. The main issue brought seems not to be one of a lack of trust (blogs, after all, are most often public), but rather a lack of policy outlining repercussions for negative blogging about one's company."
duh?
My blog (full of cobwebs) are stories about me, not my employer. I'd fully expect to be fired if I told the story about
NO CARRIER
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
lack of common sense by the blogger.
This isn't kindergarten... nobody should need a 'policy' to tell them that if they badmouth their employer in public (or otherwise reflect badly on them), they're not going to be welcome at work for much longer.
It's called 'biting the hand that feeds you', and it's never a particularly smart idea.
So, what do you do?
I'm an engineer at leading Search Engine Company.
So.. how's your job.
I'm sorry, but I'm not at liberty to discuss that.
Is there any subjects people should study if they want to work at Google?
I cannot confirm nor deny that I work at Google. As for subjects to take, I cannot divulge any technolgy which may or may not be employed in my work.
Do you like your job?
Sorry ma'am, don't ask don't tell.
You are allowed to say whatever you want, and if your employer doesn't like it, he's allowed to fire you.
Freedom of speech, as the saying goes, does not mean freedom from consequences.
Um. Before you continue this discussion, I propose that you spend a little time reading what Mr. Jefferson actually wrote. Then you might realize that if he were here today, he'd say that the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. The fact that the government does not prohibit you, or anyone else, from saying whatever you want doesn't mean that your words won't have consequences, consequences up to and including the loss of your job.
Jefferson was a lot bigger on personal responsibility than you seem willing to give him credit for.
If I had mod points, I'd mod you up to +1000000.
Seriously, why don't people get that? It's not that hard.
You have freedom of speech. You're not going to be imprisoned or tortured for what you say. On the other hand, you can be fired from your job. Your s/o might leave you. Your kids might hate you. You might blow through your entire life savings unable to get another job.
It bears repeating, in BOLD. Freedom of speech is not a license to do something illegal, unethical, or even for you to say things otherwise inappropriate for a person of your particular position in society.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
I go through alot of resumes.
:
With the advent of blogging, I can't believe:
1. The number of people who give a link to their website on their resume
2. Have a blog
3. Refer to themselves negatively in their blog
"I couldn't find the motivation to get out of bed".
"I'm a loser, I can't find a job".
"I just don't feel like working".
Hey, let's call these people...
If I started handing newsletters out on the street corner that had articles about the inside dirt about my company, could I be fired? Of course I could and with good justification. Corporations are under no obligation to uphold the First Amendment. (And that's one big reason I'm against privatization of government services.)
Blogs are simply a more efficient means of communicating a message, nothing more. Why is this even controversial?
---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.
This is precisely why I started http://www.novoice.org/.
To provide an outlet for those who are afraid to speak out about their jobs.
Some people say bad things about my COmpany, but not me. My boss is an absolute saint, and my coworkers are knowledgable about software and increDibly talented. really I feel blessed, in that I have a job for life, and my stock purchase plan can only increase in value.
People are sometimes envious, and ask me how i was lucky enough to leverage my skills into an exciting company like SCO, to which I reply, "I'm just lucky, I guess!"
- unethically exploiting employees
- conducting business in an illegal manner
- killing people in the course of business
- about to kill people in the course of business
- conducting business in a non-competitive, monopolistic fashion
you are morally bound to speak out about it, on your blog, to the press and to whomever will listen. (If your employer is a Chinese mining company, you should just quit your job and become a full-time blogger.)Once again, the distinction:
Are you doing it AT WORK (on company property) and/or DURING WORK (on company time)?
If YES, it is your company's business, and justification to fire you. If NO, it is not. This is not similar to your analogy, since it (presumably) wasn't done during work or on company property-a more appropriate analogy would be "If I tell my friends how bad my day at work sucked at the bar after work, and it gets around to my boss, should he have the right to fire me?"
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
"If I tell my friends how bad my day at work sucked at the bar after work, and it gets around to my boss, should he have the right to fire me?"
But the answer to this question -- at least in the U.S., and in 49 of the 50 states -- is yes, your boss does have the right to fire you. Unless you are a member of a union, have a bonafide employment contract, or live and work in Montana, your boss can fire you for any reason at any time -- that's "at will" emplyment for you.
Now, whether your boss "should" have the right to fire you, that's another question altogether. But under current law, your boss CAN fire you for any reason at all, including off-duty badmouthing of the company.
"That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
If people looked at the intentions, as written, of the founding fathers, they would see that neither party is actually good for this country.
No offense, but that sounds like pretty typical college-student blah-blah. I say that as somebody who, when I was 20, spouted exactly the same kind of nonsense.
Clue #1: You are not the first person to read our nation's heritage documents. We've all read them. We all know that the founding fathers envisioned a much different country from the one we live in. But we also know that the founding fathers recognized, above all else, the limits of their vision. The Constitution isn't inscribed in stone. It's a living, changing document. The process for amending it is strict, but straightforward. It was intended from the start to be a document that could adapt to changing times and changing situations, not one that would be so rigid that it might someday have to be thrown out.
The Constitution, in other words, was meant to last forever. And so far, it's done very well.
Clue #2: We no longer live in an agrarian nation of a few hundred thousand people scattered from Georgia to New York. Our situation is neither better nor worse, objectively, though different people have different opinions. But our situation has changed, drastically. Merely looking at documents written in the 18th century and concluding that things are different today is not insight, and it's not wisdom.
Clue #3: What you euphemistically refer to as "citizenship classes" went by some different names in older days. We called it "slavery" and we called it "male suffrage." Blacks weren't allowed to vote because they were considered property. Women weren't allowed to vote for basically the same reason. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who would say with a straight face that it's a great idea to go back to the days before universal suffrage.
Bottom line: You sound like a nice kid, but I think you've read Starship Troopers too many times. Recognize the limits of your understanding. Remember that the people around you, both your peers and those who were born before you, are not idiots, and that we do things for good reasons. And above all, try to be a little more humble. You don't know half of what you think you know, and you don't know a tenth of what you'll think you know at 30. You're just getting started. you've got a long way to go.