Beware if your blog is related to work

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/24/5 | Todd Wallack

[SmithL]

Be careful what you blog. It could get you fired.

Peter Whitney said Wells Fargo dismissed him after co-workers discovered his online journal. Delta Airlines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti said she got the boot for hers. Even a staffer at Friendster, the social networking site in Mountain View that encourages users to post detailed personal information about themselves online, said she was fired for her blog.

With blogging going mainstream and millions of Americans logging details of their everyday lives, including work, a growing number of people are getting into hot water for being too candid about their jobs.

Some workers have been fired for revealing confidential information. Others have been let go for openly griping about their co-workers or bosses, potentially poisoning their relationships with colleagues.

At least three dozen companies have reportedly fired or disciplined workers for the content of their blogs, according to a list that Simonetti, the former Delta employee, helped compile. And the list appears to be growing fast, as more and more people join the blogosphere.

"Firing people because of their blogs is a ridiculous trend," said Simonetti, 29, who lives in Austin, Texas.

Simonetti, who writes under the nickname "Queen of the Sky," said she was fired for posting "inappropriate" photos of herself in her online diary (queenofsky.journalspace.com).

[SmithL]

Tread lightly, folks.

[dfwgator]

I love my job.

[nuconvert]

Well how dumb do you have to be not to realize that this would get you in trouble?

[bikepacker67]

Queen of the Sky

[kevkrom]

At least three dozen companies have reportedly fired or disciplined workers for the content of their blogs

Check your employment agreements, and you'll see the companies are likely well within their rights. Negative statements in a public forum can be seen as conduct detrimental to the company, and even positive or neutral comments could accidentally leak proprietary information or be the grounds for insider-trading issues.

[need_a_screen_name]

Remember the Delta Flight Attendant who was fired?

Here's her blog:


http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/

[The_Victor]

With blogging going mainstream and millions of Americans logging details of their everyday lives, including work, a growing number of people are getting into hot water for being too candid about their jobs.

Some workers have been fired for revealing confidential information. Others have been let go for openly griping about their co-workers or bosses, potentially poisoning their relationships with colleagues.

File this one under "Duh!"

[goldstategop]

Remember... a blog is the equivalent of an online bulletin board. Any one can read what you post. And that includes the boss. 'Nuff said.

Denny Crane: "I look to two things: First to God and then to Fox News."

[MineralMan]

Uh, duh! Let's see. I work for this company, so I start a blog, disclose confidential information, trash my bosses, and generally bring contempt for my employer to the web.

And they fire me? I'm gonna sue!

Waaaaahhh!

[The_Victor]

Just an excerpt from her blog

In Honor of the Inauguration...

posted 01/20/05

In case you all haven't seen it yet, here is the link to the JibJab Second Term cartoon. Pretty funny, if you ask me :) And believe me, we Democrats need something to lift our spirits today!

-Q of S

Sympathy anyone?

[demlosers]

She's looking to be hired by "Virgin Airlines."

[MississippiMan]

The article is very misleading concerning the Delta firing. The stewardess posted suggestive photos of herself not only in her Delta uniform, but in one of their AIRPLANES, sprawled across the tops of seats and such. They had every right to give her the boot IMO.

MM

[Vaquero]

Flyin' the friendly Thighs eh!

[Tanniker Smith]

In 1998, I almost got in trouble for a web page that had nothing to do with work. What I was told was that my office email address was on a web page. (It might've been at one point, but I knew by then that I had removed it.)

However, my personal email account was there. That account sat on a Unix server, and someone had shown my how to .forward it to my work account so I could read everything in Lotus Notes, which was left open throughout the day.

Something in the real world prompted a *lot* of people to visit my page around the same time, and they all decided to send me email. (And it was politics-based page, so I might've gotten in hot water had anyone with an opposing viewpoint looked at the page. They had the excuse they needed ...)

TS

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I just sent the link for this article to a friend of mine, whose blog does relate to her work.

[finnman69]

This dingaling, posed at work on her airplane, unbuttoned her shirt to expose her bra and posted them online, and is now claiming unfair...oh, and she's a flaming Bush bashing Democrat

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1281140/posts

Fired Flight Attendant Finds Blogs Can Backfire

[goldstategop]

Even anonymity can't save you. Well - if you post your pictures, like the flight attendant did, someone knows who you are. And her boss thought the picture harmed the company's image. No it wasn't pornographic but it wasn't exactly comporting with the professional image they expected of their employees. In other words, post work-related info on your blog at your own risk.

Denny Crane: "I look to two things: First to God and then to Fox News."

[Hildy]

I don't understand why people think other people care about their lives. Keep a diary under your bed if you want to chronicle your life. But if you put it out for the whole world to see, you must accept the consequences. Yikes.

[finnman69]

[LaBradford22]

In the case of Simonetti, I don't think the issue is so much that she indicated she worked for Delta Airlines in her blog. If that was the only issue, I would agree with her and be sympathetic. If that was the case then there would be a legitimate employee privacy issue.

But the real issue (i.e. the real reason she was fired) is that she posed for suggestive pictures, in company uniform, on company time, in a company airplane, and then posted said pictures in her blog for the world to see. That's going well over the line.