How To Lose Your Job, Thanks To The Internet

Posted by Zonk on Sunday December 30, 2007 @03:25PM from the it's-easy-if-you-know-how dept.

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?

4 of 654 comments (clear)

Hmmm.... by andy666 · 2007-12-30 15:28 · Score: 5, Funny

Yeah this internet thing might end up having some impact on the world....
Whoa by chanrobi · 2007-12-30 15:32 · Score: 5, Funny

So posting those drunken, pot smoking pics of myself on a publicly viewable online source (e.x facebook) might not be a good idea? That's news to me.
Re:You can still make an effort by Anonymous Coward · 2007-12-30 15:38 · Score: 5, Funny

Ed Zantolak! Is that you!!! Hey, I got some top notch colombian shit for new years. I know you have a nose like a vacuum cleaner, so come on over. There's gonna be some male strippers too... remember that time in San Francisco? AIDS ruined everything man.
Re:Not much is new here. by Anonymous Coward · 2007-12-30 17:50 · Score: 5, Funny

A senator who supports homosexual relations with under aged teens or preteens wouldn't stand for a minute in a serious election So one who supports heterosexual relations would be okay?
I don't think I want you to be allowed to vote.