And of course, my poor editing skills don't allow me to be as succinct as either of those gentlemen, so I had my lengthy ramblings on this idea, too. But what's surprising is that we're gaining some traction with the idea that blogs really can help your career.
Over on the Professional Network blog, I linked to CNET's Blogging FAQ. Though clearly written in reaction to the "fired for blogging" stories, even this FAQ couldn't deny the opportunity of blogging. And on Nightline the other night, there was an extraordinarily nuanced view of blogs, once they got the requisite Dan Ratherisms out of the way. There were even some great mentions of blogs that aren't included often enough in media coverage, like Chez Miscarriage and Fussy, both of which I've always been delighted by in the past.
None of the bloggers mentioned above have ever been fired for blogging. Look, 100% success!
]]>however, the fact that anyone can now publish online without filter or editor or censor demands that their be some sort of dialogue going on about lines that can and cannot be crossed.
i never published trade secrets or names or even the industry i worked in. i often sat around at lunch with six or more coworkers and complained about work just as i did on my website. but i didn't get fired for complaining at lunch. i got fired for complaining on my website.
did i get fired for blogging? you would argue no, but by using that medium i got fired.
i'm just saying that there should be more talk at work about the advantages and disadvantages to this medium, how it can be used for good, how not to use it, how it is different from any other medium.
when i was writing about work my audience was relatively small, so i could have argued that it wasn't much different than complaining at lunch, but I would have been wrong. let there be a dialogue that this is the internet, it is powerful, let's be smart when using it.
this coming from someone who writes about farting in public.
]]>I'll definitely be talking more about how companies should be more accountable to their employees, especially in terms of having clear, explicit expectations about communication and behavior, but also in being much more reasonable about the fact that employees are *humans*, who will make mistakes and say the wrong thing sometimes, and that it's not such a big deal when they do.
We're still living with the majority of companies being in denial about their employees' basic humanity, let alone about the intricacies of the conversations that employees are having with everyone from their families to total strangers. You're right that I haven't emphasized enough the responsibility employers have to their staff, but I think I wanted to clear up the misconceptions about how this issue has been described in the press so far.
Thanks for the feedback, and I'll try to be a little more thoughtful in the way I talk about this stuff in the future.
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