Fired for posting on a blog

I receive a lot of email for “blogging advice”. I should start a column. This one interested me…it’s nothing new, but I thought I’d speak on it.

This person reads blogs from work. He doesn’t have a blog, but he reads them. One of the blogs he reads had an interesting discussion going on. He did not agree with the blogger’s point of view and responded in a respectful manner, just as others were doing. It seems that this blogger does not take criticism very well and took the time to look up the IP addresses of those who had disagreeing comments. For those that were blogging from work, the blogger reported their activities.

The person who wrote me was severely reprimanded and his computer priviledges were stripped. He knows someone else was fired.

This isn’t new. Many of you might remember an A-List blogger who did the same thing (reported a commenter) and ended up taking down the blog because the readers were outraged. This is one of the risks of reading blogs from work.

If your employer doesn’t have a clear policy about this or you know for a fact that you shouldn’t be surfing the net while working, don’t comment on blogs while you are at work. You can’t assume a blogger is mentally stable. Again, it’s one of those times when you think it’s innocent at the time and it comes back to haunt you later.

I don’t understand why people assume there aren’t malicious people out there. There are…never forget that.

Tyme Said