There was an article in today’s USA Today titled “Warning: Your clever little blog could get you fired”. Two people sent me a note about it. Hmm, wonder why. You can read it here
Anyway, the article was about people who write about work on their personal blogs and get fired for it. Basically you have morons who write bad things about coworkers or give away company secrets or leak information about upcoming products. And they get fired. No (expletive deleted). What do they think? The article talks about how companies have to come up with guidelines about personal blogs, which is crazy because if you are dumb enough to write something really bad about coworkers you better be prepared to take the heat, just like if you gossip about someone. I mean if I write a Christmas news letter and complain about work, then it’s the same thing just with a less efficient method to get my point across.
So I found it interesting that people write bad things about work or complain about colleagues or do anything that they obviously have their name attributed to. Trust me, there are a ton of things that I would love to write about and if you know me, I am very opinionated about, but don’t. There are just some things that are too sensitive to talk about when the point of my blog is to entertain. I don’t write an op-ed piece and I don’t have a talk radio show. I don’t have a soapbox and my opinion is about as valuable as the next person’s. If you know me and read this often you can easily pick up crumbs of my true feelings, but I don’t evangelize. Well, that is not entirely true. I am very open about my feelings with air travel and the Red Sox, but both are pretty much in jest. Well, now that is not entirely true either. I really do think some airlines are staffed by minions of the devil, and I really do hate the Red Sox, but hey, I am right.
If I wrote out about politics, reparations, social programs, corporations, illegal aliens, gay rights, my job, environmental policies, religion, CEO compensation, tobacco companies, alcohol, oil, the middle east, war, migrant workers, wind farms, Canada, federal transportation projects, AIDs, animal cruelty, women rights, poverty, legalization of drugs, school prayer, our penal system, binge drinking, stem cell research, or any number of topics, well, then, I might offend someone who I like. I don’t mind offending complete strangers, after all I am allowed to have an opinion, but I worry about offending and insulting loved ones and people I respect.
I do have an opinion about almost everything and when I do bring up a topic that often has strong and contradictory sides, I try to do it in a way as to not offend. With my job, well, I find it (1) private, (2) boring, and (3) tiring to write about. If I poke fun at people I work with, like Brian from Watertown or Uncle Billy, I do it in fun and dish out the same serving size that I would in person. As for writing bad things about work related to compensation, work/life balance, bosses, professional development and company secrets, I don’t have enough cyber pages to cover everything, so I just leave it alone.
Just thought I’d share.
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