Over a year after the incident, I’m getting another few seconds added to my fifteen minutes of fame: last week I was interviewed by phone by Wired, and their article hit the ‘net today:
What do a flight attendant in Texas, a temporary employee in Washington and a web designer in Utah have in common? They were all fired for posting content on their blogs that their companies disapproved of.
Aside from that leader being a wee bit misleading (I was let go by my previous employer, not the copy company I currently work for), it’s not a bad article.
Update: Wired was kind enough to slightly edit the introductory paragraph to clear up the wording a touch. Thanks much!
If there are any visitors hitting my site for the first time who might be curious about just what happened to me, I can direct you to my fifteen minutes of fame archives, and specifically, the photo, the day I was let go, and my wrapup and responses on the whole shebang.
And, of course, feel free to kick around and poke around the rest of the site. Nice to see you here!
Tagged: 15 mintues of fame, employment, interview, me, Weblogs, wired
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Hi, As you guessed I read the article in Wired. Does [your employer] know about this blog? Have you ever asked them how blogs would figure into the existing confidentiality policy or if they have expanded it to specifically condone HAHAHA or prohibit blogs. I notice that you never blog about your day-to-day happenings at [work], why?
On my blog I sometimes write about my happenings at [work]. Some of my…friends/co-workers know about my blog, so it is kind of an open secret. I doubt that management is aware though, because I never blog under my real name or use [the company] name or identifying details about my employer.
[slightly edited to remove multiple instances of my employer’s name — MH]
Michael…
Man, that was a bad time…
As for ‘out of the closet blogging’ … I blog under my name, my bosses know about my site, and visit it.
I am careful not to mention work, clients, or projects I am working on other than to say that I am in this city or that city incase friends want to go have dinner or (many) drinks.
It is a fine line I need to walk, there are things I would love to blog on, but I self-censor to ensure that I do not step on the toes of my employer or clients… it really is all about respect.
I may open a new domain where I could vent more anonymously, but I dunno…
-John
I’ve got to say, I’m impressed — even with a four-fold increase in traffic thanks to the mention in Wired, it took most of the day before someone pulled a stunt like that. Does anyone actually mention a company name five times in two paragraphs during normal conversation?
Ah, well.
Yup — not only that, but the story of how I lost my last job has come up from time to time. My managers know about this site (at least on a local level, I have no idea how many people higher up the corporate totem pole might know), and my last manager actually stopped by from time to time.
Nope. They’ve never indicated that it’s an issue, and I tend not to blog about work anymore. As long as I keep my blogging to subjects outside of the workplace, it’s none of their concern.
Do you really need to ask? Or was that just a rather clumsy excuse to toss my employer’s name into your comment one more time?