I feel her pain. I really, really do.

To say that her company overreacted to what was said in her blog is a gross understatement. If they were trying to keep under-wraps their HR issues regarding this sort of thing, their blunder at letting this girl go is all over the place now. (Didn’t I mention recently something about never pissing off a blogger? )

But, I can point to two things in there that PROBABLY got her canned.

1. No matter how hard you try to disguise what, how, where and with whom you work, if someone at your work place finds your blog, they WILL figure out who is who and what is what (trust me, they will), and if they don’t like what you’ve said about him/her/them, they will most likely take action, depending on how sensitive they are to being dis(s)cussed online.

I’m thinking this guy/his cohorts didn’t appreciate being described in the manner being presented in this post, and acted accordingly:

This other boss is very old school. He wears braces and sock suspenders (although I don’t have any firsthand experience of those), stays in gentlemen’s clubs when in London, and calls secretaries “typists”. When I speak to him, I can’t prevent myself from mirroring his plummy Oxbridge accent.

Now, call that what you will. This guy probably didn’t appreciate having his personal proclivities played out in public as presented here. Even tho’ she was rather neutral about it. In fact, most people don’t appreciate being talked about online. Even in a favorable light.

2. Discussing confidential company personnel issues on your blog, even your own, is a big, fat no-no, and can and will get one fired. Which is precisely what she did here:

Blogging on company time [per her boss] is “unacceptable”. I clearly don’t have enough to do and more work will be found, to keep me busy. Access to my server’s IP has been blocked, to stop me being so much as tempted to look at my comments. I am posting this by email, so I hope it works okay.

As for my job, well, I’m on probation.

OOPS!

But I think the thing that must have REALLY wigged out her corp bosses was how widely read she was, as well as all the awards that her blog won: Best New Blog, Satin Pajamas award, etc. She’s talented enough, and well-read enough, to do some serious damage to them, should she have chosen to do so.

Now granted, I was, once, guilty of all these crimes. And I just came within centimeters of getting “dooced” last year, as a result (the fact that I was also blogging about my situation with my mom’s illness is probably what saved my ass). In order for me to stay there, any work-related entry (all places and names were disguised, but, as I mentioned up above, it made no difference), the kind of thing that gave my blog any kind of character, had to be flushed (even the nice things I said about people with whom I worked). I was not happy about it, but well, what could I do?

I’ve talked about all this before (do a search from around this blog and you’ll find some stuff), so, yeah, I speak from experience.

Peeps, folks at work and work policies can get on your nerves, and we all need places to vent. The internet USED to be a safe haven to do so. It NO LONGER IS. It hasn’t been for a long time. If potential employers can google you for online misbehavior, then you know nowhere is safe.

With that in mind…

If you really need to vent about your boss/co-worker(s)/workplace lust object(s), here are some suggestions:

1. Do it on your own time. Seriously. Even if you are bored at work, it just takes one nosy system admin tracking your web usage to fuck your life up.
2. Don’t do it online (MS word, anyone? Or Open office?)
3. For those who say “Screw you, Helen, I’m stating my piece on my site” - and I’d be right along there with you -

a. Don’t…use…Blogger
b. Use a pseudonym (a bit late for me, but whatever)

c. If you don’t have your own hosting service (or you have one that doesn’t allow certain extensions such as php), find a blogging service that allows private and friends only posts, as well as public ones, like Live Journal, or even myspace. WordPress also has password-protected post capabilities, which would work as well. If you don’t care to hold back, those private and friends only options can make your life a hell of a lot easier. Protected posts won’t even show up on feeds.

d. This is kind of meaningless, but here goes: don’t give your co-workers opportunities to find your blog. This includes (and again, speaking from experience):

i. If your office uses a chat protocol such as AIM or YM, putting your blog url in your chat profile (yes, I did this. D’oh!)

ii. Giving folks the url to your website, should your blog be attached to it. (I did this too…DUH!!!)

iii. Trusting someone who you’ve been personally told time and time again what a big mouth s/he has, but giving him/her your blog’s url anyway, because “s/he’s my best friend; I can trust him/her” (well, I guess you can tell I did this too! Three Strikes against my natural intelligence!)

iiii. In fact, it’s really not anyone’s business in your office what you do online. If you don’t need to tell anyone, then don’t.

4. Then there’s the old adage: If you can’t say something nice…

oh, who the hell cares…

D-Tags: Blogging, Learnings