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How To Lose Your Job, Thanks To The Internet
The New York Times has up an article discussing the trend of employers tracking the 'free time' activities of their employees via their web presence. "When they do go off the clock and off the corporate network, how they spend their private time should be of no concern to their employer, even if the Internet, by its nature, makes some off-the-job activities more visible to more people than was previously possible. In the absence of strong protections for employees, poorly chosen words or even a single photograph posted online in one's off-hours can have career-altering consequences." The piece likens this activity to the 'Sociological Department' that the Ford Company ran to monitor the home lives of their workers. Overstatement, or the corp as Big Brother?
Oh that's a beautiful wrench! Here we go, backwords as usual.
"People should have a right to be themselves outside of work."
Oh I wish that were true. Business owners don't get that right, so we don't tend to give it.
Yes, people can be offended my anything you do. And ultimately, I promise you, your employer doesn't care what you are or what you do. Your employer has hired people he hated in advance, remained friendly with people that screwed him over, and paid someone he didn't want to pay all because "it was the right decision for the business".
Your employee does care about what you are and what you do only in so much as he cares what his clients think about you. It's an awesome responsibility, and it's a horrible one to have to have. But every business owner has it -- it's a part of not being able to leave. Employees can leave, owners can't.
So it's not yoru competence being considered. It's about losing a client because of what that client thinks about you. And clients are allowed to drop suppliers for any reason, discriminatory or not. So your employer really has no recourse to that. Which means that his decision is purely "do I trust that the client either won't find out or won't care, or do I give the job to someone else to avoid this bloody headache altogether". I hate having to make that decision, but it comes up incredibly often.
Regarding my comedian friend, it took me six years to get him to try to produce his own shows. I'm incredibly proud of him for finally doing so, and I'm supporting him every step of the way. He's phenominally personable -- as most comedians are -- and running a business as a personable fellow is just amazing to watch.
Incidentally, his show is called "Colours of Comedy", and the entire theme is to have each comedian on the show of a completely different race, creed, colour, ethnicity, attitude, etc.. In fact, they're billed as such on the announcements. So, believe it or not, he's looking for you. You'd be a shoe-in.
And besides, you must know this better than I do -- nothing breeds acceptance as quickly as humour.