I started posting to this blog in June 2003. I was still employed at the Collegium Excellens, but my days were numbered. As time has gone by since I left the friendly confines of the Collegium, I have written some words about the place that — at times — could be described as savage. 32 years in a place that I never wanted to be took its toll. Had I publicized this blog and had I remained on the job, I would have blogged my way out of a job. As it was, I managed to misbehave my way out of a job. I was so wacky that I was tossing students out of class in the blink of an eye. I even tossed all of the students out of class in the blink of an eye. So, this blog never came into play. In fact, I got crosswise with the current prexy and a couple of former Regents over a blog entry about the Collegium being removed from the AAUP Censure List after 40 years. The prexy and the former Regents thought that I was "too harsh." Little did they know that I pulled my punches when I wrote about that stuff. If this is (fair & balanced) slander, so be it.
[x Associated Press]
You Can Blog Your Way Out Of A Job: Online scribes get the ax when bosses disapprove of Web logs' contents
By Anick Jesdanun
NEW YORK — Austin flight attendant Ellen Simonetti and former Google Inc. employee Mark Jen have more in common than their love of blogging: They both got fired over it.
Simonetti had posted a suggestive photograph of herself in uniform, while Jen speculated online about his employer's finances. In neither case were their bosses happy when they found out.
Although many companies have Internet guidelines that prohibit visiting porn sites or forwarding racist jokes, few of the policies directly cover Web logs, particularly those written outside work hours.
"There needs to be a dialogue going on between employers and employees," said Heather Armstrong, a Web designer fired for commenting on her blog about goings-on at work. "There's this power of personal publishing, and there needs to be rules about what you can or cannot say about the workplace."
On blogs, which are by their very nature public forums, people often muse about their likes and dislikes — of family, of friends, of co-workers.
Currently, about 27 percent of online U.S. adults read blogs, and 7 percent pen them, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
With search engines making it easy to find virtually anything anyone says in a blog these days, companies are taking notice — and taking action.
"Because it's less formal, you're more likely to say something that would offend your boss," said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a workers' rights group.
Armstrong, who wouldn't name the company that fired her in 2002, said some of her bosses took issue with such posts as "Comments Heard In, Around, and Consequent to the Company Christmas Party Last Evening."
Soon after she was sacked, sympathizers coined the term "dooced," meaning "to have lost one's job because of one's Web site," in her case dooce.com.
In 2003, a Microsoft Corp. contractor was fired after posting photographs of computers from rival Apple Computer Inc. at a loading dock. Because Michael Hanscom had described a building in his posting, Microsoft said he had violated security, he said.
Microsoft refused to comment on Hanscom's case but pointed out that it encourages blogging and has more than 1,500 unofficial bloggers — the bulk on Microsoft's official Web sites.
Last fall, Simonetti posted photographs of herself posing in a Delta Air Lines uniform inside a company airplane, her bra partly revealed in one. She was fired weeks later and her story soon appeared on BBC online, in The New York Times, the "Today" show, "Inside Edition" and CNBC.
And in January, Jen was fired by Google Inc. over a blog that discussed life at the company, even though he said "it's all publicly available information and my personal thoughts and experiences."
Upon reflection, Jen said, he understood Google's concerns, given readers' tendencies to read between the lines and draw conclusions based on "random comments I made."
He said he hoped his case would prompt workers to "talk to their managers at length about blogging before they begin."
Simonetti said she still doesn't know what she did wrong, saying that plenty of employee Web sites and dating profiles identify Delta and include photos in uniform.
"If there is a policy against this, why weren't all these people punished before?" she said.
Delta and Google officials would only say that Simonetti and Jen no longer worked for them.
Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst at the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said employees often "don't realize the First Amendment doesn't protect their job."
A few companies actually do encourage personal, unofficial blogs and have policies defining do's and don'ts for employees who post online. They recognize that there can be value in engaging customers through thoughtful blogs.
Sun Microsystems Inc. encourages blogging, offering server space for personal blogs but warning bloggers not to reveal secrets or make financial disclosures that might violate securities law. Sun also offers advice on how to keep blogs interesting.
Only in rare cases are employees "unofficially asked to soften some wording," said Tim Bray, the Sun policy's chief architect. Rather, he said, the policy creates a structure for discussions between employees and their managers.
Copyright © Associated Press
